Precious Shipping Public Company Limited (PSL)

Precious Shipping Public Company Limited ( "PSL" ) is a pure dry cargo ship-owner operating in the Handysize, Supramax and Ultramax sectors of the tramp freight market. PSL was established in December 1989 and commenced commercial operations in March 1991, after obtaining the approvals from the Bank of Thailand and the Board of Investment. PSL was granted "listed" status on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on the 16th of September 1993.

The ship acquisition program was carried out in different phases;

In the first phase, PSL acquired a core fleet of 7 ships having an aggregate capacity of 101,925 Dead Weight Tons (“DWT”). All these ships were dry bulk / general cargo ships in the size range of 10,000 - 20,000 DWT.

In the second phase, in a span of 7 months, commencing July 1991 up to January 1992, 6 ships were added to the fleet, these ships were of similar size and type as the core fleet and added 102,107 DWT to the fleet capacity.

The third phase involved an addition of 10 similar ships from December 1992 to December 1993 with a total capacity of 185,923 DWT.

The fourth phase came in 1996-1998 when the fleet grew to 48 ships.

With the collapse of the Asian economies in mid-1997, the freight markets collapsed and PSL commenced its first ever exercise of de-leveraging and slimming down of its balance sheet. From 1999 till the 3rd quarter of 2003, PSL slimmed down its balance sheet and ended up with just 28 ships. That was the precursor for the next phase of expansion which saw the fleet grow from 28 ships in 2003 to 54 ships by the middle of 2005. During impact of the sub-prime crisis, PSL sold 10 ships in 2007 and 25 ships in years 2009-2010. During 2006-10, only 2 ships were added, thus reducing the fleet size to 21 at the end of 2010.

SHIP MANAGEMENT

Great Circle Shipping Agency Limited (“Great Circle”) is wholly owned subsidiary of PSL. Great Circle was set up in 1988 in order to provide Technical Management Services for ships owned by the “Precious Shipping Public Company Ltd”. A modest beginning was made in December 1988 with a fleet size of 5 ships. By 2005, Great Circle was well established, with 61 ships under their technical management including bulk carriers, tween-deckers, general cargo ships and specialised ship like cement carrier. J. Mansukhani, Director of Great Circle, joined the company on the eve of its formation and has built a close-knit team of professionals who man various key positions in the company. For more information visit Great Circle's website.