TTEX Launches Global Trading Platform for Commercial Cargo Ships

Global trade remains a backbone for continued economic growth. As an integral part of this, the maritime industry needs to stay competitive and optimize utilization of costly vessel assets.

TTEX, a company registered in France, is pleased to announce the launch of The Tonnage Exchange, a market-first global trading platform that delivers exciting new value propositions to maritime industry participants.

The Tonnage Exchange (www.thetonnageexchange.com) is a market-first digitally based management tool that, without increasing participants’ risk profile, facilitates strategic agility and through new ways of optimizing assets provides new revenue streams for a variety of industry participants. It offers opportunities to swap tonnage on sale, sale/leaseback and charter party terms and is relevant to multiple parties, including Shipowners and operators, oil companies, traders, banks, private equity investors and shipyards.

The idea for The Tonnage Exchange has been years in the making and is founded by senior industry executives, who have spent decades in C-level positions in maritime companies around the world.

Founder Per Wistoft says that: “When considering your company’s asset position, you often find yourself restricted and unable to act because of for instance book values exceeding market values, assets not being suitably located geographically or your risk position limiting a desire to explore strategic changes. The Tonnage Exchange is a strategic management tool and platform for moving and optimizing assets. It provides new ideas and alternative solutions on how to deal with these well known, but often complicated, business challenges.” 

Co-founder Michel Deleuran adds: “Those are just a few examples of real-life challenges that we have experienced during our careers in the maritime industry. With The Tonnage Exchange we aim at providing industry players with new options in an efficient manner, wherefore business is conducted in four simple steps. Importantly, asset registration is free of charge and 100 percent private and confidential.”

The Tonnage Exchange does not broker the tonnage and should be regarded as an additional tool to that of traditional ship brokering. After registering as a user, with subsequent registration of vessel availabilities and requirements, the platform reacts with swap suggestions. Banks and other financial institutions are also able to indicate the availability of sale/leaseback transactions.

Prior to the launch of the platform, a proof of concept process involved meetings with C-level industry executives, who expressed recognition of what the platform aims at solving. Several maritime companies have committed to register tonnage availabilities and requirements from the outset, which should allow The Tonnage Exchange to provide its users with new business opportunities very early.

Commercial and technical administration of the platform is managed from France and Denmark, while Associates with significant international shipping experience and select international shipbrokers markets the platform worldwide from Australia, Denmark, Dubai, France, United Kingdom, Singapore, Switzerland and Vietnam. The number of Associates is expected to increase as The Tonnage Exchange gains traction in the global maritime transportation markets.