This year’s Dry Cargo Shipping Diploma, held at Commodity Quay now in its 12th year, was attended by 30 participants - our largest group to date. The one-week programme is available to Clarksons employees and clients who are in the early stages of their careers. This year’s event was attended by 10 Clarksons employees from the Athens, London, New York, Oslo, Rio and Singapore offices, alongside 20 client representatives who had travelled over from Europe, China, Australia, the US and Brazil.
This five-day intensive programme is designed specifically for aspiring brokers and operators, providing learnings across commercial, financial, operational, technical and legal aspects, and a unique opportunity to begin building a professional shipping network.
Following on from last year, the programme was led by Alex Gray, who spent his early career as a Clarksons Dry Cargo chartering broker before helping to establish the company’s pioneering presence in the FFA market. In the latter part of his career, Alex played a significant role in driving forward digital innovation at Clarksons and worked within the Sea business to develop partnership and integration opportunities with other digital solution providers. His well-rounded experience has provided attendees with a valuable and insightful perspective into the dynamic market of broking in Dry Cargo.
The course included a mix of sessions taught by Clarksons department heads, external industry leading professionals, workshops and break-out sessions on topics such as compliance, green transition, ship lifecycles, voyage estimation, bills of lading and LOI’s.
Day two featured a standout session with an S&P panel delving into the entire lifecycle of a bulk carrier, from new building and second-hand trades to recycling, alongside insights from a shipping finance perspective. On day three, participants took on the Shipping Game, now in its fourth version, where five teams competed to fix one ship and one cargo in a dynamic market landscape.
Concluding the week was Clarksons highly anticipated ‘Dragons Den’ competition where five teams were asked to prepare and pitch an employment strategy for a mixed fleet of bulkers spanning the cape, panamax and ultra/supramax sectors drawing on the information provided on the physical freight and futures markets during the course. Each group was given 10 minutes to pitch their ideas to Clarksons four Dragons: Course Director, Alex Gray; Secondhand Broker, Ben Edwards; Handymax Divisional Director, Fraser Lane; and Panamax Broker, Tom Harker.
The competition was very tight, with close scoring from the four Dragons, but the winning group, "Gaul Shipping & Trading", stood out for the comprehensiveness and professionalism of their presentation, backed by detailed analytics. Additionally, The Jon Marshall Trophy was awarded to Sven Annen from Viterra for best course participant.
