Star Bulk Carriers Stock

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiaries operate as a global shipping company that owns and operates a modern and diverse fleet of dry bulk vessels.

The company’s vessels transport a broad range of major and minor bulk commodities, including iron ore, minerals and grain, bauxite, fertilizers and steel products, along worldwide shipping routes.

Fleet

The company has built a fleet through timely and selective acquisitions of secondhand and newbuilding vessels. The company’s fleet is well-positioned to take advantage of economies of scale in commercial, technical and procurement management. The company has a large, modern, fuel-efficient and high-quality fleet, which emphasizes the largest Eco-type Capesize and Newcastlemax vessels, built at leading shipyards and featuring the latest technology. As a result, the company will have an opportunity to capitalize on rising market demand during a period of reduced fleet growth, customer preferences for the company’s ships and economies of scale, while enabling the company to capture the benefits of fuel cost savings through spot time charters or voyage charters.

The majority of the company’s operating fleet is equipped with a vessel remote monitoring system that provides data to monitor fuel and lubricant consumption and efficiency on a real-time basis. While these monitoring systems are generally available in the shipping industry, they can be employed only by large-scale shipping operators, such as the company.

As of December 31, 2022, the company had successfully completed the installation of scrubbers on 120 vessels out of the 128 vessels in the company’s fleet.

Furthermore, the company is actively investing in reducing the carbon emissions of the company’s vessels using a variety of technologies, such as hull cleaning robots, voyage optimization software, low friction paints and installation of Energy Saving Devices (‘ESD’) (mainly Mewis duct and Propeller boss cap fins) on the company’s vessels. During the last year, the company has completed the installation of 15 ESD on its vessels and the company is evaluating further installations in 2023.

The company owns a modern, diverse, high quality fleet of 128 dry bulk carrier vessels with an aggregate capacity of 14.1 million dwt and an average age of 11.0 years. In addition, 120 out of the 128 vessels in the company’s fleet are retrofitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems.

The company conducts a significant portion of the commercial and technical management of its vessels in-house through the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Star Bulk Management Inc., Star Bulk Shipmanagement Company (Cyprus) Limited and Starbulk S.A.

Business Strategies

The key elements of the company’s strategy are to charter its vessels in an active and sophisticated manner; expand and renew the company’s fleet through opportunistic acquisitions of high-quality vessels at attractive prices; maintain safeguard high quality standards; and become a leader in ESG practices in the dry bulk shipping sector.

Customers

The company has well-established relationships with major dry bulk charterers, which the company serves by carrying a variety of cargoes over a multitude of routes around the globe. The company charters out its vessels to first class iron ore miners, utilities companies, commodity trading houses and diversified shipping companies.

Operations

In-House Management of the fleet

Star Bulk Management Inc., Star Bulk Shipmanagement Company (Cyprus) Limited and Starbulk S.A., three of the company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, perform the operational and technical management services for the majority of the vessels in the company’s fleet, including chartering, marketing, capital expenditures, personnel, accounting, paying vessel taxes and maintaining insurance.

Star Bulk Management Inc. is responsible for the management of the vessels. Star Bulk Management’s responsibilities include, inter alia, locating, purchasing, financing and selling vessels, deciding on capital expenditures for the vessels, paying vessels’ taxes, negotiating charters for the vessels, managing the mix of various types of charters, developing and managing the relationships with charterers and the operational and technical managers of the vessels. Star Bulk Management Inc. subcontracts certain vessel management services to Starbulk S.A.

Starbulk S.A. provides the technical and crew management of the majority of the company’s vessels. Technical management includes maintenance, dry docking, repairs, insurance, regulatory and classification society compliance, arranging for and managing crews, appointing technical consultants and providing technical support.

Star Bulk Shipmanagement Company (Cyprus) Limited provides technical and operation management services to 11 of the company’s vessels. The management services include arrangement and supervision of dry docking, repairs, insurance, regulatory and classification society compliance, provision of crew, appointment of surveyors and technical consultants.

Crewing

Starbulk S.A. and Star Bulk Shipmanagement Company (Cyprus) Limited are responsible for recruiting, either directly or through a technical manager or a crew manager, the senior officers and all other crew members for the vessels in the company’s fleet. Both companies have the responsibility to ensure that all seamen have the qualifications and licenses required to comply with international regulations and shipping conventions, and that the vessels are manned by experienced, competent and trained personnel. Starbulk S.A. and Star Bulk Shipmanagement Company (Cyprus) Limited are also responsible for ensuring that seafarers’ wages and terms of employment conform to international standards or to general collective bargaining agreements to allow unrestricted worldwide trading of the vessels and provide the crewing management for the vessels in the company’s fleet that are not managed by third party managers.

Outsourced Management of the fleet

The company engages Ship Procurement Services S.A., a third-party company, to provide to the company’s fleet certain procurement services.

Following the completion of the acquisition of certain vessels from Augustea Atlantica SpA (‘Augustea’) and York Capital Management (‘York’) in 2018, (the ‘Augustea Vessels’), the company appointed Augustea Technoservices Ltd., an entity affiliated with certain of the sellers of the corresponding transaction. During 2021 and 2022, certain management services of the vessels previously managed by Augustea Technoservices Ltd were appointed to Iblea Ship Management Limited. Up until June 2022, the management agreements with Augustea Technoservices Ltd were progressively terminated.

During 2018 and 2019, the company also appointed Equinox Maritime Ltd., Zeaborn GmbH & Co. KG and Technomar Shipping Inc., which are third party management companies, to provide certain management services to the company’s vessels.

During 2022, the management of certain vessels previously managed by Iblea Ship Management Limited and Technomar Shipping Inc transitioned from third party to in-house management. In 2022 all management agreements with Technomar Shipping Inc were terminated. As of December 31, 2022, Equinox Maritime Ltd., Zeaborn GmbH & Co. KG and Iblea Ship Management Limited provided technical, operation and crewing management services to 25 of the 128 vessels in the company’s fleet.

Environmental and Other Regulations in the Shipping Industry

The company has specifically developed a recycling policy, which has been included within the company’s Safety Management System (‘SMS’) and applies to all the managed vessels.

The company follows and complies with state and regulatory authority rules and regulations and have adopted and implemented all the necessary operational procedures in order to meet the requirements of those regulations, such as Air emission compliance (NOx, SOx and CO2 reporting).

Furthermore, the company established a standardized and structured process to ensure completeness, consistency and accuracy in the company’s emissions related monitoring and reporting process for worldwide, EU and the U.K. operations, including with respect to the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) regulation and the IMO Data Collection System (DCS), as well as the relevant monitoring plans and advanced data collection, analysis, monitoring and reporting systems through the company’s VPM system. As part of the data collection and key performance indicators’ calculation process the company uses its in-house developed VPM system, which provides accurate and real time information regarding the performance of the company’s vessels. Additionally, with the introduction of IMO DCS, EU MRV, and UK MRV, the reported CO2 emissions of the company’s vessels are also subjected to third party verification by an independent accredited verifier.

A variety of government and private entities subject the company’s vessels to both scheduled and unscheduled inspections. These entities include the local port authorities (applicable national authorities, such as the USCG, harbor master or equivalent), classification societies, flag state administrations (countries of registry) and charterers, particularly terminal operators. Certain of these entities require the company to obtain permits, licenses, certificates and other authorizations for the operation of the company’s vessels.

Apart from the above, the company has also become certified according to the ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 50001 standards pertaining to compliance with elevated quality, environmental, occupational health and safety and energy efficiency requirements, thus increasing the requirements the company’s vessels and management company have to comply with on various levels.

Further to the above, the company has become certified for ISO 26000, 27001 and 31000 standards and guidelines pertaining to social responsibility, cybersecurity and risk management. These standards serve to ensure the company’s compliance with best practices in these areas.

In September of 1997, the IMO adopted Annex VI to MARPOL to address air pollution from vessels. Effective May 2005, Annex VI sets limits on sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from all commercial vessel exhausts and prohibits ‘deliberate emissions’ of ozone depleting substances (such as halons and chlorofluorocarbons) and emissions from shipboard incineration of specific substances. Annex VI also includes a global cap on the sulfur content of fuel oil and allows for special areas to be established with more stringent controls on sulfur emissions, as explained below. The company ensures that all of its vessels are in full compliant in all material respects with these regulations.

The SOLAS Convention was amended to address the safe manning of vessels and emergency training drills. The Convention of Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (the ‘LLMC’) sets limitations of liability for a loss of life or personal injury claim or a property claim against ship owners. The company ensures that its vessels are in full compliance with SOLAS. Owners’ compliance with LLMC requirements is covered under the Protection & Indemnity insurance.

Under Chapter IX of the SOLAS Convention, or the International Safety Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (the ‘ISM Code’), the company’s operations are also subject to environmental standards and requirements. The ISM Code requires the party with operational control of a vessel to develop an extensive safety management system that includes, among other things, the adoption of a safety and environmental protection policy setting forth instructions and procedures for operating its vessels safely and describing procedures for responding to emergencies. The company relies upon the safety management system that the company and its technical management team have developed for compliance with the ISM Code.

The company along with a number of vessels are certified under the 9001 & 14001 ISO standards, and as such, are fully compliant with the additional requirements and restrictions that have been set. The company i committed to conducting its operations systematically by following the requirements of the ISO 14001 striving to maintain ZERO Oil Spills and ZERO Marine and Pollution Atmospheric Incidents.

The company has obtained applicable documents of compliance for the company’s offices and safety management certificates for all of the company’s vessels for which certificates are required by the IMO. In line with the best practices that the company applies throughout onboard and ashore procedures, the SMS has been developed to fully comply with the Dry-BMS standards set out by Rightship.

ThecCompany is in the process of becoming fully certified for ISO27001, with the first stage already completed. As part of the company’s commitment to comply with the international regulation, the company is progressively installing BWTS in the company’s fleet.

The company has developed and implemented the required BWTS on the majority of the company’s fleet and are in compliance with all the applicable regulations.

The company has obtained Anti-fouling System Certificates for all of the company’s vessels that are subject to the Anti-fouling Convention.

Both the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act impact the company’s operations.

The company complies with the USCG’s financial responsibility regulations by providing applicable certificates of financial responsibility. All of the company’s vessels arriving at the U.S. or Canadian ports are covered under a COFR - Certificate of Financial Responsibility.

The EPA and the USCG have also enacted rules relating to ballast water discharge, compliance with which requires the installation of equipment on the company’s vessels to treat ballast water before it is discharged or the implementation of other port facility disposal arrangements or procedures at potentially substantial costs, and/or otherwise restrict the company’s vessels from entering the U.S. waters.

All of the company’s vessels submit their NOIs/eNOIs to the USCG and their flag administration accordingly within the required timeframes.

The company complies with the local Chinese regulations and requirements pertaining to the Ship Pollution Response Organization. This requires owners/operators of any ship carrying polluting and hazardous cargoes in bulk or any other vessel above 10,000 gt to enter into a pollution clean-up contract with a Maritime Safety Agency (‘MSA’) approved Ship Pollution Response Organization before the vessel enters a Chinese port.

All of the company’s vessels have been awarded an MLC certificate following the relevant MLC inspection carried out on board and they have been approved for DMLC Part II by the ROs/flag administration in compliance with the requirements set out in the DMLC Part I issued by the respective flag administrations accordingly.

All of the company’s vessels are already fully compliant with the ISPS code and have the International Ship Security Certificate (ISSC). Each vessel also has its own SSP (Ship Security Plan) which has been reviewed and approved by the RO/flag administration accordingly.

The company’s entire fleet complies with Hazardous Material regulation.

History

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. was incorporated in 2006 under the laws of the Marshall Islands.