Shipping Agency

1986 – 2005 General agency in Korea for foreign carriers and shipowners

An agent’s job is to make a foreign owner’s ship behave as if it were at home in a port that is not.

I began agency work in May 1986 at Dong Sung Shipping, running general agency in Korea for Crosstrades Ltd. of the United Kingdom and OT Africa Line. Agency is where you learn that a schedule is really a negotiation — with the terminal, with customs, with the shipper who is not ready.

From 1996 to 2005, as vice president of Global Express and of Korea Maritime, I ran general agency services for SAFMARINE, LYKES LINES, IRISL and PRO-LINE, and worked alongside owners and brokers including Alfred C. Toepfer, Leonhardt & Blumberg and Rickmers.

The work covered the full port call: berth and cargo operations, documentation, crew and husbandry matters, and stevedoring coordination — including bulk discharge work for shippers such as CODELCO of Chile.

It also meant representing Korea inside the principals’ own networks: training at Lykes Lines in New Orleans in August 1999, the 4th General Agency Meeting of IRISL in Tehran in November 2001, and the naming ceremony of the Rickmers Seoul in April 2004.

PrincipalsSAFMARINE, LYKES LINES, IRISL, PRO-LINE, Crosstrades Ltd., OT Africa Line

Owners & brokersAlfred C. Toepfer, Leonhardt & Blumberg, Rickmers

StevedoringBulk discharge for shippers including CODELCO, Chile

ScopeGeneral agency, port call management, documentation, stevedoring coordination

Years1986–1989 and 1996–2005