SANTOKU SENPAKU CO.,LTD.

1 .Ship-Owner Business　　2. Crew Management　　3. Ship Management　　

Santoku Senpaku Co. Ltd. is a ship-owner and shipping company founded in 1972, originally born out of the seafarer dispatch business. Our 3 main businesses areas are as a ship-owner, a seafarer agency & ship management. In recent years, our company has expanded into new business lines such as the real estate.

We own a significant number of ships including large bulk carriers for worldwide transport of commodities such as iron ore and grain, car carriers, refrigerator ships, and container ships. We lease our vessels to shippers and other shipping companies both here in Japan and overseas. In addition to our owned fleet of vessels, we also provide services such as ship management and the dispatch of crews to other ship-owners under the supervision of our experienced superintendents.

1 .Ship-Owner Business

Our ship-owning business is our core business.
We have two types of vessels: domestic vessels (engaged only in domestic transportation within Japan) and ocean-going cargo ships (merchant vessels engaged in international transportation which transport cargoes worldwide). ⇒Vessels handled

In the shipping industry, there are various shipping companies such as shippers, operators & ship-owners whom take different important roles.

Operators (For example NYK, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd., etc.) respond to demands by shippers. Shippers request the transportation of their own cargo through various contracts with operators. Ship-owners like us lease out our owned vessels to operators and sometimes directly to shippers, which means both parties are important clients for us. Ship-owners invest billions of Japanese yen (or sometimes tens of billions of yen depending on the ship type) in ships and lease them to shippers and operators (often called charterers). Owners sell their ships as “a seller” when the timing is right.

Santoku Senpaku priorities the safe operation of our ships with our partner operators and shippers, we negotiate with them to work together in order to protect human lives, ships, cargos, and the environment.

We play a part in global trade.

Depending on the type of contract, many ship-owners also provide ship maintenance services, equipment maintenance and seafarer arrangements. In Santoku Senpaku, we work hard day and night to maintain and manage our vessels safely so that transportation does not come to a halt.

We conduct a lot of business with many shippers and operators around the world – today we own more than 50 vessels. Many of these ships are newly built at shipyards not only in Japan but also in many other countries. We endeavor to add several new ships to our fleet every year to maintain and expand our quality business service to our customers.

2 .Crew Management

‘Crew Management’ is our business of hiring and dispatching seafarers.
Seafarers are indispensable for ship operation. In ocean-going merchant vessels, we often assign crews from the Philippines, India, China, Southeast Asian countries, and Eastern Europe. Crews from the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, and South Korea are currently assigned to our ocean-going vessels. Japanese seafarers are assigned to domestic vessels. When hiring and training of seafarers, we work with qualified local agencies that hire seafarers to secure top quality crews. In addition to our own vessels, we often dispatch seafarers to ships owned by other ship owners.

The Philippines is the world’s primary seafarer supply country, we at Santoku Senpaku are proud to have been one of the first Japanese shipping companies to expand the business to the Philippines long before it became an industry standard. Our crew manning agencies – Orophil Shipping and ST Ocean Philippines – provide guidance and education to local staffs and seafarers. We dispatch Santoku Senapku staffs from Japan to the Philippines to provide quality crew education. We regularly travel to visit the following agencies in various countries not only to secure excellent crews but to promote safe operation management guidelines. Training is conducted before embarkation and after disembarkation.

We continuously work to improve the efficiency of our operations through management based on the ISO 9001 quality management system.

Crew Manning agency
■Philippines Orophil Shipping International Co., Inc. / ST Ocean Philippines / Fair Shipping Corporation
■Bangladesh Haque & Sons
■Myanmar Miraco Marine Services Pte., Ltd.
■China Sino Star Marine Services Pte., Ltd.
■South Korea Hanjoo Maritime

VMA GLOBAL COLLEGE in Bacolod City, Philippines, is a four-year merchant marine college in which we are shareholders and sponsors. VMA is one of the top five maritime colleges in the Philippines and sends out many excellent qualified maritime professionals to the world’s oceans every year. The college provides an excellent educational environment such as a training center where students can get skills and knowledge based on international rules.

3 .Ship Management

In addition to the maintenance and management of ship hulls and equipment, we work day and night continuously with crews and our business partners to ensure safe operation in compliance with international conventions and the rules of each country and region.

Since vessels are built to carry a large volume of cargo at once, they are huge structures which can be compared in size to skyscrapers. For this reason, once an accident occurs, it can cause great damage to human lives, the cargo and the natural environment. In the past, there have been infamous incidents such as the sinking of the Titanic which killed thousands of people and the sinking of Exxon Valdez which caused disastrous environmental pollution due to the massive oil spilled from huge tankers. To prevent such accidents, various international rules have been established, and companies engaging in ship management are required to obtain a Document of Compliance (DOC) from the government of each country, which certifies their sufficient capability to manage their ships.

We have obtained a DOC for each country and performed a wide range of services including the response to internal or external audits by third parties, security management, and inspections by Port State Control. We always keep close communication with crews and provide necessary port information for operation, piracy information, weather information, etc.

Under the technical guidance of the Superintendent (SI) – the ship’s supervisor – we carry out advanced maintenance and management of the ship’s hull and engine. Corrosion and rust of vessels can often occur because ships are constantly at sea, so trouble with equipment is inevitable. Similar to car inspections, ships are required to undergo regular inspections called dry-docking at shipyards. We have developed our network of shipyards around the world and make a use of their services for maintaining our vessels to a high standard in periodical dry-docking.

In the case of an emergency, we are always ready to respond 24/7 and solve the problem as soon as possible. We have established a system that can support the safe operation of a ship by cooperation with shipyards, repairers, equipment manufacturers, and other related organizations around the world.
In recent years our vessels have been burning more ecofriendly fuels which has a lesser impact on the environment. Ship management is becoming ever-more complex as environmental issues become increasingly important on our planet, so we need to work even harder and keep getting better.