Sale & purchase brokers whose clients and customers tend to be shipowners and who act as important middlemen in the selling and buying of ships. They are often compared to estate agents, which they don’t like and which is somewhat unfair, dealing as they do with a commodity that is technically complex in an international market which is quite extraordinary volatile.

Thousands of ships change hands every year, although their prices are hugely governed by the laws of supply and demand. Sea Max has a good idea of the current position in the trade cycle, and whether prices are likely to harden, or to fall in the short term.