An American shipping firm with Israeli affiliations is participating in the shipment of U.S. grain to the Soviet Union, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. Two U.S. flag tankers on charter to the New York-based Maritime Overseas Corp. have discharged wheat at Russian Black Sea ports this month and a third is presently enroute to the Black Sea, the JTA was informed by Bill Quinn, a charter broker at MOC.
Maritime Overseas Corp. is owned by the same interests that own Cargo Ships E1 Yam Ltd., of Haifa, one of Israel’s major privately owned shipping firms, and serves as its managing agents in New York. Raphael Recanati, one of the founders of Cargo Ships E1 Yam in the early 1950s, is president of Maritime Overseas Corp.
According to Quinn, the MOC’s chartered tanker, Overseas Joyce, discharged 47,594 long tons of wheat at iljischevsk on the Black Sea on Jan. 10. Another tanker, the Overseas Aleutian, completed the discharge of 38,400 tons at Odessa on Jan. 16. A third vessel. Overseas Ulla, is presently enroute to the USSR. The grain shipments originated at U.S, Gulf ports.
Tankers, though designed to carry petroleum products in bulk, are frequently converted to carry grain in periods of acute shipping shortages and high rates such as have developed as a result of the massive U.S. Soviet grain deal. Quinn told the JTA that grain cargoes Gulf-to-Russia which were being fixed at about $5.90 per long ton six months ago are currently fixed at $10.00 per ton and higher. Ships of the U.S., Soviet Union and “third flag” vessels are participating in the traffic.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
