Rand Logistics to acquire American Steamship Company from GATX

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Marine shipping firm Rand Logistics Inc. has entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire American Steamship Company (ASC) from equipment finance firm GATX Corp.

Rand provides dry bulk shipping services throughout the Great Lakes region.

Rand says ASC, a 113-year old firm, operates the largest fleet of U.S. flagged vessels on the Great Lakes, providing waterborne transportation of over 27 million tons annually of dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal and limestone on vessels ranging in size from 634 feet to over 1000 feet.

The strategic combination of Rand and ASC will create the largest and most diverse fleet on the Great Lakes, according to Rand. The combined fleet will serve different and complementary markets with multiple self-unloading vessel classes.

“We are excited about this transformative combination of two leading vessel operators on the Great Lakes. This strategic union will create significant additional shipping capacity through network efficiencies and repositioning of the respective fleets. All of which will allow the resulting company to further improve its customer service and offer additional flexibility and shipping capacity to its customer base,” said Peter Coxon, CEO of Rand, in a prepared statement.