Shipping, ship management and marine insurance

A maritime business in a landlocked canton

Switzerland is a landlocked country whose companies control a significant share of the world's merchant fleet. In 2023 the Swiss weekly Beobachter, summarizing the Federal Council's maritime strategy, reported that about 900 ocean-going ships were controlled from Switzerland. By this measure the country ranked ninth among merchant fleet nations by number and thirteenth by value, with about sixty large maritime and logistics companies operating from Swiss locations. The largest of them, the Mediterranean Shipping Company, has its headquarters in Geneva.¹ Most of these ships fly foreign flags and are owned by single-ship companies in Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Malta or Panama, while their commercial and technical management, chartering and financing are conducted from Switzerland. Geneva, Zug and Lugano are the three main centres of this activity, each with a different profile that reflects its commodity trading community.

Lugano's maritime sector is closely linked to its steel, metals and agricultural traders, which Chapter F.I describes. Traders who buy and sell bulk cargoes need ships. A trading house that regularly moves several million tonnes a year often finds that longterm charters or owned vessels cost less over a cycle than reliance on the spot market. The chartering desk of a trading house is therefore a natural nucleus for a shipoperating company. Duferco, the steel trading group with its headquarters in Lugano, registered Duferco Shipping SA in the Lugano commercial register on 19 July 1999. The company has its registered office in Via Bagutti, and its activity is classified as services incidental to water transport.² Other trading groups maintain chartering and operations teams in Lugano without separate shipping companies. Some ship-owning families of Italian origin have moved their commercial management to the city.

Nova Marine Carriers

The most important independent shipping company in Lugano is Nova Marine Carriers SA. Founded in 1981 by Giovanni Romeo, it is owned by the Romeo and Gozzi families and led by Vincenzo Romeo.³ The company specializes in small and mediumsized bulk carriers and cement carriers and manages a fleet of more than 120 vessels. From 1 January 2017 it consolidated its commercial short-sea bulk shipping activities with the British company Carisbrooke Shipping. Chartering and operations for the combined fleet of about sixty vessels of 5,000 to 15,000 deadweight tonnes were managed from Lugano. The chief executive explained the combination by Carisbrooke's strength in northern Europe and Nova's in southern Europe.⁴ In July 2026, on the occasion of its forty-fifth anniversary, Nova Marine Carriers took over two Kamsarmax bulk carriers of about 80,000 to 85,000 deadweight tonnes built in China in 2022. It was the company's first entry into the larger deep-sea segment.⁵

The example shows the typical structure of a Lugano shipping company. The ships are owned by separate companies, usually under foreign flags, while the Lugano company provides commercial management, chartering, operations and administration under management agreements. Its revenue consists of management fees and charter margins. Its exposure to the volatile freight markets depends on whether it charters ships in for its own account or manages them for third parties. Technical management, crewing and classification are often delegated to specialized ship managers in Cyprus, Greece, Italy or Asia. This division of functions has consequences for taxation, which follows the place where commercial decisions are taken, and for liability, which follows ownership and the flag of the ship.⁶

Notes

1. Beobachter, "Warum die Schweiz neu eine Hochsee-Strategie hat" (15 June 2023), https://www.beobachter.ch/politik/maritime-strategie-die-schweiz-eine-seefahrernation-610582. ↩
2. Graph.swiss, company entry Duferco Shipping SA, https://graph.swiss/en/companies/duferco-shipping-sa/1079048. On Duferco see Chapter F.I. ↩
3. Il Tempo, "Two ocean giants join Nova Marine Carriers' fleet" (7 July 2026), https://www.iltempo.it/general/2026/07/07/news/two-ocean-giants-join-nova-marine-carriers-fleet-48466510/amp/. ↩
4. Dry Bulk Magazine, "Carisbrooke Shipping joins forces with Nova Marine Carriers" (7 November 2016), https://www.drybulkmagazine.com/shipping/07112016/carisbrooke-shipping-joins-forces-with-nova-marine-carriers; Il Tempo (7 July 2026, above) (fleet of more than 120 vessels). ↩
5. Il Tempo (7 July 2026, above). ↩
6. The description of the management structure is general; the specific arrangements of Nova Marine Carriers are not public beyond the sources cited above. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.