We are an independent shipping company operating a fleet of dry bulk vessels and providing world-wide seaborne transportation services to our clients. Our vessels carry dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal, grains, as well as bauxite, fertilisers and steel products. The technical management of our fleet is undertaken by our wholly-owned subsidiary Maryville Maritime Inc.

Our business strategy is to expand our fleet and to make our dry bulk carrier business more cost effective and more attractive to our customers. In accordance with this strategy we intend to acquire additional vessels in the open market, as market conditions warrant.

We are focused on building and maintaining enduring relationships with our customers and other participants in the international shipping industry including brokers, suppliers, classification societies insurers and others.

We believe that we possess a number of competitive strengths in our industry:

• Experienced Management Team: The Company’s management team has significant experience in operating dry bulk carriers and in all aspects of operational and financial areas of the business. Through experienced management, the Company promotes a focused marketing effort and tight quality and cost controls, with effective operations and safety monitoring.

• Strong Customer Relationships: The Company has strong relationships with customers and charterers which is the result of the quality of its fleet and the Company’s reputation for dependability. The Company, through Maryville Maritime Inc ("Maryville"), a management subsidiary, has many long-established customer relationships within the international shipping community. During the past 15 years, vessels managed by Maryville have been repeatedly chartered by subsidiaries of major dry bulk operators.

• Cost Efficient Operations: Excel Maritime has operated a fleet at competitive costs by carefully selecting second hand vessels and competitively commissioning and actively supervising cost efficient shipyards to perform repairs, reconditioning and systems upgrading work. Together with a proactive preventative maintenance program, both ashore and at sea, and by employing professional well trained masters, officers and crews, the Company believes that this combination has allowed it to minimize off-hire periods, effectively manage insurance costs and control overall operating expenses.

Our current fleet deployment strategy for our new purchases will be to try to employ these vessels in the medium and long term time charter market, while our current fleet will be deployed in the spot and short term time charter market. We anticipate that this strategy will result in better opportunities and greater transparency of earnings. From time to time our management will change our fleet deployment strategy according to the prevailing and expected dry bulk shipping charter market conditions.