ORE FOR CHINA AND COAL FOR INDIA

SHIPPING: Shipping company Norden is among the most important collaboration partners for India, with almost 5 million tonnes of raw materials shipped to and from India annually

Carsten Mortensen,
president and CEO of Norden A/S

“The rate of economic growth in India is impressive. In 2005 for example it was 8.1%, and we at Norden want to be involved in that growth. We showed our intentions early in 2004, when we opened our own office in Mumbai. And events since then have confirmed we were right. In just the last three years we have doubled our Indian freight, so that today we are loading and unloading almost 5 million tons annually.” So says Carsten Mortensen, president and CEO of Norden A/S, one of the most active Danish shipping companies transporting freight to and from India, especially coal from South Africa and Australia to India, and iron ore from India primarily to China.

Perfect

“Norden’s fleet of Handymax ships, among others, is ideal for shipping freight to India,” says Carsten Mortensen. “There are still major insufficiencies regarding the country’s infrastructure, such as in the harbours where we have to load and unload on the roads. But our Handymax ships are equipped with their own cranes and grabs which can handle these operations.”

     With around 100 calls to and departures from India each year, it makes the country one of Norden’s most important dry cargo markets, together with China, Japan and the US. India’s energy production capacity cannot be expected to keep pace with its continually rising need, which is forecast to double in the next 15 years. The same goes for India’s production of steel and aluminium, and it all adds to the need to import raw materials.

Product tankers

“Although bulk carriers represent most of our Indian tonnage, there is a great potential for our product tankers in the long term,” says Carsten Mortensen. We currently operate 110 dry cargo ships and 18 tankers. Last year we started a strategic pool collaboration with Interorient Navigation Company under the name Norient Product Pool. The collaboration covers product tankers, and our ambition is to be one of the three largest product tanker pools in the world by 2007.”

     In 2004, cargo rates reached an all-time peak. Although rates generally flattened out a bit in 2005, Carsten Mortensen foresees reasonable levels continuing in 2006.

     “As long as there is growth in the world economy, and currently everything indicates that there is, then the demand for ship transport will increase,” says Carsten Mortensen. “That puts us in a strong position. With our market presence in India, offering quality, reliability, flexibility and good customer relations, I predict that India will become increasingly important to our shipping company and vice versa.”