Gertsen & Olufsen gains foothold in Brazil

Danish marine specialist Gertsen & Olufsen has received its first order for electric vibration compensators from the growing shipbuilding market in Brazil.

The company has initially been asked to supply vibration compensators to four Petrobras 48-ton product tankers and five Eisa 2,700-ton container ships. All nine ships are the first vessels to be built in a massive Brazilian investment programme totalling 160 ships (PROMEF 1+2), which is primarily being constructed to cater to the country’s booming oil and gas industry.

“We view the Brazilian market as extremely interesting and welcome this unique opportunity to gain a foothold,” said Thorsten Larsen-Seul, managing director at Gertsen & Olufsen.

The Danish company is widely regarded as a leading authority on electric vibration compensation with more than 300 shipboard installations worldwide as well as more than 50 land-based installations.

Larsen-Seul points out that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets play an increasingly important role in the maritime industry and will foster a growing number of business opportunities. This has also prompted the Danish company to establish an office in Shanghai.

“We experience a growing interest for our greenship technology from an increasing number of Chinese shipyards and operators,” said Larsen-Seul.

Recently, China Shipping, a Chinese state-owned shipping company, placed an order for electric vibration compensators to be installed on eight 300,000 dwt VLOC’s presently under construction at Dalian Shipyard in the Disc 3000 project.

“Our presence in Shanghai will further strengthen our possibilities of tapping into the growing market for shipboard and offshore installations in China,” Larsen-Seul said.