Norden Switches Focus to Four

Danish shipping company Norden will focus on ownership and operation of four vessel types supplemented by operation of Handysize dry cargo vessels, under its newly adopted strategy ”Focus and Simplicity”.

“The newly established department Asset Management will ensure that Norden utilises all attractive opportunities to invest in the 4 vessel types in the primary business area, while no further investments will be made in other tonnage,” Norden said.

Under the strategy, within dry cargo, Norden will specialize in ownership and operation of Supramax and Panamax vessels, and within tankers, the vessel types Handysize and MR will continue to be in focus.

“The goal in the dry cargo segment is to make Norden global industry leader within Supramax and Panamax. By concentrating efforts and investments and with intensified customer focus and a larger fleet, Norden will be able to offer increased flexibility and reliability to customers within these two vessel types,” Norden added.

By focusing on Supramax and Panamax and increasing the fleet size within these vessel types, Norden will also be able to schedule the execution of tasks with more flexibility and by doing so benefit from economies of scale, the company explained.

The operation of Norden’s product tankers will continue under Norient Product Pool, which is 50% owned by Norden.

Norden’s EBIT for the third quarter of 2015 was USD 21 million, against a USD 28 million loss. The company’s tankers posted record results achieveing EBIT of USD 37 million, bouncing back from USD 2 million loss from 2014.

The company managed to narrow down its losses in dry cargo market, which continued to be low, posting EBIT of USD-9 million (USD -22 million). The overall result for the period Q3 2015 is USD 10 million (USD -46 million).

”Norden’s tanker business has achieved a record result. Low oil prices and strong demand have kept tanker rates up also during the third quarter, which is otherwise considered to be low season.

The strong tanker result provides comfort during a time, when the dry cargo market continues to be very challenging, and consequently Norden has reduced its exposure to the market by adjusting its newbuilding programme and by chartering vessels for shorter periods. Our initiated cost focus continues with good results, and we look forward to implementing our new strategy ”Focus and Simplicity”, which sets out to make Norden market leader within Supramax and Panamax vessels,” said Norden’s CEO Jan Rindbo.

Norden has kept its expectations for the 2015 EBIT result maintained and specified at USD 70 to 90 million.