The vision of… Mikael Hansen

Mikael Hansen truly is a world citizen. Born in Denmark, he moved to India when he was just seven days old and grew up in Japan and the United States of America. During his career, he lived in the United States of America, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Belgium before settling in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His current function as marketing & sales manager of COSCO HeavyTransport(C HT) still requires a lot of travelling though: ”My whole life consists of travelling. I enjoy it, otherwise I would not do it.”

After graduating, Hansen worked for International Shipholding Corporation, but in 2001 he felt that his chances to further progressing were limited. He decided to move to the Netherlands to join his father’s company, NMA Maritime. CHT is a joint venture between NMA Maritime and COSCO Shipping Company Limited (COSCOL), one of the main subsidiaries in the COSCO Group with over 100 vessels, which was started in 2012. With six vessels, CHT is the second largest operator in the market, after Dockwise. Hansen: ”The joint venture is mutually beneficial and profitable, we already had a long-term commercial agreement to handle COSCOL’s vessels for over 25 years, so we decided to formalise this long-term relationship which also gives stability to the local workforce. As China grows and develops, it becomes more important to have more control over the vessels owned by COSCOL.” CHT is responsible for the worldwide commercial and technical management of COSCOL’s four semi-submersible heavy-lift vessels that are used to transport and install all sorts of large offshore equipment by means of float-on/float-off, roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off operations, but also of the two vessels of two other Chinese ship owners. ”The owners are part of a pool and operate the vessels”, Hansen explains. ”We handle them commercially, including global  marketing, chartering, technical support, ship sale and purchase.”

CHT has three offices, next to the one in Rotterdam, there is one in Houston, the United States of America, and Guangzhou, China, that together cover the management of all vessels worldwide. In Rotterdam, twelve people, of

You don’t want to transport tiny cargo on a huge ship or vice versa

No 5 MbH Juli-Aug 2013-Voor Website.jpg 20 1which three were recently hired, work for CHT, divided in an engineering department, financial department and commercial department. The Houston office counts five people including the CEO of the company, mainly covering marketing and sales, and in Guangzhou, also head office of COSCOL, ten to twelve people are primarily involved with CHT, with support staff available when needed. COSCOL owns 100 vessels, of which four semi-submersible vessels, several large RoRo vessels and many large multipurpose/general cargo vessels. Hansen: ”The liner service is expanding, so maybe in the future CHT will also be involved in assisting and supporting on the commercial side of the multipurpose vessels. We deal with clients that may have requirements for different types of vessels, too. Therefore semi-submersibles only cover the biggest of the biggest cargo, but more and more clients require not only transport for large cargoes but also smaller cargo. We can offer clients a package of semi-submersibles and multipurpose vessels if required, but primary we focus on heavy lift market on- and offshore. COSCOL is specialised in cargo that does not fit in neat categories like tanks or containers. Every project is different and unique, that is what it makes so interesting. I would be bored quickly if I had to deal with the same cargo every day.”

Safety is a huge issue for CHT. ”We deal with oil and gas companies, who demand that we can transport their cargoes in a safe and efficient manner. We have to prove that the cargo transport is feasible and our transport engineering department does the calculations, that are unified in the transportation manual, including sea fastening, mooring arrangements, stability, planning etc. The client uses this manual to check the warranty. We have more than 35 years of experience and have always delivered 100% of the cargo to the client’s destination, without losing or damaging it, therefore we have a good reputation. We can offer competitive prices and have a proven safety record with over 250 successfully completed transports all over the world. Until two years ago, we only had two vessels, our so-called K-class vessels of 20,000 DWT. We were involved in the design process of these vessels, which are purpose-built and no refits. These vessels have DP2 class, which is very important for the transport market, because it improves the safety if a vessel is able to resort to a complete backup system if necessary. I am very proud of this safety aspect. In 2011 two more vessels were delivered, our X-class vessels of 50,000 DWT. These vessels are larger than the K-class vessels as we deal with the offshore market that is more and more involved in deep water which means everything they use needs to be bigger, higher, stronger, and therefore they also require larger vessels for transportation. One of our X-class vessels is also equipped with DP2, upon request of one of our clients.”

In February and August of last year, two Chinese owners joined CHT’s pool, making the total amount of vessels six. CHT however has plans to further expand the fleet.

I’d be bored quickly if I had to deal with the same cargo every day

No 5 MbH Juli-Aug 2013-Voor Website.jpg 20 2Hansen: “Our plan for the long term is to have about ten vessels in our fleet. We look at two expanding options to be able to operate in the more and more demanding offshore industry. The first option could be widening our X-class vessels, which however would only be a short-term solution, the second would be to build even larger vessels, about 80,000 to 90,000 DWT. We are in the design phase regarding these vessels, but I am also wondering if we really should want to expand the fleet. One big concern I have are the inexperienced competitors that pop up in the market. These new players build one or two vessels on spec very cheaply in China or Korea and offer transport services without experience, which might spoil the market for established players. If something goes wrong with these competitors, it might hurt the reputation and credibility of the established companies.”

CHT has experienced challenging times, but Hansen is positive about the future: ”Up to the financial collapse in 2008 the market was very strong, we were 100% utilised and half of our contracts were long-term. In 2008 we were still fine, 2009 was okay as well, but the crisis started affecting us in 2010 and 2011, when the long-term contracts were delivered and we had to go back to 100% spot market, while the rates were dropping by more than half. In 2012, the rates hit rock bottom, but it is getting better now. The rates do not go up much yet, but at least do not drop anymore either. 2013 is already better than 2012 and we find that 2014 will surpass 2013. In the future we want to keep growing, not only with new vessels but also by offering our pooling arrangement to other ship owners, and maybe by expanding with a multipurpose vessel pool for the heavy lift market.”

No 5 MbH Juli-Aug 2013-Voor Website.jpg 20 3One of the options for offshore installation operations is a floatover installation. A semi-submersible vessel manoeuvres into place between the jacket leg and transfers the topside load to the jacket by means of ballasting. This method is called floatover mating. Also CHT uses this method, says Hansen. ”We are particularly proud that we perform floatover mating under DP2, as we are the only company with DP2 in the world to have done this. Because of our DP2 system, our vessels do not need any external equipment to keep the vessel in place during these operation, like mooring lines, anchors or tugs. With every extra external factor you increase a breakdown somewhere along the delivery chain, DP2 is therefore safer and more efficient, as you do not depend on third parties. Up until today we performed these floatovers eight times and two more are coming up, one in December 2013 in West-Africa and one in March 2014, in Malaysia.”

Gail van den Hanenberg