CHARTING NEW WATERS I.M. Skaugen (IMS) is a global, multi-faceted marine transportation and services group. Philip Yorke looks at the company’s diverse range of marine activities, its latest achievements and its strategy for future growth.
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1916 Isak Marrtinius Skaugen laid the foundations of the I.M. Skaugen group when, as captain of the four-masted barque ‘Alcides’ he established the Eikland marine transportation company. Skaugen was quick to realise that steam vessels were the future for marine transportation, so he sold the Alcides and purchased a new steam vessel of 2040 DWT and christened it the ‘Eikland’ after the company’s first shareholder Mr Olaf Eikland. The Eikland was later joined by two more steam vessels and together they were employed in the North European seaways. Skaugen’s vision and dedication to service survives today along with its operational flexibility, which has made the company one of the most dynamic and successful in its class.
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Today the IMS Group employs more than 2000 people on a global basis, of which over 1000 are employed in China. The company operates 42 vessels and is listed on the Oslo stock exchange. It remains a family-owned business, at the helm is third generation, CEO, Morits Skaugen who was appointed in 1992 to head the company.
Exploring new horizons I.M. Skaugen SE is the group’s holding company which controls its three distinct operating divisions: Gas activities, China activities and Marine Transport activities. IMS is a fully integrated shipping company that designs, builds, owns, mans and manages its own vessels. The group’s customers are major international companies involved in the oil
and petrochemical industry, which IMS serves from its locations in Bahrain (UAE), Freeport and Houston (USA), Oslo (Norway), Singapore, Sunderland (UK) and Nanjing, Shanghai, Taizou, Zhangjiagang and Wuhan (China). In addition, the company also operates recruitment and training programmes from its installations in St Petersburg (Russia) and Wuhan (China) for the crewing of its vessels. As a leading marine transportation company, Skaugen is engaged in the efficient transportation of petrochemical gases, chemicals, LPG and LNG as well as in the transfer of crude oil and LNG. Leading the way in its dedicated marine transfer activities is SPT, based in Houston, USA, which is jointly owned by I.M. Skaugen (50 per cent) and Teekay Shipping Corpora-
