A one-stop service TransAtlantic

A ONE-STOP SERVICE

With a radical reorganisation of its business and major acquisitions, Sweden’s TransAtlantic shipping company is now offering customers fully integrated shipping, transportation and logistics services.

IN March 2011 the Swedish shipping company Rederi AB TransAtlantic took the decision to restructure into two separate business entities with independent stockmarket listings. For many years the company had been operating in two distinct business areas – Offshore/ Icebreaking and Industrial Shipping – but it now judged that the future development of the group would be best served by spinning it off. A new entity, Trans Viking, has been established with a head office in Copenhagen to develop the Offshore/Icebreaking activities while Rederi AB TransAtlantic continues to develop the Industrial Shipping operations, focusing in particular on the integration of the Swedish shipping and logistics company Osterstroms, which was acquired by the group in June 2011.

Trans Viking is now established as a separate shipping company focused on offshore operations, specifically in the Arctic areas and other areas with difficult weather conditions. The Odin Viking anchor handling tug supply vessel and four newbuildings are to be transferred to the new Danish company Trans Viking Offshore AS while the TransAtlantic group’s three icebreaking anchor handling vessels will remain in the Norwegian company Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore AS. The icebreaking vessels will continue to be available to the Swedish Maritime Administration for icebreaking during the first quarter of the year and will be available for the offshore market for the rest of the year. A listing of the new Trans Viking company is planned on the Oslo stock exchange.

TransAtlantic has also boosted its offshore capabilities by acquiring SBS Marine, a British offshore shipping company based in Aberdeen. SBS Marine operates a fleet of modern platform supply vessels (and one older vessel) and integration of the company’s operations into Trans Viking Offshore is well advanced.

TransAtlantic says that its unique experience in conducting operations in ice conditions and harsh weather and the unrivalled expertise of its ships’ officers in ice breaking and offshore work will be invaluable as the search for oil and gas gathers momentum in Arctic waters, from the Barents Sea to the coast of Greenland. The company sees opportunities for multi-year contracts with international oil companies.

Industrial Shipping expands

Following the decision to spin–off the icebreaking and offshore operations, TransAtlantic saw the need to strengthen its position in the Industrial Shipping sector, in particular to achieve critical mass both to ensure efficient operations in the expanding Baltic short-sea market and to secure its status on the Stockholm stock exchange. It therefore decided to expand its range of services by acquiring the Swedish shipping and logistics company Osterstroms International AB.

On the completion of this acquisition in June 2011 Percy Osterstroms, the owner and CEO of Osterstroms, was appointed Head of TransAtlantic’s Industrial Shipping business area. The company also decided to relocate its head office in Sweden from Skarhamn to Gothenburg in order to be closer to clients, suppliers, banks etc. Full service offer

Following the acquisition of Osterstroms, TransAtlantic Industrial Shipping operates through five divisions – Bulk, Container, RoRo, ShortSea Bulk and Integrated Logistics. Its fleet consists of some 50 vessels that are wholly or partly owned as well as vessels chartered for specific periods. As well as its sea going crews it employs staff in terminals, offices and ports in seven countries. Its focus is primarily on the Baltic Sea, including the Gulf of Bothnia, and the North Sea, and its customers come primarily from the forest, steel, energy and mining industries of Sweden and Finland.

TransAtlantic’s RoRo services operate mainly in the Baltic Sea and in parts of the North Sea on four main routes – Kemi–Oulu–Lubeck–Gothenburg; Oulu–Kemi–Antwerp–Zeebrugge; Kotka-Gothenburg and GavleRauma. All types of cargo are carried, including machinery parts, boats and tanks, using a fleet of cassettes and roll-trailers. The company’s bulk services operate mostly through long-term contracts with producers in the forestry, mining and steel industries and its ice-class vessels can call at most ports in its region.

TransAtlantic offers container-based traffic between the Malardalen/Stockholm area and the south of Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. The lines are served by modern container vessels with high ice classification and several of these have built-in dehumidifying systems for transporting moisture-sensitive steel products.

TransAtlantic can offer customers a true one-stop service through its fully coordinated logistics solutions, in which a single employee assumes responsibility for the customer’s entire logistical flow, from the shipment of raw materials to the delivery of the finished product to the end customer.

The company operates ports in Sweden, Poland (Stettin) and the UK (Hull) where it deploys its many years of experience not only in shipping but in cargo handling, customs documentation and clearing, haulage and ship brokerage. It also enjoys an extensive network of partnerships though which it can ensure swift and efficient onward distribution of shipments via trucks, trains or barges.

Linking all these services is a coordinated IT and information system that can monitor the location of each individual item in the logistics chain and provide information on when it will reach the end customer. Indeed, the customer himself has the option of following the movement of his goods via his own computer systems. Such monitoring systems have, of course, been familiar in land transportation services for several years but are fairly new in combined sea/land services. n