FULLY INTEGRATED MARITIME MAGIC
Having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, the Seatrans Group looks set for an even stronger half-century to come. With its roots firmly in Norwegian maritime culture, the company has grown substan tially since it was founded by two Norwegian seafaring families. But without forgetting its traditions, the company is firmly focused on constant evolution to remain a centre of maritime excellence for generations to come. Seatrans Group’s management team met with Richard Hagan to discuss their vision.
The Seatrans Group, based in Norway, was established as a management company all the way back in 1971 by founders Wollert Hvide and Bjarne Kyrkjebø.
The company soon evolved its services to include cargo shipping for various Nordic paper mills and other industries and for two decades, Seatrans’ sideloading shipping was its most important trade.
Meanwhile, the company established a small chemical tanker business, shipping sulphuric acid in a small 200-tonne vessel. This would eventually become a major arm of the business in the form of its Seatrans Chemical Tankers division.
A one-stop shop
Today, the Seatrans Group is a fully inte grated ship owning company boasting in-house chartering and operations, ship management and crewing.
SEATRANSVia the Seatrans Chemical Tankers arm with its modern fleet of ten stainless steel parcel tankers, the group runs a thriving business in the transportation of chemi cals in the North Sea, the Mediterranean and worldwide.
Also within the Seatrans Group is Stödig Ship Management, a 50/50 joint venture between Seatrans and Columbia Ship Management. Stödig offers a wide range of ship management services to both external and in-house owners. The customers benefit widely from the hands-on expertise of Stödig and the global strength and presence of Columbia.
Stödig has a digital agenda and highly values transparency towards its clients. The company has established a Client Portal which provides relevant and updated infor mation on the status of ships, crew, cost control, logistics, safety, maintenance, etc to the client.
Alongside that, Seatrans’ Sea-Cargo divi sion offers a busy and successful liner ser vice on seven dry cargo liners. Sea-Cargo’s
comprehensive logistics service also boasts the capacity to ship project cargo. It owns and operates a modern fleet of multipurpose vessels offering ro-ro, container, side door (for both pallet and conventional loading), heavy lift and through-hatch capacity.
The Seatrans Group employs over 230 staff shoreside, of whom 80 work at its head office in Norway. At sea, the business has a staggering 500 seafarers under its employ ment across both the chemical and dry cargo operations.
Innovative chemical transport
According to Tom Skare, Managing Director of Seatrans Chemical Tankers, the company’s unique philosophy on ship design automatically sets its fleet apart from others.
“The Seatrans Group is based on inno vation,” he confirmed. “Both of our owners are naval architects, so they like to come up with interesting projects and new solu tions for transporting goods more efficiently and in ways that everyone else is not nec essarily doing.”
One of the case studies for this attitude towards innovation is a ship within its fleet that is already operational in the North Sea.
“She’s Teflon-lined and as far as we know, she’s the only ship in the world with such lining that can carry aggressive acids unsuit able for stainless steel cargo tanks,” he explained. “We also have two, 20,000 tonne vessels built in 2000 that can carry LPG in combination with chemicals. They’re the only vessels capable of carrying liquid chemicals and certain gas products on the same voyage.
“We like to carry products that not all shipowners are willing to do, simply due to the complexity of that trade. We are gen uinely specialised in carrying chemicals –there are no products that we’re limited to.”
Maritime magic
In late 2020, Sea-Cargo installed two mas sive Flettner Rotor sails and a battery pack on its ro-ro vessel SC Connector as part of a pilot project to test the viability of renew able energy as a source of propulsion for the group’s fleet.
Rotor sails are relying on a relatively complex physics phenomenon known as the Magnus effect. In highly simplified terms, the Magnus effect harnesses dif ferences in air pressure to create forward propulsion. For best results, a Rotor-equipped vessel needs to sail perpendicular to the prevailing wind.
The SC Connector’s rotors are very tall, but they’re also tiltable in order to avoid issues with height limitations on the vessel’s
routes. They have been specifically designed to be large enough to offer substantial wind propulsion effects.
According to Geirmund Drivenes, Stödig’s Director of Fleet & Head of Sustainability, this rotor project has been a resounding success thus far: “In 2021, we saved 25% of the energy normally required for the propulsion of the SC Connector – meaning that 25% of its energy for propulsion came from the wind.
“The Flettner rotors are almost like magic,” he continued. “In principle, it’s like a wing on an aeroplane that generates lift – it’s the same physics happening with the rotors.”
Wherever possible, SC Connector’s routes are chosen to optimise the vessel’s position relative to prevailing winds.
“If you look at the vessel’s voyage records, you’ll notice they don’t sail in a straight line; it is probably more like the old sailing ships,”
he noted. “Their voyage planning is based on where they believe they’ll have the best side-on wind, and the captains constantly make adjustments to their course to ensure they are positioned according to the most efficient wind direction.”
The project has already substantially demonstrated its value and now the group is in the process of fine-tuning the equip ment for the best possible results.
“We are capturing a lot of data to identify the most efficient way of imple menting this technology in the future,” Mr Drivenes remarked. “It’s the most important project we’re currently doing; it is likely that we will see rotors intro duced onto other vessels like chemical tankers and the rest of our ro-ro fleet in the future.”
Building a modern fleet
The Seatrans Group has two modern new chemical tanker builds currently in progress at Kitanihon Shipbuilding in Japan, with delivery of both vessels expected for mid2023. The two new vessels boast sufficient capacity to replace some of the existing tonnage the company currently runs on its lucrative trade between north-western Europe and the eastern Mediterranean
The vessels are each 12,500 tonnes and feature eighteen stainless steel cargo tanks specifically equipped for the trade on that route. “They will have special fea tures allowing them to carry propylene oxide and isocyanates that require partic ular handling practices,” said Mr Skare. “Only a few vessel owners have the knowl edge , capability and equipment to handle those products.”
Both vessels will meet international envi ronmental regulations that will be in force from 2025 as they’ll comply with the IMO’s
Energy Efficiency Design Index phase 3, meaning a 30% reduction in grams of CO2 per tonne mile calculated from the refer ence line.
“Renewing our fleet in terms of emissions is a high focus area,” Mr Skare confirmed.
Improving port efficiency
The Seatrans Group’s sustainability improvement efforts aren’t limited to its ships. For several years, the company has been hard at work to improve port efficiency and reduce the amount of time that its ships spend in their ports of call.
“Most chemical tankers spend 40-50% of their time in port. It’s a huge industry challenge that results in increased con gestion and the vessel being forced to wait in line for a berth,” the Managing Director detailed.
“We’re now in the midst of a data-gath ering project where we are working with all of the stakeholders, including the ports, to reduce or eliminate the various bottle necks. Thanks to these efforts, we’ve already achieved a 3.5% saving in 2021 compared to 2020 of time in port.
The project is being undertaken thanks to data collection, management and analysis services provided by Norwegian software company The Ship AS (www.theship.no).
By using state-of-the-art SaaS services, The Ship AS offers efficient platform inde pendent data collection tools available for all stakeholders in shipping. Structured data enables customers to optimise and streamline port calls enabling them to save time in port, reduce emissions, cut costs and streamline business processes.
The Ship AS works together with cus tomers to streamline and digitize the data collection process while in port. Easy to use platform independent tools enable
customers to gather data in an efficient and structured way. Besides auto generated Statement of Facts and Demurrage calcu lations, data can be shared with other stake holders in the supply chain for better and more efficient collaboration.
“In our opinion, a ship owner must do more than just transport – they must also assist charterers with improving the supply chain where we are taking a direct part in it,” Mr Skare remarked. “We have a proven record that customers will save time and money by using Seatrans Chemical Tankers and Stödig Ship Management for their trans portation needs.”
Adding value through improved effi ciencies is all part of the Seatrans Group’s business ethos. “We do more than what some clients expect us to do, at a minimum,” he continued.
“We are constantly trying to improve all of our processes, we’re not interested in just maintaining the business as is. If we are able to provide a product that is quite unique in addition to what is expected of us by the cus tomer, then we are recognised as a partner. And if a customer says that they don’t want to leave us because they are receiving unique service then we have succeeded, and that’s what we’ve aimed for.” n
