|
Family Firm Pushes the Boat Out into Offshore Business |
|
|
|
Archives -
2007 Archive
|
|
Written by A. Cross
|
|
Monday, 21 May 2007 |
The Justinussens order two platform supply vessels to go seriously into offshore services — while keeping their fishing business including pair trawlers Stjörnan and Polarhav and shrimp trawlers Havborg and Fríđborg.
A family business firmly rooted in fishing, and continuing to invest in fishing, the Justinussens have diversified widely in recent years in enterprises ranging from Tórshavn’s Hotel Hafnia to Volvo, Renault, Chevrolet and Ford dealerships plus a chain of tyre service stations in the Faroes and Iceland. Sjóborg’s latest venture is a giant 400-million dkk (54m eur / 37m gbp) investment into the offshore industry with orders placed to build two new platform supply vessels (PSVs) for its new company Supply Service. Designed by Marin Teknik and Havyard Maritime, respectively, the 75 and 78 meter newbuilds embody the latest technology that the booming oil business is calling for as oil exploration in new areas and efforts to exploit better existing oilfields demand increasingly sophisticated ships.
To handle the offshore business, Supply Service has taken on the rare skills of Jens Meinhard Rasmussen, a former merchant navy captain who came ashore to study law, giving him a unique combination of maritime and legal knowledge.
“These are state-of-the art ships,” Mr Rasmussen says of the two ships now under construction at Solstrand in Norway for delivery in May and September 2008.
“Supply Service wants to demonstrate responsibility when it comes to the environment; therefore, we are building these vessels in such way as to meet the most rigorous environmental demands. For instance, the Havyard-designed vessel is a double hull with a catalyst NOx reduction system.”
As to Sjóborg’s fishing fleet, some changes have been made in the last few years. While pair trawlers Stjörnan FD 1195 and Polarhav FD 1196 have been fishing successfully on saithe and silver smelt with landings of 10,700 tonnes between them in 2006, a trio of inshore trawlers have been sold.
These smaller vessels have all gone to local owners in Leirvík and Runavík, with one of them bought by the skipper who had already been working the boat for some years.
“The Faroe saithe fishery has been exceptionally good for the past three years and prices have been improving since the low of 2005, which has gone some way towards offsetting high fuel prices,” Tummas Justinussen says.
Instead of inshore fisheries, Sjóborg has since placed bets on distant-water shrimp fishing, a sector of the industry that has been struggling for some years across the North Atlantic as the problems of high fuel costs combined with low product prices have hit Norwegian, Greenland, Icelandic and Danish operators, as well as those in the Faroes.
Several years ago the freezer trawler Havborg FD 1160 was acquired and this has been followed by the purchase of the now Fríđborg FD 242. Both vessels have been converted to burn heavy fuel instead of the conventional marine diesel they were built to run on. According to Mr Justinussen, the conversion to heavy fuel is not a cheap exercise and involves fitting extra day tanks and heating systems to bring the fuel up to the right temperature before it reaches the engines, but this is a long-term solution that brings bunkering costs down by a third. “This is a type of fishing that is heavy on fishing gear and heavy on fuel, and it would be difficult to run these trawlers without switching to heavy fuel,” he says.
There have been some major setbacks along the way, with Havborg badly damaged by fire during a refit in Norway and this was followed by Fríđborg sustaining some serious damage as the ship’s electronics were knocked out south of Greenland when severe weather smashed windows and flooded the wheelhouse after only two trips for her new owners. Fortunately there were no casualties in either accident.
Fríđborg’s refit included replacing the entire suite of wheelhouse electronics and 5000 meters of cables. Remaining upbeat, Mr Justinussen comments: “Ask me in a few years’ time if going into shrimp was a good move.”
Trends appear to be in the right direction. Fuel is at least fairly stable and shrimp prices have been gradually improving. Where there were previously eleven shrimpers under the Faroese flag, there are now only three. Sjóborg holds licenses for fishing in East Greenland, as well as opportunities to fish Grand Banks, Svalbard and other fishing grounds. “We have gone into this with our eyes open and we’ll know in three years or so whether or not it was the right move. Shrimp fishing has gone up and down, but with quotas split three ways instead of eleven, there should be every opportunity for these trawlers to make a living on this.”
Link to pdf presentation...
|
Archives