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The Capital of the Oceans
Have you ever heard of The Capital of the Oceans? It is the new nickname for Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The new name is a part of the ambitious plan from The Danish Shipowners Association, The Danish Maritime Authorities and other participants in the maritime cluster of Denmark to make the country the leading European shipping nation by 2015.

There are a lot of factors that give the participants a good head start to make the vision come true. As of today the maritime cluster of Denmark already has a remarkable position on the global market.

Did you know that Danish operators, both owners and timecharter operators, are taking care of ten per cent of the worlds total transport volume?

Or that Danish owners and operators control seven per cent of the world fleet?

Or that those Danish owners have signed up for five per cent of the world’s total number of newbuildings?

Or that Danish owners already own three per cent of the world’s tonnage?

Looking back, the previous ten years have been dramatic, with a fleet growth of 57 per cent and a growth in turnover of 240 per cent.

In the ambitious plan the maritime cluster of Denmark have recieved help from the politicians, starting in 1988, when the Danish International Shipsregister was opened and it created tax-free crews on board the Danish flagged ships. The crew on board simply does not pay any income tax on their salary. That boosted the general income from the fleet despite the low market at the time.

In the beginning of the present century the owners was granted the tonnage tax system. It gave another boost to the Danish shipping business as well as the up­going market. A large number of contracts were signed in those years that laid the foundation for the wealth in Danish shipping today, when the business is steaming ahead like an express train.

The 123 years old Dampskibsselskabet Torm is in many ways leading the way for the ambitious plan for 2015. During 2007 Torm along with Teekay shipping purchased the US-listed OMI Corp and took over a fleet of 26 product carriers in several sizes.

Torm took a major decision to re-flag all the new ships to the Danish flag despite thereby creating another problem: It was not possible to find Danish senior officers to the vessels so Torm applied for dispensation to have Indian officers on the ships.

The permission was granted after some struggle with the Danish authorities and Torm will during the coming month boost the Danish register with almost one million DWT. And more could come from the same company.
Torm has a fleet of nearly 20 ships flying the Norwegian flag in the Norwegian International Shipsregister. They are intended for a switch to the Danish flag later on.

By doing so Torm has shown the way for a number of other Danish owners, which at the moment hold large fleets under foreign flags. J. Lauritzen’s gasfleet under Lauritzen Kosan is mainly registered under the Isle of Man flag. Not the Danish.
The same goes for the bulk carriers owned in Lauritzen Bulkers, but the intention is to fly the Danish flag on several newbuildings under way from Korea.

The largest Danish company, A. P. Møller-Mærsk, is expanding rapidly in its Singapore subsidiary, which has taken the majority of the 25 new ships added to the Maersk fleet so far this year.

The sophisticated and record-breaking container ships of the E-class, like the Emma Mærsk, are flying the Danish flag as well as the tankers of the N-class of 16,000 DWT.

A. P. Møller-Mærsk has several reasons for sailing under other flags. One reason is the possibility to use crew from other countries, like the large number of Indian crews employed on the Singapore-flagged vessels. It would simply be impossible to find enough Danish officers to man these ships if a decision of switching to the Danish flag would be taken.

That is why A. P. Møller-Mærsk in a short time will start sailing under a new flag: Hong Kong. A number of the feeder vessels of the A-class will switch to the Hong Kong flag in order to get hold of the huge resources of Chinese crews, which is maybe the only resource of crews left in the world.

Speaking of crew resources, the Danish campaign World Careers recruited 200
students to the Maritime academies in 2007. That number was the goal for one year, and will hopefully provide 200 officers eight years from now.

Bent Mikkelsen Theme Editor

The full education scheme runs for eight years before the student becomes captain or chief engineer. The campaign has a total cost of around DKK 23 million and will continue to put the maritime cluster on the national map for education after decades of negligence. It is the hope of the participants in the campaign that the wind will change and encourage young people to take a job on the seven seas with a wage above the average for land jobs and six months leave per year.