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Back to SSG 2
 The Ann Rousing is the largest in the C. Rousing-fleet of four coasters, here seen at Remontowa Morska in Swinoujscie, Poland. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen
Still dreaming of a newbuilding
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“I am a keen believer in seaborne transportation”, says Carsten Rousing. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen |
“I am a keen believer in seaborne transportation so I carry on securing the future for my company!”
The words come from Carsten Rousing (54), who is one of the last self-made shipowners in the coaster segment in Denmark. From a very humble start in 1979 with a 25 per cent stake in the coaster he was skippering, he has just purchased his fourth ship to the fleet of Rederiet C. Rousing. Not by himself, but with a 50 per cent partner, which also is the time charterer of the very same vessel.
SSG set up a meeting with the busy shipowner only a week after he had taken over the German owned coaster the Balmung, now named the Ann Rousing after the owner’s wife. The meeting took place in the Polish town of Swinoujscie, where the ship was undergoing repair and upgrading in order to meet the requirements to fly the Danish flag.
“My ships have to sail under Danish flag”, explains Carsten Rousing, while busy sending an e-mail to the Danish Maritime Authorities in Copenhagen in order to get a Danish MMSI number for the ship.
“There has been a radical change in the way short sea shipping is working during the last decade. I have learned that shipping is much more industrialized nowadays than before. As a coaster owner/operator we have to be much more accurate and punctual, including the use of modern communications in order to be an active and useful part of the transport chain”, says Carsten Rousing.
An example is the transport of steel scrap from various Danish ports to long-time partner H. J. Hansen’s plant in the central port of Odense.
“In the old days the schedule of sailing was looser than today”. In today’s shipping we have to sail overnight despite the weather in order to be ready for discharge the following morning at 07:00 a m. With an accurate estimated time of arrival the receiver of the cargo can plan his use of man-hours as well and this is sometimes the difference between success and failure in modern industrialized transportation”, says Carsten Rousing.
“So our task is to keep the ships running 24 hours a day in order to serve our customers”, he explains.
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The cargo hold of the Ann Rousing is rebuilt to carry steel scrap in a long-term contract. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen |
Fourth unit
The fourth ship to the fleet is also a second-hand ship bought from a German owner. The ship was built in 1991 and is the youngest in the Rousing fleet today.
“This is part of our problem at the small end of the short sea segment”, Carsten Rousing explains. “New ships are more expensive than a captain-owner can normally afford to buy, while the older and more affordable ships give a lot of expenses on the maintenance account. And when you have an older ship with a high maintenance cost, you can’t save money to buy a better ship the next time. It all goes to the old ship in order to keep it up to standard”, says Carsten Rousing.
While talking in the wheelhouse of the Ann Rousing, moored at Remontowa Morska at Swinoujscie, the company sister the Anders Rousing is lying ahead of the Ann Rousing, while the hatch covers of the ship are ashore for a huge renovation job.
“A hatch cover really needs a repair job. The Anders Rousing has been in the fleet since 1995 and has sailed intensively from the very first day, so it is more or less natural that repairs are taking place on the quayside, but I must admit it looks dramatic”, says Captain Rousing.
Trade
Since his debut as an ordinary seaman in the early 1970s Carsten Rousing has been sailing on coasters carrying steel scrap from Danish ports to the steel mill at Frederiksværk (Det Danske Stålvalseværk). His first vessel was the Jane (now the museum ship Caroline S) capable of taking 215 DWT. His first ship as part owner was the Palmyra, a 425 DWT coaster built in 1957, where he acquired 25 per cent in February 1979. Gradually he took over more and more of the vessel and became sole owner in 1984 and changed the name to Ann Rousing.
Even though the ships have become bigger and bigger over the years, the trade is almost the same – steel scrap from a number of Danish ports (also other Scandinavian ports) mainly to Odense, as the steel mill in Frederiksværk closed down in 2003.
To enter the special trade with steel scrap, the ships are often rebuilt to meet the demands from the trade. There is extra strength in the tank top as well as the walls of the cargo hold to take the pressure from the heavy items in a steel scrap cargo. The ship is normally not loaded down to its deadweight as there is a lot of unused space in a steel scrap cargo, but each item in the cargo can be heavy.
One of the jobs on the new Ann Rousing in Swinoujscie is to reinforce the tanktop with an extra sandwich construction of wooden layers two inches thick and a steel floor up on the wooden layer. The steel floor is 12 mm thick in order to cope with the various polyp grabs that are used for unloading.
The new Ann Rousing is 2,750 DWT or 1,000 DWT bigger than the other units in the fleet.
“It is a natural development when demand goes for bigger and bigger ships to get a decent economy of scale in the daily business. But, again, we don’t expect to fill it up with steel scrap, but only to use every cubic foot on board”, says Carsten Rousing.
Despite this second-hand purchase (ship number seven in the fleet since 1979) Carsten Rousing is still dreaming of a new-built ship for the trade.
“It is still a dream, but it is not as far away as it was in former days. The difference between quality second-hand tonnage and new tonnage is not so big anymore and in combination with a financial partner, I think that one day it will be possible to have a newbuilding in the fleet.
The Rousing fleet comprises a work force of 60 persons in a combination of Danish and Polish seafarers. Gradually, more Polish seafarers have joined the fleet over the last couple of years, as it has become more and more difficult to get Danish seafarers who want this kind of job.
“It is a dirty job to sail with steel scrap and it goes on around the clock and unfortunately this is nothing for modern Danish youngsters”, says Carsten Rousing.
//Bent Mikkelsen
Latest update 24-01-2008 12:03 |
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