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Back to 12/2008
New shipowning company in the Maersk Group
The Mærsk Feeder, a platform supply vessel, working very close to the Maersk Endeavour in the Danish sector.
Photo: Bent Mikkelsen.
On April 29, 2008, A. P. Møller-Mærsk added another shipowning company to the cluster of the largest privately owned shipping company in the world. The company is named Maersk Supply Service A/S, now the registered owner of a fleet of offshore vessels ranging from platform supply vessels to the largest anchor handling vessels with a bollard pull above 250 tons.
Despite the fact that Maersk Supply Service has been working in the market since 1967, when the very first supply vessel was built for the Mærsk fleet, they have all been owned in a variety of combinations amongst the five shipowning companies within the A. P. Møller-Mærsk Group. During the years Maersk Supply Service has been the commercial office for the owners.
“This has now changed and things have become more normal, so to speak”, explains Carsten Plougmann, head of Maersk Supply Service with the title of Senior Vice President. “It will not change our way of doing business, but it has been done to make this part of the company more transparent and more like any other company in shipping”, he says.
Not only Maersk Supply Service A/S in Copenhagen has become a shipowner. The company has four subsidiaries spread over the map of operation. One is a company in Canada, one is in the UK and two are in Brazil. Each of these Maersk subsidiaries has previously been the owner of offshore vessels, which have now been sold to new subsidiaries set up by Maersk Supply Service.
“These are companies with their own boards of directors and they are responsible for the ships from the signing of a contract with a shipyard to delivery and earning money from them to order new ships later on”, says Carsten Plougmann.
In 2007, Maersk Supply Service provided a net revenue of USD 633 million and made a net profit of USD 284 million after tax of USD 58 million.
The Mærsk Attender has more than 260 tons bollard pull and an A-frame capable of lifting more than 250 tons. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen
The fleet
The fleet of Maersk Supply Service and its subsidiaries totals 54 units. Furthermore, 18 units are under construction for delivery within the next few years. There are ten anchor handling vessels from the Norwegian Aker Group, two platform supply vessels from Asana in Chile and six A-class units from Volkswerft Stralsund.
The fleet ranges from the heavy duty craned offshore vessels like the Mærsk Attender, which is fitted with a 250-ton crane capable of working in 2,000 metres of water depth to combined supply vessels like the Husky type, which was constructed originally for the Canadian flag. They still operate under the Canadian flag and mainly service the Hibernia field in the harsh environment off Newfoundland.
“It has been done to make this part of the company
more transparent and more like any other company.”
The start
Maersk Supply Service started its business in 1967 with the delivery of the two sisters the Mærsk Feeder and the Mærsk Supplier from Rolandwerft in Bremen. They remained in the fleet until 1976. During those years the fleet was enlarged with a series of S-types from the shipyard in Århus from 1971.
After that boom of new ships it has become common within the Mærsk Group that a new series of supply vessels is built every third/fourth year. Such vessels normally last longer than the rest of the fleet in the Mærsk Group. As of today, the oldest vessel in the Maersk Supply Service fleet is the Maersk Retriever, which was delivered in 1979. The vessel is at present working for Brazilian Petrobras.
Bent Mikkelsen. Editor, Denmark.
Latest update 29-06-2008
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2008