It was interesting to see the Lauritzen group represented here by a bulk carrier and a tanker within a few days of each other late last month. Both red-hulled vessels were on their maiden visits.
The Tenna Bulker, as mentioned last week, was bought by the Copenhagen-based group early last year and is operated by a wholly-owned Singapore subsidiary. Although painted in corporate colours, unlike some other bulkers in the fleet, Lauritzen Bulkers is not shown on its topsides.
In contrast, Lauritzen Tankers appears on the hull of the tanker Freja Baltic, the first tanker to represent these interests locally. This vessel is a time-chartered one, registered at Panama and owned by the Wealth Line Inc, of Imabari.
It is a 26,897gt, 47,548dwt tanker that was launched on January 8, 2008, and delivered on May 13, 2008, by the Onomichi Dockyard Company.
Several other similar tankers from this yard have also been seen here in recent times, while some of the earlier log ships they built were here in the 1970s-'80s.
Last week I mentioned the Lauritzen reefers that used to call here.
The company was active in the field from 1905-2007.
Another field in which they gained considerable expertise for some years was through vessels specially built for work in Polar regions, starting with Silja Dan which it operated from 1951-64.
As for the bulk cargoes, the company has been operating in this sector since its acquisition in May 1973, of a five-year-old 9858gt Japanese-built vessel which became the second Silja Dan in the fleet.
And diversification into the tanker trades also goes back to May 10, 1951, when the Lindholmen's yard at Gothenburg delivered the 10,667gt motor tanker Nerma Dan.
The group now operates a fleet of 19 tankers of similar size to Freja Baltic, built between 2001-10. Six with "Freja" names are owned by Lauritzens, while five of eight time-chartered vessels also have "Freja" names. A further five tankers are managed by the company.
On the bulk carrier side of things, the owned and chartered fleet is made up of eight larger Capesize and 18 Panamax class vessels, as well as 63 Handysize bulkers generally similar in size to Tenna Bulker.
Singapore-registered Advance II, another red-hulled tanker, was in port for the first time last week. The vessel is owned by Neptune Tankers Pte Ltd but funnel markings identify it as being part of the fleet of TransPetrol Marine Services Ltd. This fleet contains seven tankers of similar size to last week's visitor, three larger crude carriers and two large gas carriers.
Advance II is a 30,032gt, 46,101dwt vessel that was built at Chinhae by the ST Shipbuilding Company in 2006, and was laid down on March 2, launched on April 27, and completed on June 26.
Another tanker scheduled to call for the first time later this month, is the 27,357gt, 47,122dwt Genmar Concord. It will be the first Marshall Islands-registered tanker to visit Dunedin and also the first from General Maritime Corporations fleet, Genmar. The company which commenced operations in 1991 under the title Maritime Equity Management, now operates a fleet of about 35 vessels, including very large crude carriers.
Genmar Concord, owned by Mr Concord Shipping LLC, of New York, has only been in the fleet since January 23, 2010, and had traded since new as the Nassau-registered Stena Concord.
The tanker was delivered on June 23, 2004, from the Uljanik Brodogradiliste d.d. yard at Pula, Croatia.
In the days of Yugoslavia, this yard built a large class of cargo ships known as the Pula class, from 1968-71 for the former Soviet Union.
Four of this class, lengthened and converted to container ships in 1979, appeared here from February, 1988, to September, 1994, on the Far Eastern Shipping Company's service from Vladivostok.
