Norddeutsche News

Helmut Ponath, founder and long-time managing director of the German shipping company NBS Group, has taken full control of the company.Since 2000, the shareholders of the Buxtehude-based NSB Group have consisted of four owners: Conti NSB Holding, Gebab Holding, Norddeutsche Reederei Holding and Buxriver. In December 2021, the four shareholders signed the contract to transfer their all shares to Ponath's Buxriver."In doing so, they are handing over the company to the one that has always been most involved in the operation of the shipping company.

German shipping and logistics group Harren & Partner announced it has hired Nils Aden as managing director, effective May 1.Aden brings to the role more than two decades of know-how as a shipping industry executive in the industry, with experience from leadership positions in international ship management, transformation projects, M&A transactions and integration. In his previous assignments, he overlooked the merger of V.Ships and Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt as Managing Director, led Zeaborn as CEO and transformed E.R. Schiffahrt as CEO into an international ship management player.

German lender Norddeutsche Landesbank (Nord/LB) has completed the sale of a EUR 2.6 billion (USD2.9bln) shipping loan portfolio. The bank recently announced its withdrawal from shipping.A US hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management took over the portfolio, which comprises of the 263-vessel book - known as "Big Ben" -  with a non-performing loan (NPL) portion of some 90%.The transaction was closed on 9 April, in accordance with the signing of the purchase agreement dated February 2019, the German bank said. The bidding process was launched in autumn 2018 as part of the bank’s transformation program.The parties agreed to maintain confidentiality about the terms of the transaction…

V.Group has announced the appointment of Nils Aden as Managing Director of V.Ships Germany in Hamburg.The global marine and offshore vessel management and support services provider said in a press release that the announcement reaffirms its commitment to growing in, and leading the transformation of, the German shipmanagement market.Last year, V.Group announced that it would invest in a centre of excellence for container shipmanagement in Hamburg, bringing together the best expertise to deliver the highest quality service for its customers.As the shipmanagement segment consolidates, V.Group sees Hamburg as a key market, citing significant demand from the container…

German shipowner Norddeutsche Vermögen Group and V.Group have signed an agreement for Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt to join V.Group.At the same time, the combined company will form a partnership for commercial management with Blue Net Chartering.The transaction represents a major step in delivering consolidation of commercial and technical management in the container segment in Germany, underpinning V.Group’s ambition to drive the transformation of the industry and to be the leading global provider of marine support services.Norddeutsche Reederei is one of the leading players in the Hamburg market with 150 years of history, managing a container fleet of 46 vessels…

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. said it has received a commitment from ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale for a loan facility of up to $60 million that will be used to finance up to 60 percent of the fair market value of two Ultramax dry bulk vessels (SBI Perseus and SBI Phoebe) and two Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels (SBI Electra and SBI Flamenco).The loan facility has a final maturity date of five years from drawdown date and bears interest at LIBOR plus a margin of 2.25 percent per annum.The loan facility, which is expected to close within August, would increase the company’s liquidity by approximately $21 million after repayment of the vessels’ existing debt.

Monaco-based international shipping company Scorpio Bulkers announced that it has received a commitment from ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale for a loan facility of up to USD 60 million.The loan facility will be used to finance up to 60% of the fair market value of two Ultramax dry bulk vessels (SBI Perseus and SBI Phoebe) and two Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels (SBI Electra and SBI Flamenco).The loan facility has a final maturity date of five years from drawdown date and bears interest at LIBOR plus a margin of 2.25% per annum.This loan facility, which is expected to close within August, would increase the Company’s liquidity by approximately $21 million after repayment of the vessels’ existing debt.

Norddeutsche Reederei said it will begin installing Navarino’s Infinity Cube solution across its fleet of 50 vessels.The company has a fleet consisting mostly of modern container vessels which trade worldwide.Christian Mix, Norddeutsche Reederei’s IT Marine System Administrator, said, "We are in the process of further upgrading our connectivity capabilities based on our last year finished VSAT installation on all vessels in order to increase the bandwidth available for both business and crew purposes.

It may seem a big surprise for a country whose industry is proud of green technology and engineering solutions, but Germany is responsible for the worst shipbreaking practices among all shipping nations when one compares the size of its fleet to the number of ships broken irresponsibly, says the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. In 2016 German owners, banks and ship funds had 97 ships rammed up on the beaches of South Asia out of a total of 99 vessels sold for demolition, meaning 98 percent of all obsolete German ships ended up on a beach. In addition, close to 40 percent were broken in Bangladesh, where conditions are known to be the worst. Among the owners bringing the most ships to the beaches are Hansa Mare with 12 ships, Alpha Ship, F. Laeisz and Peter Doehle with seven each, and Dr.

DNV GL and Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt signed a contract to carry out Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) certifications for the shipping company’s managed fleet of more than 50 vessels. The first vessel to undergo sampling and testing is the 3700 TEU container vessel Northern Dexterity. Once complete, this certification provides independent verification of the vessels’ IHM, as required by the European Ship Recycling Regulation. “The IHM is an important step on the way to ensuring environmentally responsible ship recycling and therefore also important to us at Norddeutsche Reederei.

DNV GL and Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt have signed a contract to carry out Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) certifications for the shipping company’s managed fleet of more than 50 vessels. The first vessel to undergo sampling and testing is the 3700 TEU container vessel Northern Dexterity. Once complete, this certification provides independent verification of the vessels’ IHM, as required by the European Ship Recycling Regulation. “The IHM is an important step on the way to ensuring environmentally responsible ship recycling and therefore also important to us at Norddeutsche Reederei. DNV GL has long-standing experience in this field and we are pleased to be working with them on this,” says Dennys Wulf, Quality Management Director at Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt.

NORD/LB Norddeutsche Landesbank and KKR Credit have reached an agreement by which, subject to completion of certain conditions precedents, KKR Credit, together with a sovereign wealth fund (the “Investors”), will acquire a portfolio of performing and non-performing shipping loans originated by NORD/LB. The initial portfolio with a total volume of about USD 1.5 billion will include up to 100 ships and would form the seed mandate for a shipping portfolio management company that the Investors will create simultaneously with the closing of this sale. This company is designed to be open for use by third party banks for their portfolio management.

Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale's (NORD/LB) strategy to reduce its shipping exposures by EUR4bn-6bn over the next three years makes sense, but will likely encounter high execution risks, says Fitch Ratings. Planned disposals, representing up to one-third of the bank's total shipping exposures, are large, but the shipping markets are not yet showing signs of sustainable recovery and there is a risk that disposal markets could become overcrowded. Currently, a number of lenders are attempting to sell ships, including HSH Nordbank AG, which plans to sell up to EUR3.2bn of ships over the next two years. In our view, ship financing, which represents around 10% of NORD/LB's credit volumes, continues to pose the most significant source of risk for the bank.

Maersk Line's 292-meter (958-foot) Safmarine Meru and  the 318-meter (1,043-foot) Northern Jasper operated by Germany’s  Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt GmbH & Co collided off the coast of China late Saturday with one catching fire, but the crews of both vessels are safe. The collision took place in opens seas 138 miles east of the Chinese port of Ningbo, south of Shanghai. “The collision caused severe damage to the Safmarine Meru and a fire broke out. The Safmarine Meru’s crew of 22 people abandoned the vessel shortly after,” Maersk Line said. Firefighting was initiated Sunday morning local time. While there is no visible fire, there is smoke and firefighting continues. The Chinese authorities are on the scene and Maersk Line is cooperating with same,” Maersk Line said.

The worst dumper prize goes to IDAN OFER, son of shipping magnate Sammy Ofer. Idan Ofer owns QUANTUM PACIFIC GROUP and has a controlling stake in Israel’s largest publicly traded company, ISRAEL CORPORATION. Combined, these shipping companies sold the highest number of vessels for substandard breaking operations in 2015: nine in total, with six of them going to Bangladesh, where conditions are known to be worst. GREEK SHIP OWNERS sold the most ships to South Asian shipbreaking yards in 2015, with 87 ships in total. Since the NGO Shipbreaking Platform started to compile data on world-wide ship dismantling practices in 2009, Greek shipping companies have unceasingly topped the list of owners that opt for dirty and dangerous shipbreaking.

Vacations on a ship – 125 years ago that was considered revolutionary. What many don’t know is that the modern cruises already started in 1891 – on a Hapag ship. On a cold January morning, nearly 125 years ago, nobody could have guessed that the idea would turn into such a success story. In any case, on January 22, 1891, it seemed as if all of Cuxhaven had turned out to marvel at the group of “intrepid travelers” ­ making their way up the gangway of Hapag’s flagship, the “Augusta…

The container ships MOL Empire and Northern Democrat collided at around 1430 LT Aug 1 in Westport harbor at Port Klang, Malaysia, reportedly while mooring. Container or containers fell overboard, also port crane was damaged. It is understood, that both vessels suffered slight damages. The reason for the accident was higher speed and strong wind, which caused drifting of the container carrier MOL Empire over the already berthed Northern Democrat, which was performing cargo handling operations at same time. The both vessels were detained for inspection and until further investigation. A Westport Malaysia said in a statement that the cargo vessel has since been safely moved to the pilot station.

Germany’s second biggest financier of ships Norddeutsche Landesbank (NordLB) is tapping Asian investors and private-equity funds to invest in its shipping loans. According to a report from Bloomberg, Singapore unit of the state-owned lender last year started creating packages of 10 to 20 vessels for private-equity firms to invest in, Thomas Buerkle, board member responsible for risk management at the bank, said. Bloomberg citing Thomas Buerkle, NordLB's board member, as saying Asian investors believe there are good opportunities amid the shipping slump. In Asia, they are not talking about a shipping crisis, he said. He pointed out that Asian investors put their money in ships, as they believe the slump offers good opportunities.

Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt (NRS) and Germanischer Lloyd (GL) signed a cooperation agreement today covering all areas of classification as well as flag state supervision of the ships of Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt sailing under GL class. As a container and tramp shipping management company with a fleet of 80 ships, Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt benefits from GL's extensive range of services. As a classification company, GL offers the development of standards, rules, and guidelines for the  design, construction and operation of ships, as well as their regular inspection and audit. The company supports Norddeutsche Reederei with various services in order to ensure compliance with international regulations and facilitate the use of modern technology for GL-class ships.

As part of the implementation of SAP R/3 at the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel, Germany, Atlantec Enterprise Solutions has been chosen to develop the link from the Tribon Hull shipbuilding software to R/3. The link is to be developed in close cooperation with HDW’s own software house, NIS Norddeutsche Informations-Systeme GmbH. Using information extracted from Tribon, the Topgallant software supplied by Atlantec Enterprise Solutions will prepare data for the ERP system. The Topgallant solution to be provided will support both the initial transfer of data shortly before the burning start of each block, as well as any subsequent changes to that block during production.

Hamburg Sud conducted its first Chilean Christening in its 137-year history. Hamburg Sud has christened a container ship in Chile, the ceremony took place in Valparaiso on 9 January 2009. The Cap Graham is one of a series of three identical 4,294 TEU charter vessels of Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt. Together with her two sister ships, the Cap Gilbert and Cap Gregory, as well as Hamburg Sud's Bahia class vessels, the Cap Graham is sailing in Sling 1 of the Hamburg Sud liner service between Asia and South America West Coast. Sponsor of the Cap Graham was Elizabeth McPherson Cisternas, Corporate Executive Vice President Logistics and Marketing Services for Codelco Chile, the largest producer and exporter of copper worldwide.

Toxics Watch Alliance warns imminent arrival of end-of-life German ship 'Northern Vitality' breaches Indian Supreme Court Order. "This is to inform you that in violation of the Supreme Court order dated July 30, 2012, Northern Vitality, a 15-year-old ship owned by German company “Norddeutsche Vermögen Holding GmbH & Co” and chartered by Swiss company MSC is headed for the shipbreaking beach of Alang, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. I am copying this message to Mr Michael Steiner, German Ambassador to India besides other concerned authorities. I have learnt that in the ongoing saga of Alang's existence as a graveyard of ships and migrant workers last month four workers died in Alang beach.

Following comprehensive trials Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt (NRS) of Hamburg has confirmed that it will proceed with the installation of ChartCo services via email for its complete fleet. The order from NRS is the culmination of many months of development. For over 10 years ChartCo has been delivering data direct to ships at sea using ChartCo Broadcast and more recently ChartCo Select via Internet. Now the addition of ChartCo Select via email offers all vessels complete flexibility in tailoring the service and delivery method to best suit their requirements.