August 22 - Danish shipping company Scan-Trans Worldwide is taking over commercial management of six ships from the former Beluga Shipping.

Scan-Trans Worldwide says this strategic move will increase the cargo capacity of the company by more than 40 percent and place Scan-Trans Worldwide as one of the largest companies within its sector globally.

When bankruptcy proceedings were started at Beluga Shipping earlier this year, German Project Carriers was formed as a consortium of ship owners searching optimal employment for their vacant ships, searching the market for a partner to take over the commercial management rights for parts of the former Beluga Shipping fleet.

Scan-Trans Worldwide says that it is very excited to have been chosen as that partner, and sees this as a perfect opportunity for further growth, to better cater for the demands of its costumers.

"The present fleet in Scan-Trans Worldwide counts about 30 vessels with the largest being 10,000 dwt. It is therefore no secret that this expansion of the fleet will put Scan-Trans Worldwide into a whole different league", says Kim Vestergaard-Hansen, CEO of Scan-Trans Worldwide.

Scan-Trans Worldwide will have commercial management rights for four former Beluga E/F Type vessels, which are approximately 12,700 dwt multipurpose tweendeckers. In addition to these vessels, German Project Carriers have also entrusted the commercial management of two larger ships to Scan-Trans Worldwide. These are the "so-called" G-Type tweendeckers with 17,000 dwt capacity.

"The addition of these six vessels from German Project Carriers will increase the total deadweight capacity of our fleet from about 200,000 to 285,000 dwt. Naturally this means we need to book a whole lot of more cargo in the future, but we are confident that Scan-Trans Worldwide is up for that task", remarks Kim Vestergaard-Hansen.

Thomas Wenzel of Ownership in Hamburg has been heading the search for commercial managers for German Project Carriers, and he is confident that Scan-Trans Worldwide is the perfect match.

"When these ships were operated by Beluga Shipping, almost 80 percent of the cargo was bulk and only 20 percent was project cargo, which is actually what these vessels were initially built for. Looking at Scan-Trans Worldwide and their strong competencies within project cargo, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the best strategic match in the business at the moment", says Thomas Wenzel of Ownership.