Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM) has continued its recent expansion by agreeing a strategic partnership with the highly respected Norwegian ship owner and operator Seatrans AS.

The joint venture company will be named Stödig Ship Management AS and will operate out of Seatrans’ offices in Bergen Norway. All Seatrans’ staff will remain employed in the company.

Welcoming the move, Mark O’Neil, President and CEO of CSM, said: “In Columbia Shipmanagement we recognise the particular expertise and skill sets associated with managing ships in the hard chemical trades and other special tonnage markets. Stödig Ship Management has that expertise which we can build upon with existing and new client opportunities.

“It also opens the door to the Scandinavian and North European Offshore and Energy sectors which are crying out for alternative quality management service providers, able to bring in levels of digital optimisation, scalability and a variety of platform services,” he added.

“Stödig will also provide a centre of excellence for our environmental, green technology and decarbonization efforts where Scandinavia has traditionally been seen as the market leading geographical region for these issues.”

Gisle Rong, who will continue in his existing role as Managing Director of Stödig commented: “In Columbia we have a partner who not only recognises and respects the Scandinavian market and culture, but also enables us to achieve economies of scale, digitalisation, investment in support services which we could not previously have considered.

“We are determined to continue to develop our technical management and crewing services for chemical tankers, RORO, offshore/energy as well as bulkers and product tankers. Our knowledge and experience with Seatrans adds 50 years of quality and customer focus to the co-operation. Our latest efforts implementing Rotorsails for Sea-Cargo and our close co-operation with Seatrans Chemical Tankers on port efficiency and new types of cargo, enable us to work with customers who share our values and ideas of a modern and sustainable shipping industry,” he said.

Norman Schmiedl, Director of Crewing at CSM, and a key facilitator in the tie up, said: “I am extremely excited by this collaboration. Two organisations of the highest quality providing a world class service in the hard  chemical sector, including Seatrans’ crewing network in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.”

Stödig Ship Management will become operational from the beginning of May 2021.