“Unlike many other operations in Copenhagen, we are owners, not operators. We provide modern, well kept tonnage to operators in the long-term charter market. We’re not spot traders, we hire our vessels out to professional charterers,” say the two key persons in Torm’s bulk activities, Søren Christensen and Kim Rasmussen, both senior vice presidents of Torm Bulk. “This has been a very successful business for us and our net profit over the past two years has been a record DKK 1 billion.

“We operate 15 Panamax bulk carriers, of which we own eight. In addition, we have two Handysize vessels we operate from Hong Kong. There are only some six to eight people running Torm’s bulk carrier operations,” says Søren Christensen. “The market over the past few years has been fantastic, but we see a slowing down now.” Typical cargoes for Torm include iron ore, coal and commodities such as grain, bauxite, fertilisers and steel. In total, Torm operates 90 vessels.
“We have a very competitive bulk carrier fleet,” says Kim Rasmussen. “We usually sign one-year chartering agreements with our customers as we’re rather conservative in our business strategy. We run a tight ship, literally speaking.”
“Here in Copenhagen, there are no cowboys in the bulk carrier trade. We’re all serious owners and operators building long-term relationships with important customers. We enjoy seeing how Copenhagen is growing in a global context as a bulk carrier hub,” says Christensen.
“We offer our customers a service they are happy with. In the long-term, we will increase the size of our fleet. The global GDP will grow as will the economies of the United States, the EU and China, amongst others. This growth translates into more vessels. Should the market fall, there will of course be increased scrapping, but with our young fleet that’s not really a topic for our vessels. They’re all modern, built in Japan. Our ships must be the best and our customers know that. Our customers are relatively few and we have a brand name and a reputation based on a key word: honesty!”
That this is important to Torm is spelled out in the Torm Bulk brochure, which states that the company has “A
commitment to quality that outlasted the century” and “A name your great-grandfather could trust.”

Date: 07 February 2008