Beluga Shipping - Your Experts for Heavy Lift and Project Cargo

The Beluga Shipping GmbH is the world market leader in the project and heavy lift segment according to the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL).

Founded in 1995 by President & CEO Niels Stolberg, Beluga Shipping has been established as an innovative transportation specialist, today providing for a modern fleet of about 70 multipurpose heavy lift project carriers. Flagships are the new units of the Beluga P-series: powerful carriers with 800 to 1,400 tons combined crane capacities, extra large box-shaped holds, 17 knots service speed and ice class Finnish/Swedish IA (according to Germanischer Lloyd scale: E3).

The in total 16 newbuildings of the Beluga P-series, delivered as from December 2009 until summer 2011, represent a joint development achievement of renowned engineering offices, shipyards, suppliers and the experts of the in-house Beluga Fleet Management Newbuilding department. The P-series vessels can operate in any port of the world and fulfil the market requirements for flexibility as well as a wide range of possible application. They also underline the company's strategic focus on the economically stable and growing super heavy lift market segment with, for instance, shipment orders for oversized modules in the energy- and oil-industry.

Tramp shipping, trade lane management, professional transport engineering, creative solution chains from project planning via loading and lashing to global delivery and worldwide supervision are all available from the committed experts of the Beluga Shipping GmbH. On board the company's vessels about 1,500 experienced crew members are in operation around the clock to make sure that the biggest and heaviest cargo reaches the port of destination intact and on schedule. The committed Beluga team is represented by a total of more than 500 highly qualified experts in all areas from transport engineering and chartering all the way to administration at the international locations around the globe. Being based at the banks of River Weser in the Free Hanseatic city of Bremen, Beluga Shipping also runs branch offices in Rotterdam (Netherlands), London (Great Britain), Moscow (Russia), Stavanger (Norway), Houston (USA), São Paulo (Brazil), Johannesburg (South Africa), Mumbai (India), Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai (both China), Tokyo (Japan) and Sydney (Australia).

From the very beginning, one of the strategic approaches of the Beluga Shipping GmbH was to create a global network to be on site anywhere the customers are located. According to the corporate direct approach strategy, the branch offices operate directly in and with the market. Thus, they provide availability to the customers and find solutions for any transportation challenge in close face-to-face cooperation with the customers from the core business sectors oil- & gas-industry, refinery, port infrastructure, offshore wind or others.

As an answer to future tasks in the offshore sector, Beluga Shipping GmbH and HOCHTIEF Construction AG set up the joint venture BELUGA HOCHTIEF Offshore (BHO). BHO will offer a fleet of special ships able to build and maintain offshore wind power stations with an output of five or more ton megawatts. The first unit shall be ready for use as from 2012. Coming experts will get trained for the specific jobs at the Maritime Campus in Elsfleth, where Beluga Shipping is lead-managing the Maritime Centre of Research and is generally involved as partner in the public private partnership project. The "Maritime Safety Training Centre" and the "Offshore & Heavy Lift Cargo Handling Simulator", both being build on the campus and co-financed by Beluga Shipping, will set new benchmarks in maritime education and form an ideal complement to the Beluga Sea Academy which educates more than 100 cadets per year.

Going off the beaten tracks of shipping routes and styles are typical Beluga Shipping hallmarks which largely contribute to the mutual benefit and highest customer's satisfaction that the company pays the greatest attention to. Another example: In the summer of 2009 the ice-hardened MV "Beluga Fraternity" and MV "Beluga Foresight" successfully transited the legendary Northeast-Passage as pioneers on commercial purpose. The vessels delivered heavy lift modules for a power plant from South Korea straight into Siberia, thereby saving voyage time, bunker consumption and environmentally harmful emissions compared to the traditional Suez Canal route. The financial savings amounted to 300,000 US Dollars per vessel of the F-series and strengthened Beluga's future ambition to navigate along the Northern Sea Route frequently with even larger vessels and accordingly an increase in efficiency when the six to eight week window of opportunity in the Russian summer opens up again.

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Beluga Shipping GmbH
Teerhof 59
28199 Bremen – Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 421 333 22 -0
Fax: +49 (0) 421 333 22 -700
Europe@beluga-group.com
www.beluga-group.com

Number of Employees: 1,500 sea / 500 ashore
Financial Turnover 2008: €418 million ($603 million)
Financial Turnover 2009: €402.5 million ($551 million)