Danish owners stuck with new ships

The large Danish shipping companies will not consider abandoning their agreements to take delivery of newly built ships ordered when freight rates and ship prices where high. But both Norden and Torm are ready to negotiate with the shipyards, if they are interested in cancelling or postponing the agreements. “We will of course fulfil our commitments if we have made an agreement. Oppositely, if there are some shipyards willing to have a dialogue and find a new settlement of benefit for the shipyard and us, we will happily do so”, says CEO of Norden, Carsten Mortensen.

Norden has at the moment a net order program of 35 ships, of which eight were ordered last year, to be delivered within the next couple of years. “We have financing in place and every ship except four tankers are bought in cash. We have funds for our new construction program and no trouble financing it”, says Carsten Mortensen.

“There is no doubt that many shipping companies will go into dialogue with their shipyards. Depending on the situation, many of them will renegotiate payment conditions and possibly whether orders can be changed from one type to another. We have made some agreements, but we will take it into account if a shipyard says that they can’t build the ship. The negotiations depend on the conditions of each of the respective shipping companies and shipyards”, says Mikael Skov, CEO of Torm.