Svitzer renews Australian towage agreement

It was back in August 2015 that Svitzer and Smit Lamnalco entered into an agreement for the former to provide service delivery on behalf of Smit Lamnalco at Melbourne, Botany and Newcastle with each company maintaining their own commercial activities and continuing to compete in those ports. The agreement, due to end in mid-2018 was extended by two years in November 2017 with a new expiry date of September 2020: at the same time the arrangement was extended to cover the Port of Brisbane.

The agreement has now been extended further by four more years until August 2024 for all four ports where Svitzer will continue to charter six vessels from Smit.

Nicolaj Noes, MD Svitzer Australia said: ‘… The extension means we will continue to facilitate and promote safe and efficient operations in each of the ports, preserving competition between both parties and maintaining their direct relationships with customers. We see this as a good solution for the industry and part of our contribution to safer and more efficient ports in Australia.’

In separate news from Svitzer, the Copenhagen-based towage operator has announced a major shake-up of its senior management team.

From September this year, Lise Demant moved from the role of global CCO to take up the position of MD for Svitzer’s European region following Kasper Friis Nilaus who was recently appointed CEO of Svitzer A/S. Also effective from the same time, Videlina Georgieva succeeded Lise Demant as global CCO and entered Svitzer’s global leadership team.

Lise and Videlina are familiar faces within both Svitzer itself and the towage industry in general, Lise joining in 2013 as Chief Operating Officer at Svitzer Asia Pte Ltd following a spell as Director and Head of Offshoring at Maersk Tankers. In 2017 she was appointed Global Chief Commercial Officer at Svitzer A/S.

Videlina who before this latest move was global Head of Strategy, Portfolio and Performance Management, joined Svitzer from Maersk Line in 2010 as Regional Commercial and Business Development Manager at Svitzer Australia and has since held similar positions for Svitzer in Singapore. Both are now based in Copenhagen, reporting to Kasper Friis Nilaus.

By Peter Barker