Major Dutch shipping company Acta Marine wants to strengthen its position in salmon farming.
Acta Marine was established in 1970 and was then aimed at offshore work in the North Sea.
“We started as a traditional operator of supply ships and anchor handling vessels. In 2007, after several mergers and acquisitions, we changed our name to Acta Marine and started building shallow draft workboats. Subsequently we focused on differentiation and entered into wind power,” marketing director Julius van der Werf tells Salmon Business.
Acta Marine now has a comprehensive fleet of over fourty vessels.
“Following the decline in the oil and gas industry, we have witnessed a strong increase in other industries, including fish farming. We operate two boats for Marine Harvest Scotland, ” Van der Werf adds. “We see opportunities for multi-purpose work boats.”
Fleet
The Acta fleet includes so-called DP Multicats, support vessels and rafts for shallow water, fast-moving transport vessels, wave breakers and barges.
“As part of our business development we have decided to enter the aquaculture industry, and be present in Scotland and Norway, of course, and we can facilitate netcleaning, delousing etc. with our vessels.”
“We can offer a service with or without crew. We can do time charters, where we take care of operations, crew, fuel and maintenance or we can make bareboat deals where the customer takes care of the ship. Or we can provide a mix of these,” Van der Werf continues.
Capital binding
“One of the benefits of the way we work is that our clients can focus on farming rather then operating boats. That is another business. And it does not tie up capital or necessitate heavy investments,” adds marketing manager Bert de Ruiter.
“For multi-purpose boats, we can find other work for the boats if they become outdated for any one purpose, for technological reasons.”
The duo has witnessed formidable and profitable growth in the service boat segment in salmon farming. That’s the reason for their first visit to AquaNor in Trondheim.
Porsche
They spotted that SalmonBusiness.com and Ilaks are running banner ads for Porsche this week.
“We can save farmers money so they can drive a Porsche or spend their money on other goodies,” de Ruiter adds with a smile.
