Competitor analysis

We have identified five companies from where Norgas experiences the fiercest competition.

The analysis will not contain any financial data, because we did not locate financial information on all companies, and therefore, a comparison to Norgas will not be relevant.

 J. Lauritzen AS  Unigas

 GasChem  Anthony Veder

 Eitzen

J. Lauritzen AS

J. Lauritzen AS (JL) is 100% owned by The Lauritzen Foundation. JL was founded in 1884 and has been the “leading supplier of ocean transport solutions for 125 years” (J.Lauritzen,2011). JL’s business divisions

include Lauritzen Offshore, Lauritzen Bulkers (dry bulk), Lauritzen Kosan and Lauritzen Tankers.

It is Kosan and Tankers that operates in the same market as Norgas where Kosan operates with transportation of petrochemical, energy and agriculture products and Tankers operates with transportation of oil products and chemicals. Kosan operates over 40 vessels and has a strong position in Europe, the Mediterranean. Their shipments consist of liquefied gas like LPG and LNG. Kosan opened an office in Shanghai in 2006 and are aiming to increase their share in the Far East market by serving the chemical and oil majors, particularly in China. Moreover, Kosan increased their presence in the Far East market when they received the first of six new gas carriers in November 2010 (J.Lauritzen,2011). Lauritzen Tankers operates 13 vessels with four major chemicals tankers. Their major operation area is South-America and their shipments consist of various types of crude oils and chemicals. Tankers want to increase their presence in Europe and the Mediterranean, and have ordered 6 new vessels to be delivered within 2013.

Both of these subsidiaries of Lauritzen are huge competitors concerning innovation, environmental awareness and technology. Lauritzen recently extended the fleet with a new ship among the industry’s most environmental friendly and technological advanced vessels.

Figure 4 - Lauritzen logo

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GasChem Services

GasChem Services is a German shipping company based in Hamburg. GasChem Services was established in 1990 and manages the fleet from their offices in Hamburg.

They provide transportation of olefins, chemical gases and LPG.

“GasChem is a leading fleet operator in the gas tanker market segment between 4.000 and 17.000 cbm capacity” (GasChem,2011). GasChem has a fleet of 41 tankers and has a mutual pool with the Italian company GasMare, which consists of 33 ships that are suitable for carrying ethylene with a capacity of 255.000 cbm. During 2011 four new tankers will join the fleet. These are ethylene tankers with a capacity of 24.000 cbm. They operate worldwide with the main focus on Europe, the Atlantic and USA. They have currently no vessels with the same features as the WG fleet, but they are the leading company in terms of ethylene capacity (GasChem,2011).

Eitzen Group

Eitzen Group has a strong position in the international shipping market and their wide range of shipping activities provides them with a strong force. Eitzen Group is one of Norgas’ biggest competitors

with Eitzen Gas AS and Eitzen Chemical ASA operating the same market.

”Eitzen Chemical ASA is one of the largest chemical transportation

companies in the world, controlling more than 80 vessels with focus on the segment between 3,500 to 50,000 dwt” (Eitzen Group,2011). The chemical division of the Eitzen group was established when Tschudi & Eitzen Holding AS acquired the Danish shipping company KIL Shipping A/S in the year 2001. Eitzen Chemical ASA transports organic chemicals, non-organic chemicals, clean and dirty petroleum products, lube oil and vegetable oils. Eitzen’s Chemical fleet consists of coated and stainless steel vessels from 3.500 to 48.000 dwt. They are mainly operating about 20 ships in two pools, from their offices in Denmark, USA, Spain and Singapore.

Their future strategy is to strengthen their position as an industrial carrier of chemical products.

In addition they are aiming towards a leading position in all the segments they involve in.

Figure 5 - GasChem logo

Figure 6 - Eitzen group logo

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Eitzen Gas AS transports LPG and petrochemical gases, and offers logistic solutions globally.

Eitzen Gas AS operates a fleet of 30 LPG and Ethylene carriers ranging in capacity from 1.600 to 17.000 cbm. Eitzen Gas AS has entered into an agreement with Solvang ASA to share commercial operation of ethylene carriers in their company ESE Eitzen, where Eitzen is contributing with eight carriers and Solvang with five bigger vessels.

Unigas

Unigas is a Dutch company and a member of the

Unigas consortium founded in 1969. This pool consists of

“Othello shipping company”, “The Schulte group” and

“Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft”. Unigas operates petrochemical and petroleum gas shipping worldwide. With a total of 29 vessels where 13 are specialized Ethylene tankers Unigas is operating a relatively large, modern and technologically advanced fleet. Unigas’

business plan includes long-term Contracts of Affreightment with some of the major international oil and chemical companies worldwide. They have offices in The Netherlands, Hong Kong and Houston, Texas. Unigas have been awarded for safety and quality on their ships and strives to meet the safety demands from the petrochemical industry at all time. They aim to expand internationally in the future to better fit the petrochemical segment. (Unigas,2011)

Anthony Veder Shipping

Anthony Veder Shipping was established in 1937 and has its base in Rotterdam, which is Europe’s largest port. The firm is dedicated to the shipping of liquefied gas.

They are operating in all aspects of gas transportation,

including shipping of LPG, LNG, CO2 and petrochemicals. The main transportation is of I-butane, ammonia, ethylene, methane, butadiene, propylene, vinyl chloride and propane. The fleet consists of relatively modern gas carriers with most of them carrying ethylene.

From Anthony Veder’s web site we can read that the fleet is of high quality and is constantly renewed in order to meet new regulations and customer preferences. Like most shipping

Figure 7 - Unigas logo

Figure 8 - Anthony Veder logo

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companies, the company has a strong relationship focus towards their customers. The fleet is trading for huge petrochemical and oil companies and consists of 15 vessels from 3.000 to 7.200 cbm. The company is strongly integrated and has every aspect of shipping management under “one roof”. Everything from a travel agency and crewing to technicians and chartering are all in the same company. We understand Anthony Veder is a huge company with over 40 years of experience in the industry of LPG shipping. “The ships have good cooling capacity and are highly flexible so they can easily change temperature grades”. In addition, the ethylene carriers of Anthony Veder are fast coolers and therefore suitable for shorter voyages.

Over 60 % of the business is petrochemical shipping and consist mainly of propylene and ethylene shipping. The company also ship butadiene. The shipments of propane and butane count for approximately 30% of the business. Anthony Veder built a tanker, which could ship a combination of LNG, petrochemicals and LPG and was the first company to create this kind of combined ship. This is however not the same concept as the WG fleet. Anthony Veder will focus on further developments of the ice class vessels in the future, and continue with a unique mix of LNG/LPG and ethylene shipments. (Anthony Veder,2011)

Figure 9 - Key players in industry with fleet capacity

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The figure above illustrates the forecasted development in cbm from 2011 to 2014. The diagram below shows the actual numbers. As showed Norgas has a substantial capacity compared to the competitors. Only ESE and GasChem have the same capacity.

Figure 10 - World Ethylene fleet development 2010-2013

Competitor map

To get a better understanding of the competitor’s activities and their area of focus, we have created a competitor map where the competitor’s fleet sizes and activity area are identified.

We have also included Norgas and the WG fleet. The x-axis shows the fleet size and the y-axis shows the main area of focus. The areas are divided into North East Asia, South East Asia, Europe and the US. We have chosen to exclude the Middle East due several companies currently have main operations there and we would not be able to differentiate the companies on the map. Information of fleet sizes is gathered from the companies’ web pages and the

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geographical location of activities are based upon the vessels latest activities shown and their core business explained on their web page. The map will not be perfectly correct, due to every company being highly international and having operations globally. (Marine Traffic,2011)