TTS Marine Cranes division's build-up in China will strengthen the basis for the division’s entities in Europe.
- TTS Marine Cranes division's build-up in China will strengthen the basis for the division’s entities in Europe. The focus for our European entities will be to manage the first and the last activity in our value chain – namely sales, product development and after sales. These activities - handled from Bergen, Kristiansand and Lübeck - will maintain the division’s customer contact and the highest level of crane expertise.
The director for the crane division in TTS Marine ASA, Ivar K. Hanson states that TTS has entered into an agreement with the largest and most significant shipbuilding group Dalian New Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co. (DNS) of China State Industrial Corporation (CSIC), regarding the establishment of a joint venture company in Dalian for production and sale of cranes for ships built at Chinese shipyards. In addition, TTS has its own crane company in Shanghai, which in the future will focus on export of cranes from China to other shipbuilding markets in Asia.
The TTS division which delivers hatch covers and RoRo equipment is also established in China through a joint venture company. At the end of 2005, TTS will have approximately 100 employees in China in companies owned wholly or partly by the TTS Group. In addition TTS has a sales office with six employees in Pusan in South Korea.
- Growth within international shipbuilding is taking place in Asia, and over the past few years, TTS has positioned itself to be able to take part in the development that is now taking place in these markets. We are the leading player in Asia in the markets for medium-sized and larger hose handling cranes. We are also working hard to strengthen our position in other market segments, such as cargo cranes, service and provision cranes and davits, states Hanson.
As a consequence of increases in the level of competition over the past 2 to 3 years within the marine cranes market, and as a preparation to meet the challenges of establishing two independent crane entities in China, TTS has chosen to specialise each of it’s Norwegian entities. The consequences of this specialisation is that a majority of the crane deliveries and development activities in the future will be handled by our Bergen organisation, while the focus for our Kristiansand organisation will be to serve our customers with after sales services and deliver industry products and a selected range of our crane products. This change and other cost cuts implemented in 2004 have led to lay-offs both in Kristiansand and in Bergen.– We now have approximately 60 and 50 employees in Bergen and Kristiansand, respectively. The ongoing build-up in China, will strengthen the basis for our operations in Norway, both as a result of the need for development of new products and solutions, and because more deliveries to new ships will increase service and after-sales. Tailor made cranes and after sales are some of the most important activities for the Marine Cranes division. In the future we expect that other areas also will evolve as significant areas for our business. By establishing in China we see our role changing from being solely a crane supplier to also function as a product development and solution provider for the entities organised under the Marine Cranes division. Product development is therefore expected to increase and be a significant activity for our European organisation in the future. Our recent development of the cylinder-luffed cargo cranes is also expected to be important for our Norwegian organisation – not only for supply of new cranes but also with respect to providing after sales services for our clients.
Last autumn, TTS Marine purchased the crane division of Lübecker Maschinenbau Gesellschaft GmbH (LMG) in Germany. Through this buy-up, TTS gained access to a new product range – wire luffed cargo cranes - and entered into a considerable market for service and sale of spare parts for these products. LMG has 21 employees with engineering expertise. The company has had considerable deliveries to German shipowners, who to a large extent contract ships from Chinese shipyards.
- The purchase of LMG's crane division has improved our competitiveness significantly with regards to cranes both in Europe and in Asia. We now have a vast range of ship cranes that give us the necessary striking power and attention from ship-owners and shipyards. Hence we anticipate a substantial growth in the years to come, concludes Ivar K. Hanson.
Facts about TTS Marine ASA
TTS Marine ASA is an international group, which develops and supplies maritime equipment. The operations are divided into the divisions Marine Cranes, Dry Cargo Handling and Material Handling, and the company is the second largest supplier in the world within its market segments.
TTS has a workforce of approximately 370 employees with the main emphasis on engineering expertise. The group has subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Poland, USA and China, and an office in South Korea.
TTS Marine ASA is headquartered in Bergen, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Contact person:
Director Ivar K. Hanson, division Marine Cranes
Mobile: 995 32 509
E-mail: ivar.hanson@tts-marine.no