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AMERICAN
shipping firm OSG Ships management Manila Inc. said it
has expanded its Philippine operations by having its own
building to have the capacity for training more
seafarers to be dispatched to its new vessels.
Morten
Arntzen, president and CEO of OSG, or short for Overseas
Shipholding Group, said the company invested about $9
million to relocate its office from Manila to a
five-story building in Makati, where a number of big
shipping firms such as Maersk Lines and Stolt-Nielsen
have started to relocate since last year.
With the
new OSG office, Arntzen said they can train more of
their seafarers who, from time to time, need to undergo
training to maintain their competency; and develop
training programs.
From
left, Captain Robert Johnston, senior vice president and
head of shipping operations of OSG; Morten Arntzen,
president and CEO of OSG; and Captain Eduard Tkalcic,
head of International crewing for OSG Ship Management
(UK), Ltd. brief reporters on plans for the global
transporter to set up a new home to house its
2,700-strong and growing family of Filipino workers.
--Nonie Reyes
Before,
most of the trainings and some operations were
outsourced to other companies.
The new
office will have a training center with simulator for
nautical, engine, and cargo sides, and an expansive
reception area for more than 80 to 100 seafarers who
visit OSG every day.
“This is
the first time that OSG is owning a property in the
Philippines,” Arntzen said.
He
hinted that if they are developing a new course for CNG
(compressed natural gas) tankers, which is not being
offered by other companies, they will use Filipino crews
for that CNG ship and develop those courses here.
OSG is
building 47 new vessels, including a floating storage
and offloading vessel, which needs about 100 crew
members, to be manned by an all-Filipino crew.
Arntzen
said they would need about 500 more Filipino seafarers
this year as they expand their operations.
“We
[OSG] will not be able to operate without the
Filipinos,” he stressed.
At the
moment, OSG has 141 vessels, with about two-thirds of
these manned by 2,700 skilled Filipino seafarers.
According to Eduard Tkalcic, head of the company’s
international crewing, they may shift some of their
operations to the United Kingdom and some of the OSG
satellite offices to the
Philippines
in order to make operations more efficient.
From 52
vessels manned by all-Filipino crew members, OSG hopes
to expand the number to 60 by yearend, and more in the
coming years as the new buildings are finished, Tkalcic
said.
“We are
getting new vessels and we are naming them after
Filipino [Philippine] islands. We now have two
delivered—one is called Luzon and the other Visayas. We
have more coming under the names of
Palawan, Cebu and Mindoro,”
he said.
OSG
claims to be the market leader in global marine-energy
transportation services. The company owns and operates a
modern international flag and US flag fleet that
transports crude oil, petroleum products, gas and
dry-bulk commodities throughout the world.
The
fleet is composed of crude oil tankers such as V-Plus,
very large crude carriers, Aframax and Panamax, product
carriers handysize vessels, articulated tug barges and
LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers.
The
company has more than 35 crude oil, product carrier,
articulated tug barge and gas carrier vessels that are
or will be constructed in the United States, Japan,
South Korea and China, with expected delivery dates from
2007 through 2011.
Its
Philippine operations are mainly on manning component
and ship and technical management. |
