SMM: Rotterdam Offshore Focuses on Mobilising, Demobilizing and Heavy Lift

At the international maritime trade fair, SMM, one of our reporters made an exclusive interview with Martin Van Leest, Managing Director of ROG Ship Repair.

Hereby we are bringing you a part of their conversation.

How did it come to a cooperation between Serdijn Ship Repair and Zwagerman Offshore Services?

I joined Serdijn Ship Repair in June last year with an intention of taking over the company from its previous owner. I soon found out that I needed a strategic partner. Luckily, various partners were willing to join me, but Zwagerman was absolutely the best option. Zwagerman has a strong name in heavy lift and offshore projects and has the co-ownership of Conquest MB1.

Conquest MB1 is a 1400 ton crane barge and it was involved in the salvage of Costa Concordia, putting on the sponsoons to make the ship to refloat again. Zwagerman is a privately owned crane company, with a long history and a sizable fleet of cranes. Serdijn needed a harbor cranes on the yard in Rotterdam to do the work in the best way possible. Zwagerman had the cranes, the experience and the skilled personal, and a crane pontoon. Besides this, Conquest MB1 needed a home port and we could offer them a location.

How we set it up was that was myself and Zwagerman founded a new company,  named Rotterdam Offshore Group, and with Rotterdam Offshore Group we acquired Serdijn Ship Repair. On the beginning of the SMM we presented the new name for Serdij, ROG Ship Repair.

What can you tell us about the company’s business results, reached goals, accomplished tasks since the establishment in February this year?

In the new business model of Rotterdam Offshore Group we added mobilizing, demobilizing of offshore vessels, heavy lift services and rental/sales/storage of machinery and offshore equipment. That is a niche market, there was no other company focusing on this and especially mobilizing and demobilizing in Rotterdam port. We launched the company in April this year, and up to now we had a tremendous amount of work all offshore or mobilizing, demobilizing related projects.

Which markets are currently in the focus of Rotterdam Offshore, and do you have plans to expand your business areas?

Now we are focusing on mobilizing, demobilizing and heavy lift. We are going to improve our current business services and expand when there is the opportunity. What we are going to do is build a new state of the art workshop and a new office on our yard in Rotterdam. We are going to improve and creating more quay side, we will install a 500-ton crane on the quay for heavy lift services, and we are planning to have a floating dock along side.

What is your current involvement in offshore wind industry?

We are mobilizing vessels for the offshore wind industry. One example is a cooperation between Amasus Offshore, Abis Shipping and Zwagerman Offshore. We mobilize for instance 300 ton Zwagerman cranes on Abis-D class vessels. The crane is put on board on a special hatches for sea fasting on which the crane can also operate when working in an offshore wind farm. We constructed a pair of these special purpose hatches in our workshop.

What we also do, as I mentioned before, demobilizing and storage. At this moment we have a trencher system stored at our premises. It came from the vessel Grand Canyon which is now doing another project. But when Grand Canyon returns by the end of the month we will need to do the complete installation of the trenching system again.

What are your plans for the rest of 2014, and beyond?

We plan on upgrading the present business services and the yard facilities. That is already an ongoing process. The yard and quay side are upgraded , install a 500 ton crane, build new workshop and office and planning a floating dock along side.

We are also improving the quality system (QHSE) our current business services and add ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001.  Quality, safety, health and environment are above all other core values of our company.

Who are your biggest clients?

There are various clients, but the biggest clients are All Seas, Boskalis, Dockwise those who are around the Rotterdam port, but also customers from Aberdeen. So the business comes on every bit of offshore installations.

Can you tell me something about the current situation with new clients? Is there a stream of new clients coming in or are you focusing on your current business clients?

With Rotterdam Offshore Group we target ourselves towards the Offshore industry. We have our strategy set out to service the clients and see what the market is doing. If it is changing we have to adapt. For instance what we do see is that Aberdeen is getting full and they need other options. Rotterdam is a very good option also for the wind industry.  And with our improved quality system we can service a large variety of clients.

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Offshore WIND Staff, September 11, 2014; Image: navingo