Interview with
Mr. Henrik Carstensen
CEO
First off, Henrik, please tell us a little about your background leading up to your position as the CEO of an important commercial port in Denmark.
I worked in various positions in the shipping industry for 30 years before I started in the “port industry”. I have now been the CEO for the Port of Grenaa for 5 years.
You have got Aarhus nearby which supposedly is a competitor or colleague. What strengths would you say that Grenaa has in the market for niche products?
Most importantly, our Port in Grenaa is a 100% industrial port with no private housing and with a distance of 3 kilometers to the town center. This means that we can handle and work with our core segments without causing any problems—of course with all the needed environmental licenses.
Give us more details about the port itself such as draught (draft), crane capacity, etc. I also understand from a recent visit that you even store giant, jack up oil rigs?
We have 1,450,000 square meters of land at the port and approximately 4 kilometers of quay area. Our max draught (draft) is 11 meters which we have in more or less 50% of the port. We have different sizes of mobile cranes and the two biggest can lift 110 and 120 tons and in a twin lift approximately 200 tons. We have shore power in most of the port and have also invested in a mobile shore power unit. Our unique shore power setup is one of the reasons why Maersk Drilling and a lot of other rig and ship owners are calling at the Port of Grenaa for stacking.
There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of decades lamenting the lack of political will or understanding to increase the highway and infrastructure connections to and from Grenaa. How is this proceeding now, and what developments in that regard are you working on?
We have, of course, a very intense and continuous focus on the infrastructure to Grenaa. Our hope and goal is to secure a so-called 2 to 1 road the whole way from the Djursland motorway to Grenaa (the cost of a 2 to 1 is only 25% of a motorway). If this happens, we will have a good and workable infrastructure to Grenaa.
Tell us more about the mega, offshore, wind turbine project that you handled a couple of years back for a location off the island of Anholt, including volume, timelapse, etc.?
All pre-assembly for the Anholt Offshore Windmill farm was done and handled from the Port of Grenaa. The project lasted for two years (finalized 2013), and in this period, approximately 2000 employees (from DONG and Siemens and their sub-contractors) were working at the port. The project was operated very successfully and has meant that the Port of Grenaa has gained a good name within the wind industry for handling projects like this.
Do you have any lines regularly calling at Grenaa besides the Stena Line to Sweden which I also understand is increasing its port calls?
Besides the Stena Line which has two, daily double tours from Grenaa to Halmstad, we have the ferry to Anholt calling at our port every day. Next year, the Stena Line will expand the route to Halmstad with an extra ferry which means four, double tours per day from our port.
What is next for the port?
We look forward to a very interesting future where we will continue to strengthen our core segments (wind, bulk, stacking, projects, recycling, ferries, warehouses) but also give a lot of focus to different projects coming up with which the Port of Grenaa can be a part. There are, for example, the Femern project and a new offshore wind farm called Hesseloe.
How is it best for our readers to get in touch with you?
I can be contacted via email hec@grenaahavn.dk or mobile +45 22160016.
https://www.port-of-grenaa.com/
