Mr. Arild Samland
Director Project Cargo
Explain to our readers about the name G2 Ocean how did the name come about and what is the background of it, ie owners history?
The name is easy to explain. As we are a joint venture between Gearbulk and Grieg Star, the “G” of course stands for the “G” in both owners’ name, and the “2” stands for the two companies together. We are an ocean carrier company, so the “Ocean” part is also obvious to us.
Do you run liner services on certain routes or are you tramping worldwide? Is there a sailing schedule available online or one that could be subscribed to?
Our open hatch fleet of approximatively 90 ships is organized in trade routes, while our bulk fleet of 40 ships is mostly tramping. Sailing schedules are available by contacting one of our offices. The trading routes are available with an interactive map on our website at https://www.g2ocean.com/trades/. From the map, you can see that G2 Ocean covers more or less the whole World, except Africa where we only cover the South.
Tell us about the type of ships that you currently have in your service, crane capacity, size etc.
G2 Ocean has a fleet of 130 ships. The majority are open hatch vessels with gantry or jib cranes. We have provided an extensive overview of our fleet at https://www.g2ocean.com/vessels-and-equipment/fleet-list/. Vessel sizes vary from 40,000 dwt to 72,000 dwt. Crane capacities vary from 37-70 metric ton gantry cranes to 75 metric ton jib cranes, which can lift up to double when used in tandem.
Tell us about the location of your regional offices around the world and also about whom to approach there for more information and quotes.
We have organized our World Wide operation into three regions, all with regional hubs and a number of commercial and operational offices. Asia/Pacific is run from our hub in Singapore. The South America hub is in Rio de Janeiro, while the Europe/North America region has Bergen as hub. Contact details for all offices and hubs are found at https://www.g2ocean.com/contact/
Why do you believe that G2 Ocean is a good choice in today’s market when there are so many project and heavy lift carriers available, including containership owners, that now also appreciate breakbulk cargo onboard.
Project cargo demand a special understanding of the complexity of operations relating to these cargoes. We have been handling project cargo for almost 40 years, continuously fine-tuning and innovating the way we handle the cargo. Our employees on-shore and onboard know exactly what is needed to succeed. The size of our fleet and the way we employ those ships in the trades, provide an extreme flexibility for our customers. The quality of a project cargo carrier is just as much in the competence and experience of the people as it is in the equipment and vessels.
How did you end up with a career in shipping? What is your background and what do you find interesting in this line of business?
I have a degree in industrial engineering. I started out as a trainee with Kristian Jebsens Rederi in Bergen. After 5 years I moved on to be a broker at Joachim Grieg before moving to various positions with Star Shipping, Grieg Star and finally G2 Ocean. I enjoy developing new business and project cargo is now my focus and where our board would like us to develop much more for the return legs to our forest products loading areas.
How to contact you for further information?
Our website provides contact information to all offices. For project cargoes you may also contact the project cargo team directly at project@g2ocean.com
Interviewee:
Arild Samland
Director Project Cargo
arild.samland@g2ocean.com
G2 Ocean