Olendorff sets up Ghana Ofice
01 December 2008
Olendorff Carriers, a German shipping firm, has inaugurated its Ghana International Crew Limited (GIC) office.

Apart from facilitating its shipping operations, the establishment of the office will also provide employment opportunities to Ghanaian seafarers. Inaugurating the office, the Chief Executive Office of Ghana International Crew Limited, Mr. Alex Mangortey, said the world shipping industry was taking new dimensions with emerging technological challenges.

He said Olendorff was, therefore, taking all the necessary steps to address such challenges, and that “Olendorff Carriers is fully committed to tackling the problems of crew and crew management”.

He said the problems of communications and uncertainties characterising on-signers and other problems were taken care of by strategically placing the office right among the people.

“This, we believe, will streamline the process of getting our cherished seamen on board in a well co-ordinated manner”, he said.

The Head of Crewing at Olendorff, Mr. Klauss Bjoern, said the company, which had an annual turnover of $3.3 billion, had more than 300 ships with 2,600 employees from 65 countries worldwide.

He said with about 87 years experience in the shipping business, the company’s fleet included self unloaders,reloaders and bulk carriers, and that each year the firm carried more than 110 million tonnes of bulk and utilised cargo, performing around 11,000 port calls to about 125 countries.

Aside shipping, he said, the company was also into ship building, and “for nearly 90 years Olendorff has served charterers, shippers, receivers and travellers who can expect us to be both reliable as well as flexible”.

The Rector of the Regional Maritime University, Captain A.O.Turkson, who chaired the function, appealed to shipping lines to go beyond their core business to support the training of seafarers.

That, he said, was in view of the cost in training and shortage of personnel in the area world-wide.

Source:Daily Graphic