Copenhagen-headquartered NORDEN has once again added to its projects and parcelling activities, acquiring Norwegian dry bulk operator Norlat Shipping, which specializes in the shipment of forest products and other bulk commodities, with main trading routes from Northern Europe to North Africa and North America.
The acquisition is NORDEN’s second, following the mid-2023 acquisition of the activities of Thorco Projects, which is today fully integrated into NORDEN’s Freight Services & Trading business unit, operating as ‘Projects & Parcelling’. Norlat Shipping will become part of the Projects & Parcelling team in NORDEN.
“With a customer-centric business and trading routes complementary to NORDEN’s, Norlat is a great fit with NORDEN,” says NORDEN CEO Jan Rindbo. “Norlat allows NORDEN to further cement our growing position within projects and parcelling, enabling us to offer our customers fully flexible solutions, as a global provider of ocean-based freight services for bulk and project cargo of all sizes.”
A GROWING GLOBAL OFFICE NETWORK
Norlat was founded in 1986 and has since developed a core business focusing on the shipment of sawn timber from Baltic and Continental ports to North Africa and North America. The company’s offices in Sarpsborg and Bergen in Norway and in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, are now added to NORDEN’s global office network.
“Norlat is an extremely skilled parcelling business, increasing NORDEN’s access to the Northern European forestry trade, new customers and cargo. Matched with NORDEN’s size and access, there are significant opportunities for further growth and commercial synergies,” adds Jan Rindbo.
The Norlat activities are merged with the already growing projects and parcelling team in NORDEN, which focuses on the general cargo segment including breakbulk, steels and wind energy, all of which complement NORDEN’s asset-light business model.
UNLOCKING ECONOMIES OF SCALE
Besides the expansion of it’s projects and parcelling activities, NORDEN also continues to grow it’s Capesize focus, to meet strong demands from customers looking to unlock economies of scale by sizing up to improve efficiencies while lowering emissions.
Besides giving customers the opportunity to upsize to improve supply-chain efficiencies, Capesizes also enable NORDEN to enhance the scope of current and future logistics projects, all while strengthening the ambitions to decarbonize its customers’ supply chains.
With these latest investments in not only Capesizes, but also in Projects & Parcelling and logistics, NORDEN now provides customers with a truly unique full-service approach across all dry cargo segments, with a strong focus on decarbonization.