Newbuilding to Airbus
A joint venture between FR.E.T, a French subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), and CETAM, a French subsidiary of Leif Höegh & Co ASA (LHC), have been selected by Airbus Industrie G.I.E. to provide maritime transportation services for the Airbus A380 program.
A Memorandun of Agreement (MOA) has been entered into with a view to order one vessel for delivery beginning 2004 with an optional second vessel for delivery in 2007, both based on 20 year timecharters to Airbus plus five two year options. The vessel(s) will fly French flag and will be used inter-Europe for the maritime transportation of aircraft components.
This joint venture is gathering skills and know-how in shipping and more particularely in ro-ro and over dimensioned cargoes.
Indeed,
LHC is heavily involved in ro-ro transportation through its wholly owned subsidiary HUAL, controlling 40-45 primarily large deep-sea going vessels. Increasing focus is also on providing HUAL's customers with worldwide sea transportation services, including short-sea. This is in Europe being developed partly through CETAM and partly through an ownership in Euro Marine Carrier B.V. in Amsterdam, a joint venture with Nissan Motor Car Carrier Co. Ltd. and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. The MOA entered into with Airbus will provide interesting opportunities for satisfying Airbus' needs for transportation of aircraft components with the increasing need for short-sea transportation capacity from HUAL's customers.
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs has been offering creative shipping services for more than 100 years, mainly under French flag and has a strong background in industrial projects. This creativity to meet specific needs of industrials customers has been experienced and proven many times with large companies such as Usinor, Gaz de France, Electricité de France and Alcatel. FRET SA, being specialized in Heavylift and over-dimensioned cargoes, will be LDA's operational arm in this joint-venture and will allow Airbus to benefit from LDA's fully integrated "in house" ship management.
