This event will take place in the port of Ulsan during the royal couple's visit to South Korea.
A long-term commitment has given the Wilh. Wilhelmsen (WW) group a solid foothold in South Korea. EUKOR handles all car exports from this country for Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation. Wilh. Wilhelmsen group vessels have called Korean ports for almost 100 years. Many other companies in WW’s global maritime industry group also have activities in this east Asian nation.
“We believe in South Korea’s competitiveness,” says Sjur Galtung, deputy group chief executive at WW. He represents one of the Norwegian companies which has gained very solid experience of collaboration with Korea.
“This is an expansive and growth-oriented place to be involved with,” explains Mr Galtung. “We’ve accordingly made a long-term commitment together with local companies.
“As a partner, we’ve been accorded trust as a contributor to the internationalisation of Korean industry. That’s a challenge, in part because South Korea has a distinctive business culture and rules of the game.”
WW is one of Norway’s most global businesses, offering shipping services, logistical solutions and maritime services through a worldwide network.
This embraces some 13 300 employees at just over 350 offices in about 70 countries. When joint ventures are included, the workforce rises to almost 23 000 people at more than 500 offices in roughly 80 countries.
Parent company Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA has an annual turnover of about USD 2.5 billion (NOK 16.5 billion) and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Group companies conduct advanced industrial shipping and are market leaders in the transport of rolling cargo. Together with its partners, WW controls some 150 car carriers and roll-on, roll-off ships operating in a global network and WW, together with OW, is thereby by far the world's largest car/ro-ro operator in the world.
The list of customers include the world’s leading manufacturers of cars as well as of construction, mining and agricultural machinery.
Collectively, WW’s shipping companies annually transport almost five million cars by sea and three million over land. In addition come high and heavy and non-containerised cargoes.
EUKOR now has 85 ships in its fleet and carried 3.5 million cars in 2006.
WW both owns and charters vessels, which are deployed in the fleets operated by its joint ventures – including EUKOR Car Carriers, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier.
The group has a particular focus on developing innovative ship solutions, and an ambition of being in the forefront for environmentally-adapted vessel operation.
This is also illustrated through its collaboration with Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), one of several yards building ships for WW.
EUKOR recently awarded a contract to HHI for the construction of a further four car carriers, each with a capacity of 8 100 cars. This will make them the world’s largest ships of their kind.
In association with its shipping services, WW offers various types of logistics support on land, such as terminal and technical services, purchase of inland transport and supply chain management for vehicles.
Among other activities in this area, the group owns 20 per cent of Korea’s Glovis logistics company, which provides such services to the Hyundai Motor group.
WW’s wholly-owned Wilhelmsen Maritime Services (WMS) subsidiary offers a broad range of products and services to a large part of the merchant fleet through a unique global network.
The Barwil Unitor Ships Service network has the capacity to serve vessels in roughly 2 200 ports in 116 countries, and handled 53 000 port calls and had deliveries to some 17 000 ships in 2006. In Korea, Barwil Unitor is represented in Seoul, Busan, Inchon and Ulsan.
The Barber Ship Management (BSM) company, which also forms part of WMS, manages roughly 300 ships and has a pool of 8 500 seagoing personnel. Thirteen of EUKOR’s vessels are managed by BSM from its Pusan office.
WMS also offers services and equipment to the shipbuilding industry through its Unitor Ships Equipment division. Unitor has had a presence at Korean yards since the 1970s, partly through the delivery of firefighting and safety systems.
TI Marine Contracting, which delivers thermal insulation systems for liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas carriers to Korean yards.
Activities at WMS’s Maritime Solutions & Financial Services include bunkers broking for EUKOR through Wilhelmsen Premier Marine Fuels, one of the world’s leading brokers for bunker oils. And the insurance broker Wilhelmsen Insurance Services provides insurance advice for EUKOR.
Many of WW’s Korean employees take courses provided by the WW Academy, which is the industrial group’s own expertise centre. It organises business-related programmes and management courses.
Designed for groups with a multicultural composition, these courses bring together employees from all over the world.