Page 51: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2024)

ANDREAS ROLNER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, UNITED HEAVY LIFT hipping has always been a part of my DNA,” said Andreas Rolner, noting his family moved from Denmark to Germany when he was a “Syoung boy, and his father Lars joining SAL back then in 1980. Andreas of? cially started his own shipping career in 2006, but unof? cially his summer holidays were spent like many adolescents in strong shipping families: with his father in the [SAL] of? ce.

After about 10 years of experience traveling the globe work- ing in shipping, in 2015 “Lars and I decided to launch UHL.”

Today, UHL is part of the United Shipping Group based in

Hamburg's HafenCity, with a worldwide team of 150 employ- ees in 10 of? ces globally.

FROM THE ASHES [OF ZEAMARINE] “End of 2014, beginning of 2015, the market was a different one,” said Rolner. “We saw that German banks were becoming ship owners, a situation they did not want to be in.”

So team father and son started off doing commercial man- agement on a transparent, open book basis for banks. “We took ? xed commissions; we did cash ? ow projections; we took over all of the services [where they didn't want the hassle]. We started running these ships as our own, and, with time, we made enough cash also to charter vessels on our own.”

The big break came with Zeamarine going out of business, allowing UHL to take over the F900s. “Back then, it was a big gamble,” said Rolner. “Vessels were expensive. [But we] phased out the older tonnage, and we went from this small operator doing commercial manage- ment now to placing our own orders and now looking at a new generation of vessels. It's been a nice voyage.” “We took over the vessels from Zeamarine when they went bust four years ago,” said Rolner. “With the latest new build- ing [UHL Fable, a F900 Eco-Lifter, a multi-purpose (MPP) heavy lift vessel, built at the CSSC Hudong Shipyard in

Shanghai] we're at 19 vessels, 19 identical F900 eco-lifters, [which gives us] the youngest, most modern and most homo- geneous ? eet in the market.”

While Rolner is not particularly enamored with an odd number ? eet size of 19, he does not see the need to order more F900s, though he does admit “we are developing our successor to the ship. In shipping, of course, it's all about tim- ing. When is the right time to approach the yards? When it's the right time to look at ? nancing? If we had a crystal ball, it would be nice, but no, right now, it's a dif? cult decision.”

He said the new ship design is almost complete, and in the coming months it may approach shipyards for build quotes.

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

From the start, the UHL vision has been long-term, and with that it has a vessel contracting philosophy that seeks strong, www.marinelink.com 51

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