Portsider-July-2016

IN THE COMMUNITY

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Bluff Maritime Museum

Museum to assist with funding to build a cradle to display a historic dinghy used

Oyster Festival

The iconic annual Bluff Oyster and Food Festival showcased Bluff and Southland to 5,000 visitors at its one day event on Saturday, 21 May. A Committee of 25 volunteers, with the support of 200+ volunteers on the day, presented a fun-filled day of live entertainment, great wine, and a variety of amazing food to tempt even the fussiest taste buds. There was a selection of seafood and other food, such as crayfish, whitebait, blue cod, venison, kina, and of course the main attraction, the Bluff Oyster. This year South Port was presented with the opportunity (after years of previous support) to provide sponsorship towards the volunteer t-shirts which were very prominent on the day and had a presence across the entire site. South Port looks forward to working with the committee in the future.

The vacant Island Harbour Cold Store Administration role has been accepted by SHELLEY KEEN. Shelley has a vast amount of experience in the industry having previously worked for Sanford as a Sales/Office Administrator and prior to that worked for Polarcold Stores in Dunedin for 20 years. Her skills include invoicing, accounts payable, freight bookings and payroll. Outside of work she has a passion for horses and also supports her partner at Riverside Raceway in Invercargill when he is competing.

Shelley Keen looking at home in the office u

JASON PAUL has joined Frank O’Boyle and Blair Cousins in the Infrastructure team, accepting a newly created Project Engineer position. From Southland and recently married to Market South Graphic Designer, Justine Paul, he comes to the Port having worked with Opus International Consultants for the past 7 years. During his time with Opus, he worked in various project management roles, including surveying, design and road network management (specifically, the Woodlands passing lane and Around the Mountains Cycle Trail). As if he was not busy enough at work, he also managed to complete his Diploma in Civil Engineering whilst working at Opus. In his spare time he is a real ‘Southern Man’ a.k.a he enjoys the outdoors – hunting, diving and spearfishing.

t Jason Paul out and about on the job

SOUTH PORT’S PEOPLE

KATIE EATON has joined the Company in a new Marine Administrator position. Katie is familiar to the Island Harbour having worked the last 7 months for NFA Holdings and prior to that was with C3 for over 5 years (both log marshalling companies based on the Island Harbour). Katie has three children, her two older girls are involved in many activities around Bluff; Katie supports them in all their activities and plays an active role outside of work in the Bluff community. She is the President of the local netball club, coaches one of the school netball teams, is on the Parent Committee at the local childcare centre and just joined the Board of Trustees at Bluff School. “I am looking forward to getting stuck in with my new job and assisting in the marine department wherever possible.”

Katie Eaton in the marine office u

The dairy import shed recently welcomed SIAN TOPI to the team. Originally from Bluff, Si studied Business Administration before travelling to Australia to work in sales and marketing for a large independent property valuation business providing information to financial organisations, solicitors, accountants and property developers. Her most recent position was working at the Department of Corrections as a Trust Clerk/Administration Officer. Si’s spare time includes being busy looking after a house full of her own pets and foster animals for Furever Homes.

t Sian Topi organised for another busy day

LEE-ANN HUNTER has accepted a role within the dairy export administration division. She is also familiar with the Port and staff having previously worked as Branch Manager of The Drug Detection Agency where she was involved with pre-employment drug and alcohol screening and on-site random drug testing. LeeAnn has two children and outside of work, she takes an interest in competitive wood chopping. She also volunteers for Coastguard Bluff.

t Lee-Ann Hunter happy in her work

INTERMODAL FREIGHT SOUTH PORT

South Port’s new Intermodal Freight Centre opened for business at the beginning of July. The 4,000m2 warehouse is strategically located adjacent to the KiwiRail container transfer yard in Invercargill. The site will predominately support import cargo flows into the Southern region plus provide flexibility of export loading options. Three staff are located in Invercargill, with Marketing Analyst Jamie May shifting from Bluff to accept the Supervisor role with Brett McDonald and Alex Pemberton joining the team from outside the Company.

Brett comes to South Port having recently worked for Bathurst as an operator at the Takitimu mine near Nightcaps. He has also had experience as a forklift operator at Craigpine in Winton. Brett enjoys the outdoors, including hunting and fishing with his mates.

INTERMODAL CENTRE

Alex is familiar with the Bluff Port having recently worked for NFA Holdings as a log scaler and machine operator. He originally worked for the same company in Dunedin before transferring back to Invercargill with his partner. Prior to that he attended James Hargest High School working part time after class at Elmwood Catering and Rugby Southland in a variety of administration jobs. Alex enjoys playing rugby and darts in his spare time.

For information on the site please contact Jamie on (03) 212 6046.

Intermodal Freight Centre Supervisor, Jamie May (centre), flanked by Operators Brett McDonald and

Ready to Rumble

Let’s get Ready to Rumble

When South Port Dairy Team Leader, JASON “GILLY DOG” GILLAN approached the Company to swing in behind (pun intended) his Fight for Kidz campaign. We thought why would you want to get in a ring to fight? But hearing the story and sacrifice he is making, it was something we wanted to be involved with.

Almost three years ago Jason’s children (Sam & Charlotte) were diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that required bone marrow transplants in Auckland. Jason and his partner Tracy were overwhelmed with the support of the Invercargill and Bluff community and the financial assistance South Port and staff contributed towards the treatment. It was this experience that made him want to get in the ring and challenge himself, and what better way to do it than in front of a packed Stadium Southland.

It was not a case of turning up on the night and putting a pair of gloves on to succeed, Jason tells the Portsider. He trains two times a week for two hours in the boxing gym and attends Snap Fitness four times a week for two hours. On top of that, he trains at home and has a full time job, so there are not many free hours in the day.

South Port is sponsoring Jason and as such almost 80 staff and partners are watching the show. When “Gilly Dog” was told of the massive staff turnout he said it was “daunting the amount of people coming” and knows he needs to “step up” to the occasion.

The Fight for Kidz event is being held on Saturday, 13 August.

JORDAN “ACE TEMPEST” CULLIFORD: He is normally the first point of contact for truck drivers calling into the terminal to deliver or return containers, however it is what interests him after work that intrigues the Portsider South Port Terminal Administrator Jordan Culliford, otherwise known as “Ace Tempest” has just made his debut in the professional wrestling arena at the Invercargill Workingmen’s Club. The Southern Rumble attracted some high class wrestlers from around the country to compete.

Initially he went to wrestling school looking for a spot as a commentator, referee or ring announcer but got ‘the bug’ and found himself in the ring fighting.

“Some call it fake, but it is more of an interactive art form that is legitimately dangerous. The training has been hard both physically and mentally, however it was a lot of fun and definitely a different way to get some exercise,” Jordan said.

Jason “Gilly Dog” Gillan in fight mode

Jordan “Ace Tempest” Culliford ready for action

The Capricorn Quins

Quintuplets are rare occurrences in even the most fertile of families but within the Mediterranean Shipping Company family they are rather less so and such a group may be found quite close to home. Waterfront aficionados in Bluff observing the regular comings and goings of container ships on the MSC - operated Capricorn Service could be forgiven a certain sense of deja vu as five consecutive ships on the service were virtually identical sisters with only a touch of makeup to tell them apart. The ships were “Hope Island”, “Northern Diplomat”, “MSC Astrid”, “Gottfried Schulte” and “MSC Banu”.

All the quins were born at the Shanghai Shipyard, the “MSC Astrid” and the “MSC Banu” in 2004, the “Gottfried Schulte” and “Hope Island” in 2006, and the “Northern Diplomat” in 2009. The five year spread in the quins’ deliveries may seem unusual but these were big babies and grossed some 35,000 tons so they could not be rushed. They are strong too, able to carry about 3,500 twenty-foot containers with 500 of them capable of being refrigerated making the Capricorn Quins particularly suitable for the mix of cargoes handled on the MSC Capricorn Service that calls at Bluff.

A Flag from the Past – H. Ditlev-Simonsen & Co., Oslo

Olaf Ditlev-Simonsen was born into a seafaring family in 1865 in Sarpsborg, Norway. His father, grandfathers and several uncles were shipowners and in 1881 Olaf shipped out on an uncle’s barque, the “Hanna”, and by 1888 was master of the barque “Noresman”. In 1892 he married Magdalena Pedersen, daughter of John Pedersen, a shipbuilder and shipowner of Staubo, southern Norway. Olaf became a partner in his father-in-law’s company, John P. Pedersen & Son, in 1898 and when the company shifted to Christiania, renamed Oslo in 1925, Olaf and his family moved as well.

Eldest son of Olaf was Halfdan DitlevSimonsen and in 1914 he and his father established a shipping company, Halfdan Ditlev-Simonsen & Co., its first ship being the steamer “Vestheim” completed in July 1914 and setting the naming style for subsequent ships, nearly all of which bore names beginning with ‘V’. Most of the early ships were fairly small tramp steamers but in January 1928 H. Ditlev-Simonsen took delivery of the “Vilja”, the first of six motor-tankers delivered over the next six years. During this period two more of Olaf’s sons, Olaf Jr and Sverre, also

established their own shipping companies under the style O. Ditlev-Simonsen and S. Ditlev-Simonsen, owning three and two dry cargo ships respectively by the outbreak of World War II.

In those days New Zealand imported most of its fertiliser requirements from phosphate-rich Nauru and Ocean Island, the imports being made under the auspices of the British Phosphate Commission, (B.P.C.), jointly owned by the Governments of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Ditlev-Simonsen chartered many ships to the Commission from the 1930’s until the Commission ceased operations in 1981. Both of Sverre Ditlev-Simonsen’s ships were lost during the war while so employed,

the “Eidsvold” torpedoed at Christmas Island while loading phosphate and the “Vinni” being one of several ships sunk by German raiders off Nauru in December 1940 (including the New Zealand ship “Komata”).

Post-war the family companies, while retaining their separate identities, operated as a single entity and charters to B.P.C. continued. The first DitlevSimonsen ship to visit Bluff was the “Vito”, on charter to B.P.C., in March 1955 but the next four company visitors were tankers. After the Awarua fertiliser plant opened in 1958 visits became more frequent with the “Vingrom” and the bulk carrier “Valetta”, purpose built for the trade, making multiple visits, the latter being the last Ditlev-Simonsen ship to visit Bluff when she called here in September 1981.

Like many others of their ilk, DitlevSimonsen made a disastrous investment in giant tankers during the 1970’s which drained the company’s reserves. The last ships belonging to this highly regarded company were sold in 1990 and although the name H. Ditlev-Simonsen has reemerged recently as a shipowner the Ditlev-Simonsen family no longer has any association with it.

DAELIM CORPORATION

DAELIM CORPORATION is a major South Korean chaebol. This term comes from ‘chae’, meaning wealth or property, and ‘bol’, meaning faction or clan, and roughly equates to the English word ‘conglomerate’, a chaebol generally being a global or multinational company. This is certainly true of Daelim which has branches in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Hungary, Singapore and the Philippines, as well as the many agents appropriate to an international company.

Daelim was founded in 1939 as Burim Corporation, becoming Daelim in 1994. Throughout its history Daelim has been involved in the construction industry and it has been said that the history of Daelim is the history of Korean construction. Among the landmark projects in which Daelim was involved were the main stadium for the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the National Assembly building and the Yi Sun-sin Grand Bridge, the world’s fourth longest suspension bridge. It is also Korea’s leading petrochemical company with interests in oil, gas, refining and the manufacture of polymer and plastic products.

Since its inception in 1939 the

core businesses have remained construction, engineering and petrochemicals but over the years Daelim has added further enterprises to its portfolio. These include Daelim Motro Company, a motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1960, and Daelim C&S, maker of concrete products since 1962.

In 1966 Daelim became the first Korean company to work on an overseas construction project when it entered the Vietnamese market. Since then it has expanded into other regions,

Saudi Arabia Company was established in 1976.

A first move towards the maritime sector was made in February 1998 when Daelim Marine Company was established in Ulsan as a marine equipment supplier. It specialises in the supply, survey and repair of life saving and fire fighting appliances. Given its interest in oil, gas and petrochemicals it is not surprising that when Daelim turned its attention to ship-owning it was vessels involved in these industries that became the first acquisitions. Daelim

especially the Middle East and South East Asia, where it has a distinguished record for project management utilising advanced technology.

Daelim’s international construction projects were enhanced in 1973 when the company began working on refineries and petrochemical plants, especially in Saudi Arabia where Daelim

HNL was formed as the shipping arm of Daelim Corporation and on 31 March 2005 DL Shipping was incorporated as a technical ship-management company to look after the Daelim fleet. The small gas carrier “Poseiden Gas” was purchased in 2003 and renamed “DL Camellia”, setting the naming style for most subsequent ships. A fleet of similar gas carriers of up to 5,000 tons deadweight followed over the ensuing years, the first large gas carrier being the “DL Calla”, bought in 2007. The company’s first product tanker was the “DL Sunflower”, purchased in 2007, with the first new-buildings for Daelim, the “DL Cosmos” and “DL Rose” delivered the same year.

A move into dry-bulk began in 2008 when Daelim placed orders for four handysized bulk carriers. Unfortunately the shipyard concerned was unable to provide certain required guarantees so the orders were cancelled, causing a two year delay to the company’s dry-bulk ambitions. This put back the first deliveries of bulk carriers to 2012 but since then the number has grown rapidly to exceed the gas and chemical/ product tankers. The current fleet numbers 27, of which seven are LPG tankers, eight are chemical/product tankers and 12 are dry bulk carriers. As Daelim operates extensively in the Pacific region we look forward to welcoming more of its ships to the Port of Bluff.