Singapore: Were Esben Poulsson to carry a set of cards for all the boards and associations he sits on he would have little spare space in his hand luggage.
As well as his commitments to the Singapore Shipping Association, the Singapore Maritime Foundation, the International Chamber of Shipping, Epic Shipping, AVRA International and Straits Tankers, the former Torm man is chairman of Enesel Pte Ltd, a Singapore management company for a fleet of newbuilding containerships delivering during 2013 and 2014.
The Singapore offshoot of the Athens-based Enesel SA is charged with looking after the owning companies of a series of large boxships delivering from Hyundai Heavy Industries. In total, Enesel has ordered ten 13,800 teu ships, which are going on charter to Taiwan’s Evergreen and four 9,400 teu ships which will go on charter to Hamburg Süd. The first ship was named and delivered to Evergreen on 17 September.
Poulsson explains how the relationship between Athens and Singapore works. “Enesel SA handles the shipmanagement of the vessels and Enesel Singapore manages the owning companies,” he says.
All the ships will be Singapore flagged, something that pleases Poulsson, arguably one of the most vocal foreign proponents of Singapore’s maritime drive in recent years.
On Enesel’s business model for Singapore, Poulsson says, “There will not be any speculative ordering. The company will only order with reliable and trusted end users secured.” Having said that, Poulsson admits, “There is an appetite for more.” [03/10/13]
