United Heavy Lift has joined forces with Norwegian project carrier Ocean 7 Projects. Together the companies are opening a new office in Norway with further joint branches in the United States and Asia to follow. 

The fleets complement each other well and together will allow the companies to cover all market segments in the multipurpose and heavy-lift shipping industry, the newly found partner’s state. Ocean 7 Projects operates a fleet of 25 smaller multipurpose vessels with lift capacities up to 500 tons, while United Heavy Lift has a fleet of six larger heavy-lift vessels with lift capacities of 800 tons and seven heavy load module carriers.

CEO Lars Rolner of United Shipping Group says he is pleased with the new cooperation. “We have had conversations about cooperating a few years ago and now we finally see it happen. Norway we see as a very strategic place to be,” he said.

“We have always had the mindset of working together and this cooperation will enhance our ability to offer a wider scope of services to our customers in the future,” added CEO Stefan Petersen of Ocean 7 Projects.

The first joint office will be opened in Bergen, Norway under the name United O7 North. It will be managed by Christoffer Dam Larsen, who previously worked at shipbroker/agency Alex Birger Grieg and shipping company SAL Heavy Lift.

“I am pleased to become a partner in the company – I have known Mr Rolner ever since I started in shipping. Being a part of this company will enable me to service the Scandinavia market with a wider variety of ships than I am used to,” Larsen remarked.

The new office in Bergen is just the start of the partnership, Rolner says: “We see this new office as a start of building a worldwide network of offices together with Ocean 7. The next offices we have on the drawing board will be in Asia and the USA.”