Project and heavy lift operator Intermarine has hooked up with breakbulk cargo specialist WeShip Projects to form Intermarine Asia.
WeShip partners Torben Reinhard and Lars Steen Rasmussen will join Intermarine’s commercial team as part of the deal.
Reinhard will take on the role of managing director of Intermarine Asia and Rasmussen will take over as COO of Intermarine Denmark.
The move marks a new phase for Bangkok-based WeShip. The company was formed in November 2018 by Rasmussen and former employees from Nordana Project & Chartering (NPC), where he was chief executive from 1999 to 2015.
“Our journey with WeShip has been incredible, but we could also see that the opportunities with Intermarine would be far greater than what we could build up ourselves,” Reinhard said.
“We have a strong network of clients and contacts throughout Asia and adding a quality product like Intermarine will only propel our presence in the region.”
Intermarine will represent all cargo chartering activities in the combined set up. The WeShip brand will continue as representation for port agency and logistic services in Thailand and neighbouring countries.
Consolidation in Asia
The partnership with Intermarine will lead to further collaboration with Germany’s SAL Heavy Lift and the Bremen-based Harren Group, the parent company which took over Houston-based Intermarine in late 2020.
“The expansion towards Asia would add to the global portfolio and presence of our entire group,” said Martin Harren, chief executive of the Harren Group.
In the past two years, Intermarine has grown its breakbulk and multipurpose fleet from six vessels in late 2020 to 25 in 2022.
Last year the company opened an office in Sao Paolo, Brazil and earlier this year established a European base in Odense, Denmark.
Intermarine has already partnered WeShip successfully for over a year now in the Asia-Pacific trade, chief executive Svend Andersen said.
He said that combining the two operations would help to grow Intermarine presence in Asia and Europe, he said.
“I have known both Torben and Lars for many years, and I have been amazed with the business they have built at WeShip over the past four years," Andersen said.
“To combine the tremendous know-how that sits within the Intermarine organization with the relationships that WeShip has built over the years makes in my eyes a really strong commercial setup and a journey that I am really looking forward to embarking on,” Rasmussen concluded.
