In pre-pandemic times, shipping and yard executives would toast to each other and smash a bottle of champagne during a naming ceremony.
This did not happen when Thun Tankers launched the 7,999-dwt Thun Equality (built 2021) virtually via YouTube on Monday. And chief commercial officer Joakim Lund believed it was all the better.
“We have adjusted to the new reality with a safe way of doing it,” Lund told TradeWinds. “It’s a responsible measure to do it this way.”
The ship is the third of four E-class ships the Swedish shortsea operator ordered from Dutch yard Ferus Smit. All of them can be powered by marine gasoil, LNG and bio-gas.
Lund said a virtual ceremony is a good chance to showcase Thun Tankers’ sustainability work to the public.
“Very often, a ship launch is closed and only for a few selected,” said Lund. “By doing a virtual online launching, we could open up for more people.”
“We thought it could be of public interest to show what we are doing and create some goodwill around it.”
All four E-class vessels will be technically managed by MF Shipping Group, whose chief executive, Karin Orsel, also serves as managing director of Thun Tankers.
Orsel was honoured as the personality of the year by Women's International Shipping & Trading Association in 2019 for championing diversity and equity in her career.
The new ship’s name of Thun Equality also signifies Thun Tankers’ pursuit of diversity, according to Lund.
“Our shore organisation is fully gender equal,” he said. “If we can become better on inclusion, on gender equality, and on diversity also on board our vessels…we think we would be even better.”
Embracing diversity would allow Thun Tankers to access a larger talent pool, thus enhancing long-term profitability, Lund added.
“We know that there are a lot of qualified people,” he said. “If we can use that to get an equal and diverse organization, we would be better.”
Thun Tankers is part of family-owned Erik Thun Group, which has a fleet of dry cargo ships, self-unloading vessels, coastal and intermediate size product tankers and cement carriers in the European shortsea trades.
