Opening of sales office in Kobe, Japan

Svanehøj opens office in Japan

The pump manufacturer is moving closer to a growing customer base in the East Asia, where shipbuilders are seeking solutions towards a more environmentally friendly shipping trade.

International classification firm DNV GL estimates that in 2030, over 10% of the global shipping fleet will be powered by liquified natural gas (LNG) – up from 0.3% today.

This opens the door to a huge market for pump manufacturer Svanehøj Group, which is behind the brands Svanehøj, Hamworthy Pumps, Eureka and Dolphin. This year, the company, headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark, expects to quadruple sales of its Svanehøj ECA Fuel Pump for LNG, Ethane and Methanol – and sets goal for a further doubling in 2020.

Approx. 85% of the world’s transport ships are built in Japan, Korea or China, and the growing demand for solutions towards a more environmentally friendly shipping trade now prompts Svanehøj’s establishment of a sales office in the Japanese city of Kobe.

Closer to the customers

Svanehøj supplies several of the largest shipyards in the region, including Korean Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), who placed a massive order for 48 Svanehøj pumps for three new VLECs (Very Large Ethane Carriers) earlier this year.

“We already have many customers in East Asia, particularly in Japan, and we notice a very exciting development is taking place out there. The gas market is growing rapidly, driven by a focus on getting rid of harmful particles from oil and coal. I am convinced that we can increase our sales through physical presence In East Asia,” says CEO Søren Kringelholt Nielsen.

Svanehøj has appointed Jens Peter Lund to lead the new office in Kobe, changing his title from International Sales Manager to Sales Director, Asia. Jens Peter Lund has serviced the Asian markets for many years from the headquarters in Denmark, but he has now settled in Japan to get closer to the customers.

Strong growth in new orders

The establishment of the new East Asia office is derived by the generally positive development Svanehøj has seen during its first year as an independent business. In autumn 2018 investment company Solix acquired what was then Wärtsila Pumps from the Finnish Wärtsilä Group and established Svanehøj Group with operations in Denmark, the UK and Singapore. The order intake for the first eight months of 2019 is up a third compared to the same period in 2018.

It is the new international requirements for ship emissions of sulphur that are particularly pushing for the development in the shipbuilding industry. Effective from 1 January 2020, the limit for sulphur in marine fuel is to be reduced from 3.5% to 0.5%, and this increases the demand for Svanehøj’s pump solutions for gas.