Sydney: Dubai-headquartered GAC Group today announced that it has opened 13 ship agency offices across Australia as part of its major expansion plan, in locations including Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Gladstone and Brisbane in Queensland; Sydney (country headquarters), Newcastle and Port Kembla in New South Wales; Melbourne in Victoria; Adelaide in South Australia; and Fremantle, Dampier and Port Hedland in Western Australia. Each office will offer a full range of ship agency and maritime ancillary services.
Stating that this is the first time in the GAC's 51-year history that it has launched such a large number of offices in a single country within a span of just two months, Christer Sjödoff (pictured), GAC regional director, Asia Pacific, said, "Australia's exports are continuing to grow, especially in the dry bulk and LNG sectors. This, in turn, will see a corresponding growth in the number of vessels calling at Australian ports to export these commodities globally. GAC is a major agency for many of these vessel owners and charterers and we want to be here to give our clients the best in shipping services support."
Scott Henderson, the national operations manager based in Sydney said, "GAC Australia is equipped with in-country knowledge and our aim is to handle a significant share of the Australian bulk port agency business within our first year of operation, with further steady growth thereafter. I believe Principals will see our offering as a welcome alternative in a market which has seen aggressive consolidation in recent years."
Henderson added that whilst the initial focus is on ship agency support, the company will introduce its extended portfolio such as GAC Fire, Rescue and Safety services, GAC Marine Logistics, as well as GAC-SMHI weather routing for safer voyage in stages at a later date. The GAC Group is an independent shipping, logistics and marine services provider, with over 260 offices worldwide. [03/12/07]
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