The Danish port of Frederikshavn in Northern Denmark has signed a contract with US-based company Modern American Recycling Services, which by 2017 at the latest will set up a facility in the Danish port. The new activities are expected to create 150-200 jobs in the port, and the agreement also represents an important building block in the port's future expansion strategy worth USD 85 million, according to a press release from the Port of Frederikshavn.

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Modern American Recycling Services' main activities are the scrapping and recycling of oil rigs and ships. The company has 40 years of experience in the field – including from the Gulf of Mexico, where the company has been recycling rigs for years.

Oil and Gas

The contract includes a lease on a substantial area in the port, as well as a management agreement to deal with the scrap metal produced by the scrapping activities.

"The environmental and recycling industry is a key focus area of the port's strategy, and we have long wanted an established company with oil and gas experience to establish itself in Frederikshavn. We have found this collaborator in Modern American Recycling Services, which has an impressive reference list for the oil and gas industry," says Mikkel Seedorff Sørensen, CEO and Managing Director at the Port of Frederikshavn.

One key reason that the port eyes a solid future in scrapping comes in the form of the new EU regulations requiring that EU-flagged vessels be scrapped at facilities approved by the European Union.

"We've absolutely had this in mind, because we will in time be supported politically by the coming EU regulations. This will benefit the market in Europe," Mikkel Seedorff Sørensen tells ShippingWatch, adding that market developments in the North Sea also factor in.

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"Modern American Recycling Services already knows many of these oil companies. They know that the work they've performed for the oil companies in the US (recycling rigs) will also need to be performed in Europe over time," he says.

Modern American Recycling Services

The US-based recycling company was founded in 1971 and has since then grown into the largest barge and vessel dismantler in the US, scrapping an average of 1,200 to 1,500 barges annually since 2001.

The company produces upwards of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of steel per month.

Modern American Recycling Services is headquartered in Louisiana.

The port of Frederikshavn is located close to the North Sea.

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