Thorco Projects, which is the Danish Stadil family’s shipping company, presents a strong result for the second consecutive year.

The profit for 2022 totals at USD 38.6m, which is almost in line with the USD 40.8m of the year prior.

”2022 turned out to be a better year than expected for the group and the shipping industry in general,” the top management states in the financial report.

Thorco Projects is owned by Thornico group, which also controls sports brand Hummel and egg box manufacturer Brdr. Hartmann.

The shipping company is run as an operator with a fleet mainly made up of project cargo ships that are chartered on contracts of varying durations.

Project cargo covers difficult cargo types such as wind turbines. Often, ships are also able to have containers on board.

Similar to most other shipping segments, the niche has been thriving during the pandemic where stimulus package stoked consumption.

The future also seems particularly bright for project cargo, as many countries have launched major ambitions of increasing their wind power capacities.

Thorco Projects expects 2023 to be another good year, however, not to the same extent as the extraordinary pandemic-impacted years of 2021 and 2022.

ShippingWatch has been in contact with Thorco Projects, but the company had nothing to add to the financial report.

Remaining part of shipping adventure

The company is the last part of the Stadil family’s initial venture into ship owning.

Following the financial crisis, the group acquired vessels at what seemed like attractive prices at the time. However, the market took a long time to get back in shape, and the shipowner venture ended with a large bankruptcy in May 2020.

Since then claims have poured in, and administrators have sued Thornico Group for more than DKK 120m (USD 17.7m). A string of executives could furthermore be facing bankruptcy quarantine. 

Administrators have also previously announced that they are working on raising litigation financing for launching a compensation claim of roughly DKK 200m against Thor Stadil and Thomas Mikkelsen, the CEO of Thorco Projects.

Thor Stadil has on numerous occasions denied allegations and also claims to have been personally harassed by both administrators and creditors, of which many are Japanese shipowners.

He expects to come out on top in all legal battles that have followed from the bankruptcy.

English edit: Kristoffer Grønbæk