TORM to streamline fleet operations with XpressLink

Inmarsat announces that Copenhagen-based TORM A/S, one of the world's leading carriers of refined oil products and dry bulk cargo, will deploy Inmarsat XpressLink to its owned bulk carrier and tanker fleets.The XpressLink roll out will commence with 17 ships and the remainder of the TORM owned fleet will be equipped over the next three years.

Allan H Rasmussen. Vice President, Fleet and New-building Support at TORM said: “Reliable high speed communication is essential to TORM's efforts to streamline our shipping operation and optimise resource utilisation while reducing costs. The fully managed XpressLink solution from Inmarsat lets us focus on our core business, which is running our ships efficiently while providing superior customer value.”

Continued Rasmussen: “We will be able to balance land-based and on-board resources through the high speed communication link as well as access technical and operational support recourses. Additionally we were looking to move from C-band based satellite communication to Ku-band. In this respect XpressLink was a good fit. Furthermore, with its upgrade path to Global Xpress we get a future proof solution too.”

Frank Coles, President, Inmarsat Maritime said: “We are very happy that TORM, a significant player in the bulk and tanker market has chosen Inmarsat XpressLink in its efforts to streamline operations. What we are seeing now is something we have believed would happen for a while, ship owners in general and in this instance TORM, acknowledging communication as a value not a cost.”

Continued Coles: “Since XpressLink is a hybrid solution, providing VSAT integrated with FleetBroadband, our customers can safely rely on having high speed communication all the time. Having reliable fast communications makes a big difference because crew can be confident that they have connectivity they can trust, and they can implement solutions that optimise operational efficiencies.”

The XpressLink solution from Inmarsat is a fully integrated and managed combination of VSAT and market-leading FleetBroadband delivering unlimited data availability across the world's oceans. It includes a free double bandwidth upgrade at the same fixed monthly rate when Inmarsat's Global Xpress constellation becomes commercially available from 2014. The integrated solution means that ship and shore communications can be seamlessly and professionally managed and supported end-to-end thanks to Inmarsat's state-of-the-art global infrastructure. The dual system design also results in unmatched redundancy delivering near 99.9% uptime.

• Leading Danish shipping company TORM A/S chooses Inmarsat XpressLink to deliver next generation high speed broadband capability to its entire fleet
• XpressLink to be deployed immediately to 17 vessels initially, with phased installation across TORM owned fleet over three years
• XpressLink will help TORM streamline operations, optimise resources and reduce costs across TORM owned bulk carrier and tanker fleets