In addition to reinforcing the company’s presence in Latin America, the new office represents the further expansion of AEGIR-Marine’s global service network. The maritime stern tube seal and propulsion system service provider now has offices on five continents around the world (in the Netherlands, Singapore, Shanghai, Namibia, USA, UAE and now Panama).
AEGIR-Marine decided to extend its geographical presence by opening an office in Panama for two main reasons. “Our business in Latin America is growing,” says Bart van den Hamer, General Manager Americas. “We want to show our commitment to our customers in the region that we are here to stay. We will achieve this by continuing to build strong relationships with new and existing clients in Central and South America.
“Furthermore, the success of our UAE office, which was set up at the beginning of 2020, has shown us that local presence has enabled us to grow our business and service our clients at strategic locations. This will continue to be important, even after the coronavirus pandemic.”
Panama is certainly one of the world’s strategic locations for the maritime industry. To that end, AEGIR-Marine’s new office will support its customers from all over the world who are using the Panama Canal.
In addition, Van den Hamer is keen to point out that the work of the Panama office will not concentrate only on Canal through-traffic. “On the contrary, we are here to support all our Latin American clients. For example, Ecuador is two hours away, and Colombia only 40 minutes. And because we are in the same time zone, we will also be able to work efficiently with our colleagues in our North American office.” The diversity of the maritime markets throughout the region means that AEGIR-Marine will be offering its full scope of stern tube seal and propulsion system services, in dry-dock situations as well as floating and underwater work.
Besides Van den Hamer, one service engineer and one internal sales engineer from the Netherlands will be relocating to Panama to assist with training the (still to be recruited) local service engineers and sales team. The company’s commitment also extends to the personal level: Van den Hamer will be joined in Panama by his wife and children.