Norden Orders Four Ships; Secures Rio Tinto Charters

D/S Norden A/S, Denmark’s biggest publicly traded commodities shipping line, said it ordered four dry-bulk carriers and secured long-term charters from Rio Tinto Plc for two of them.

The so-called handysize vessels that are due to be leased to Rio Tinto each have a carrying capacity of 37,000 deadweight tons and are due to be delivered from shipyards during the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013, Hellerup-based Norden said in a statement to the Copenhagen Stock Exchange today.

The agreement for those two carriers will result in accumulated earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortization of $60 million to $70 million over the entire contract period, Norden said.

It also ordered two other handysize ships for delivery between 2011 and 2013, Norden said. Rio Tinto is the world’s third-largest mining company. Under the contract, the two Norden vessels will haul alumina to the east coast of Canada from South America.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at anightingal1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.