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The year 2009 was unique, not only for TransAtlantic but the entire global economy. The rapid decline at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 entailed that many companies had to rapidly amend their plans from expansion to cost eduction. In addition, the entire process was aggravated by the impact of the financial crisis, since many companies had difficulties in fulfilling their payment and investment commitments.

For the shipping industry, which reacts rapidly to economic fluctuations and is capital-intensive, these effects meant an extreme change in conditions. Large cargo volumes disappeared from the market, rates declined rapidly and the banks cut off access to capital. Consequently, shipowners had problems with profitability and cash flow, which resulted in a record number of vessels being laid up. The problem was also aggravated by the fact that there is a large backlog of new orders, although many shipping companies cancelled their orders.

TransAtlantic was also seriously impacted by the trend in 2009. Within our Industrial Shipping business area, certain segments had to deal with halved volumes and cargo rates that corresponded to a quarter of the level of only one or two years ago. At the same time, our long-term strategy seems to have paid off. Our customers remained with us and they want to work jointly to find new cost-efficient solutions. We also see that our competitors are suffering more than we are and have been forced to discontinue or adapt their traffic systems. In many instances, we were able to take these cargos and consequently captured market shares.

Within our Offshore/Icebreaking business area, the impact was extremely strong in 2009, since all our vessels were in the spot market in the North Sea. Lower activity, combined with a wider range of vessels, meant that the spot rates for the full-year were approximately 60% lower than in 2008. In general, the offshore sector managed significantly better than many other shipping segments, since the oil sector remained profitable and steadily increased its investments in existing and new offshore areas. Work continues to develop our activities in Arctic offshore. We will also work actively to sign additional long-term contracts for our offshore fleet. Despite major efforts to reduce costs and locate new cargo and traffic patterns, revenue for 2009 was clearly unsatisfactory and the worst in the company’s history.

Year 2010 will be one filled with many challenges for TransAtlantic, in which revenue improvement will occur through internal measures. It is difficult to imagine any rapid improvements in the market conditions, although we believe that the market has leveled off and will slowly improve in the coming years.

We will continue to focus on restructuring the operations to turn around the revenue trend as soon as possible and utilize existing opportunities. This means that we must streamline our operations and create an organization that will be able to seize these opportunities more rapidly. All employees will have to get closer to the customer to be able to understand the demands that are placed and how to utilize existing opportunities. Our work, while being carried out in a safe and environmentally friendly manner, must always be implemented with high quality at all levels and surpassing our customers’ expectations.

I would like to thank all TransAtlantic employees, who have struggled hard during the year, the Board of Directors, who encouraged and supported us in our change effort, as well as all committed shareholders. Together we have created a strong platform from which to continue developing the operations.

Skärhamn, February 2010

Stefan Eliasson
Acting President and CEO