The Challenge
As commercial manager for the Belships AS fleet and operator of 60–70 vessels across Atlantic basin trade routes, Norwegian Bulk Carriers handles between 300 and 400 port calls per year.
Managing the associated disbursement accounts, port payables, and port services procurement at that volume requires workflows that are accurate, fast, and connected both internally and with the wider technology stack.
Having used Marcura solutions in previous roles and companies, the team knew what best-in-class port spend and cost management looked like. The priority was a provider that could deliver DA management, port payables, and port services procurement in a single technology and service stack that integrates with IMOS, their voyage management system of choice.
The Solution
Norwegian Bulk Carriers chose three connected Marcura capabilities: DA-Desk for disbursement account management and port cost control, Port Payables for automated AP processing and invoice reconciliation, and PortsDirect for pre-negotiated port services contracts with vetted suppliers across 620 ports in 32 countries. All three connect natively with IMOS, giving operations and finance teams a single source of truth across every port call.
Onboarding began in April 2025. The team went live in under four weeks from start to go-live, with no disruption to ongoing operations. The IMOS integration was completed and live less than a month later, rounding out the full connected workflow within the first quarter of the relationship.
The Result
Norwegian Bulk Carriers now processes 300–400 port calls a year through a single connected workflow: port spend management, port payables, and port services feeding directly into IMOS. Finance and operations teams were processing live voyages from day one, with no parallel running and no retraining delays.
Their previous DA provider was time consuming and lacked an intuitive, user-friendly interface. With DA-Desk, PortPayables, and PortsDirect connected directly into IMOS, both problems are resolved. Data flows automatically between all three with no manual re-keying, no switching between disconnected systems. Every port call progresses from initial estimate through to final settlement without manual re-keying, with a complete audit trail at every step.
Invoice reconciliation against disbursement accounts had previously required the finance team to cross-reference documents across multiple systems before approving each payment. PortPayables automates this matching process, surfacing discrepancies against the approved DA and reducing both the time to close each port call and the risk of unchallenged charges passing through unnoticed.
The relationship has continued to grow: 20 additional Belships vessels have since been onboarded into DA-Desk as Norwegian Bulk Carriers expanded its commercial management scope with no ramp-up time and no additional complexity. When a platform scales with the business from day one, growth becomes a decision, not a project.
"Before Marcura, our team was managing port costs, invoices, and voyage data across separate systems. We were pulling information from one place to update another. Now everything runs through a single connected workflow. We went live in under four weeks with no disruption to live operations, and the change in our team’s day-to-day was immediate. When we expanded our commercial scope to cover more Belships vessels, the platform handled it without missing a beat."
Bjornar Hessen, General Manager, Operations, Norwegian Bulk Carriers AS
About Norwegian Bulk Carriers AS
Norwegian Bulk Carriers AS, a subsidiary of Belships AS, is a global dry bulk operator with main focus on the Atlantic basin. We deliver optimal freight solutions within the dry cargo segment, catering to commodities such as steel, minerals, ore, fertilizers, and agricultural products, in both full and part cargo lifts.
In addition to our dry bulk operator activities we serve as the commercial managers for the Belships ASA fleet. Norwegian Bulk Carriers AS operates 60-70 vessels on long and short-term period, single voyages and commercial management.
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