April 30, 2021

AMS Group turns 20 years old!

Photo supplied by AMS Group

Brisbane-based maritime services provider, AMS Group, which is the parent company of Shipping Australia member Poseidon Pilots, celebrates 20 years of business this month.

AMS Group Chair, John Sugarman, said he and the team were proud of what the company had achieved in 20 years.

“In only two decades, AMS Group has become a global leader in its field – providing marine support services, by designing, integrating complex maritime technology solutions for port information management systems, vessel tracking and surveillance,” Mr Sugarman said.

“We have just successfully completed the installation of one of the world’s most complex and leading Vessel Traffic Service Systems (VTS) to manage shipping in and through the Great Barrier Reef.

“AMS Group has built and implemented tailor made e-navigation and surveillance solutions for the largest bulk port in the world, Port Hedland. Our systems can be found in Dampier, Port of Fremantle, Darwin, Malaysia, Port of Melbourne, on offshore oil and gas platforms and currently delivering to Port of Suva Fiji.

“In addition, AMS Group has the responsibility to design, install and maintain most of Australia’s Aids to Navigation. This includes (around 500 aids nearly 480 sites nationwide) AMSG are custodians and maintain some of Australia’s most socially and historically important heritage lighthouses nationally.

“The size of the area that we operate in and are responsible for providing Aids to Navigation in, is larger than Europe. From the tip of the Torres Straight to Tasmania, there’s not too many places in Australian waters we don’t go.”

AMS Group has also delivered projects globally – in PNG, the Galapagos, Turkey and Cambodia with and enjoyed a long relationship supporting the national AIS network for the entire coastline of Canada for the Canadian Coast Guard.
AMS Group is also held in high regard by the Australian Defence Forces, supplying, servicing and maintaining critical cutting-edge surveillance and security systems.

“Our nautical knowledge and respected capabilities also translated to aeronautics,” he said. “From checking inflatable slides to supplying aircraft life jackets, AMS Group has [services] some of the largest airlines in the world. When you get on a commercial airline and you hear the announcement ‘your life vest can be found under your seat’, we’ve probably supplied it or certified it.”

AMS Group recently launched a new subsidiary, Poseidon Sea Pilots to deliver sea pilotage services.

“Amalgamation of our high-tech safety systems with marine pilotage was a natural extension for our business,” Mr Sugarman said.

“We’re incredibly proud of our work and the team. We are humbled in 20 years that we have got to a point where we get to work on such complex, but highly rewarding work. It has certainly been an amazing 20 years and we’re looking forward to the next 20, and the 20 after that.”

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