Shipping and Marine Issue 101 Final Edition

ISSUE 101 ISSUE 101

Shipping &MARINE

The magazine for maritime management

Controlling

consumption Getting a grip on the 'black gold'

the right environment

The world’s first digital shipyard environment has been created to improve productivity

more than meets the eye Why thermal imaging cameras are an essential on-board firefighting tool

the tide is turning

There is growth to come in the tidal energy sector and new technology is emerging

Health and SafetyIf you don’t have the time to read it all, read what you need Health and Safety Monitor is the newsletter of choice for professionals across all industries because it is: Clear, succinct and brief: With case summaries, indexes and bullet points so you can easily pick out what’s relevant to you Practical, informative and comprehensive: Health and safety news reported and analysed, with full references supplied for your ease of use Unbiased, trusted and critical: Gives you the facts

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Editor

ISSUE 101 Early

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk

The tide is high I

Shipping &MARinE

ThE magazInE for marITImE managEmEnT

Controlling

consumption getting a grip on the 'black gold'

was pleased to read in the feature on tidal power (pg 16) in this issue that the UK is a world leader in the development and

the right environment

the world’s first digital shipyard environment has been created to improve productivity

more than meets the eye Why thermal imaging cameras are an essential on-board firefighting tool

testing of modern devices by both UK and global companies.

the tide is turning

there is growth to come in the tidal energy sector and new technology is emerging

Given the UK’s heritage in marine innovation, and its location surrounded by water, it does seem an ideal place in which to really

Given the UK’s heritage in marine innovation, and its location surrounded by water, it does seem an ideal place in which to really establish a centre for excellence for tidal energy

establish a centre for excellence for tidal energy.

But of course that’s not the only technological solution highlighted in the pages of Shipping and Marine. There’s underwater sensing, bunker management, thermal imaging and PLM – hopefully one of these will pique your interest!

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

Schofield Publishing

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www.shippingandmarine.co.uk. © 2013 Schofield Publishing Ltd

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DESIGN

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Editor Libbie Hammond

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Contents FEATURES

PROFILES

3 News

19 fenwick shipping services

Updates and announcements from the shipping and maritime arena

22 epsco 25 lauritzen kosan

6 Controlling consumption However you look at it, bunkers are getting significantly more expensive and failing to get a grip on them can make the difference between a successful business and a failure

29 sea-invest

8 A force to be reckoned with

37 port of kemi

Ever more stringent international safety requirements on valves are placing a growing burden on manufacturers to design products offering optimum performance

10 The right environment Hyundai Heavy Industries’ (HHI) has implemented the first PLM infrastructure specialised for shipbuilding, resulting in significantly improved information sharing and efficiency

31 wallenius wilhelmsen logistics 34 vikoma INTERNATIONAL

40 zamakona shipyard 43 maats tech 47 remontowa 50 STX FINLAND 52 frisia-offshore 54 port of split

12 Sensing the future Arizona State University has developed Sensorbots a pathbreaking technology that promises to mark the beginning of a new era in ocean sensing

56 roenne havn 58 workships CONTRACTORS 60 Armona Denizcilik

14 More than meets the eye

62 gestion maritime

Ruud Heijsman discusses why thermal imaging cameras are an essential on-board firefighting tool

64 TTS NMF

14

66 Oy Maritim Ab 68 port of gibraltar 71 seamall 75 schottel 83 Imperial Ship Management 87 Bogerd martin 89 Port of Rotterdam (maasvlakte 2 project) 92 Survitec group 94 Stena Line 97 Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors 101 Pronav Ship Management

16 The tide is turning

103 A-Rosa Flussschiff

Presently, the UK is a world leader in the development and testing of modern tidal power devices by both UK and global companies

106 ABP grimsby and immingham 108 caterpillar marine power systems 110 noble Chartering

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News Newbuild FPSO DOF Subsea Norway, a specialist subsea solutions provider, has been awarded a contract by Teekay Petrojarl Production AS in Norway for a newbuild FPSO. The scope of work includes mooring pre-installation, tow-out and hook-up work for Teekay Petrojarl Production’s new FPSO, which will be installed on the BG-operated Knarr field in the Norwegian North Sea. DOF Subsea Norway will mobilise its Skandi Skolten vessel for this project, with six further vessels from its global fleet being utilised in support.

The project will be completed in three phases, the first of which will see the pre-installation of the complete mooring system consisting of 12 mooring lines taking place in 2013. DOF Subsea has already started with the planning, engineering and offshore management to ensure the project is executed in the safest and most efficient manner.

The FPSO will be kept at a fjord on the West Coast of Norway when it is delivered in 2014 until the field is ready for the FPSO to be installed later in the year, at which time it will be towed out to location and connected to the pre-laid mooring system.

‘Iceberg’ risk

CINS, the Cargo Incident Notification System, has identified that 24 per cent of cargo incident cases through the supply chain are due to mis-declaration of the cargo and a further 37 per cent to poor or incorrect packing. This is according to the latest data released by the CINS Organisation; an initiative set up by a number of shipping lines and managed by the Container Owners Association (COA).

“We have identified that 24 per cent of all incidents involve misdeclaration and this is probably the first time that this ‘iceberg’ risk has been quantified,” explains Reinhard Schwede of the Cargo Services/Dangerous Cargo Department of Hapag-Lloyd and the current chairman of CINS. “With these findings, the CINS Organisation will engage with enforcement agencies, competent authorities and the IMO to gain support for the relevant changes to legislation or other safe practice recommendations.”

Designed to capture key data, Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) is a database system that was created by COA Members from five of the top 20 liner operators (CMA CGM, Evergreen Line, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Line and MSC – Mediterranean Shipping Company). It was produced in response to the volume of incidents and problems that regularly disrupt operations and endanger lives, property or the environment.

Liner operators use CINS to capture important information relating to cargo and container incidents, providing an early warning of causes for concern that may be trending.

Call for global method DOF Subsea Norways’s Skandi Skolten will assist with the installation of Teekay Petrojarl Production AS’s newbuild FPSO on the Knarr field development

Major ferry project Birkenhead-based marine electrical engineering firm SeaKing has completed work for Cammell Laird shipyard to return car ferry MV Hoy Head to service with Orkney Ferries.

Cammell Laird was employed to increase the car capacity on the vessel from 14 to 24 cars or for up to three 16.5 metre HGVs and seven cars. The work gave the vessel the highest load capacity in the Orkney Ferries fleet, adding considerable extra capacity for the Orkney Islands of Hoy and Flotta, the communities served by the Hoy Head.

SeaKing Electrical carried out complex cabling work on the vessel. The project saw the ferry split in half with a new middle section inserted.

This required SeaKing to cut, upgrade and reconnect electrical systems via the new section.

SeaKing managing director Dave Gillam said the job required in-depth expertise and skills.

“We were delighted to provide our expertise as part of a major project to help make the service of the MV Hoy Head more effective SeaKing managing director for its crew and passengers,” he added.

Dave Gillam

The Global Shippers’ Forum has taken special notice of proposals from the European Commission to establish a system to reduce carbon emissions (CO2) from the maritime sector.

In the absence of a much-needed global agreement to curb emissions from the sector, the Commission will legislate for a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for large ships (over 5000 gross tons) from 2018 that use EU ports, irrespective of where the ships are registered.

Ship owners will be required to monitor and report the verified amount of CO2 annually emitted by their large ships on voyages to, from and between EU ports. The proposal offers flexibility for ship owners to record and report emissions by focusing on fuel consumption through methods such as using bunker fuel delivery notes or bunker fuel tank monitoring.

Chris Welsh, secretary general, Global Shippers’ Forum said: “Achieving global agreement on precisely how to tackle climate change within the maritime sector has been slow paced and fraught with difficulty. There are many competing views; however, shippers are looking for a substantive breakthrough.

Shippers are increasingly demanding verifiable greenhouse gas data from ocean carriers so that they in turn can accurately benchmark the carbon footprint of their supply chains. We hope the Commission’s initiative will push the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to promptly accomplish what it set out to achieve - a global agreement on reducing ghg emissions in the global maritime industry.” www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 3

Important project

Keeping watch

The Isle of Man Ship Registry has announced that it has registered the ‘Hanjin Blue Ocean’, completing the series of nine 13,000 TEU container vessels to register in the Isle of Man. At over 360 metres long and 48.2 metres wide, these vessels are the largest to be registered in the Isle of Man and some of the largest vessels currently in operation in the world.

The addition of the Hanjin Blue Ocean to the register marks the culmination of a project, which saw the Isle of Man Ship Registry working with Korean Register of Shipping (KRS) for the first time.

Dick Welsh, director of the Isle of Man Ship Registry, commented: “This has been a very important project for the Ship Registry.

Registering nine prestigious ships not only adds significant tonnage to the Ship Register, but also enhances the reputation of the Isle of Man as a leading location for ship financing and registration. Increasingly we are being recognised for our personal and proactive client service and this, along with our commitment to the highest standards of international maritime compliance and supportive Government, means we are fortunate to be able to respond quickly to the evolving needs of ship owners and operators and attract vessels from all over the world.”

Maritime security leader the AdvanFort Company has volunteered for service in the piracyinfested waters in and around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean as part of the US Coast Guard co-ordinated Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System (Amver), whose members assist any nearby vessel in distress.

The AdvanFort fleet, which has vessels strategically positioned in key sea lanes surrounding the High Risk Area (HRA), is now ‘on plot’ in the official USCG programme, a computer-based voluntary global ship reporting system that is used by search and rescue authorities around the world to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea.

“AdvanFort helps ensure no call for help goes unanswered even in the most dangerous waters,” said Benjamin M. Strong, director of Amver Maritime Relations at the Coast Guard, in a statement about the unique voluntary alliance with one of the leading private maritime security companies.

“The management of AdvanFort as well as the captains and crews of our fleet of vessels are pleased and honoured to now be enrolled in the Amver programme,” added AdvanFort President William H. Watson.

Joint DNV accreditations

FoundOcean has been awarded two significant accreditations from independent auditing body DNV. Jim Bell, MD for FoundOcean said: “The ISO 9001 certificate that we have held since 2006 demonstrates that our quality management system complies with industry best practices. The OHSAS 18001 certificate reassures clients that we have the appropriate occupational health and safety policies and procedures in place for the safety critical environment that we and our clients operate in.

“Certificates issued by a third party certification body such as DNV lets customers know they can trust that you have implemented the necessary internal processes to meet the rigorous requirements of the industry.”

FoundOcean prides itself on maintaining stringent procedures.

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US Coast Guard Commandant Robert J. Papp, Jr. presenting AdvanFort President William H. Watson a plaque for service to the Amver programme.

Critical power Anglesey Aquaculture, the UK’s only producer of fresh sustainably farmed sea bass, has just contracted Quartzelec to deliver all its high voltage maintenance provision over the next four years, including an emergency response service.

“Our onsite generators and electrical systems are absolutely critical to our environmentally friendly fish farming process,” explained John Watters, managing director of Anglesey Aquaculture. “Operating in such a remote location means we can regularly be affected by energy supply issues and a complete failure could quickly result in the total loss of all our fish.

We had to select a maintenance partner that we were totally confident in from the outset and one that could provide a dependable, yet cost effective solution. Quartzelec clearly demonstrated that it had the expertise, flexibility, ability and geographical coverage to meet all our ongoing electrical requirements.”

In addition to overseeing the regular preventative maintenance of the generators, Quartzelec will be responsible for maintaining other onsite HV (transformer) assets; switch room equipment and LV air circuit breakers. Additional services within the four year contract will include sub-inspections, intrusive maintenance, oil testing and the provision of an emergency response service.

News Vessel christening

The newest ROV support vessel to service Asia Pacific’s oil and gas industry has been launched in Singapore. Around 100 invited guests from across the global energy sector attended the christening ceremony of the Harkand Harmony at Keppel Marina.

Sophie Mottais-Trouve, the wife of Harkand’s vice president of commercial and strategy Olivier Trouve, opened the festivities by officially naming the 65m-long vessel.

The Harmony’s christening follows two major milestones for the group. She has been secured on a three-year hire purchase that will see Harkand extend its inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) services in the growing Asia Pacific region.

The vessel, built by ASL Marine Holdings at Batam near Singapore, will be fitted with one Comanche WROV and a complete survey spread. Able to accommodate 60 crew, it boasts a 580m² main deck, a Kongsberg DP2 system, 20t man-riding knuckle boom crane and a 4.5m moon pool.

The Harmony’s addition to the Harkand fleet, along with two new Triton XLX ROV’s that will be delivered in August, marks an important step forward in the company’s Asia Pacific development plan.

New successful milestone From its immersion in January 2013, at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland, Alstom’s full-scale tidal device has reached the full nominal power of 1MW after a series of gradual increases in power. The turbine connected to the grid has now generated over 10MWh of electricity, in actual operating conditions. Both are major milestones in the development of the tidal stream energy. The tidal turbine has been tested in different operational conditions through the ReDAPT1 testing programme. It has shown a reliability and performance in line with its design models. The next step of the testing programme will be to demonstrate the full range of autonomous running capabilities of the turbine (its ability to efficiently operate independently), continue with the planned maintenance and gather evidence for certification.

The endurance and reliability will also be tested into 2014. Tests in pilot farms will follow prior to the start of full commercial production.

“We are enthusiastic following the initial tests of our tidal stream turbine which successfully demonstrated the advantages of Alstom tidal turbine technology, in the challenging environment of the Fall of Warness in Orkney,” stated Alstom Ocean business vice-president Rob Stevenson.

Working together Asset integrity management specialist XPD8 Solutions has announced it has formed a collaborative partnership with software development company Onsoft Computer Systems (OCS) to provide complimentary solutions to service both the energy and maritime industries.

Mark Cavanagh, managing director at XPD8, said: “The partnership with OCS provides us with an excellent platform to benefit our existing clients by giving an added value to our range. This will also allow us to take our business into new areas and increase the scope of work we can take on.

“We are well aware of the high regard in which OCS is held and feel this working agreement will enable both businesses to give our respective clients a broader range of services and products tailored to their individual needs.”

Thor Arhaug, director of asset management at OCS, said: “This is a perfect fit for us, to work with a reputable UK partner which recognises our services and the way we can work together represents a great opportunity.

We look forward to a successful working relationship with XPD8 for several years to come.”

Rail advantage

Rail services from the Port of Felixstowe have been boosted with the start of the latest new service from the UK’s largest container port.

The new service, operated by Freightliner Limited, is the port’s 30th daily rail service, and runs to Doncaster in South Yorkshire.

Commenting on the start of the new service, Clemence Cheng, chief executive officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, owners of the Port of Felixstowe, said: “As the best connected port in Britain we already provide a bigger choice of rail options than are available at any other UK port; helping our customers save time, money and carbon. The latest service from Freightliner brings to 60 the number of freight train movements we handle each day and will take around 1.75 million HGV miles each year off the strategic road network.”

This new service comes quickly on the heels of Hutchison Ports’ investment in a third rail terminal at the port. The new terminal opened in June 2013 and will double rail capacity at Felixstowe. www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 5

fuel management

Controlling

consumption

F

Getting a grip on the ‘black gold’.

uel management is an expression that most ship operators recognise as one of the many requirements for running an efficient business. Yet the cost of bunker fuel is such that it is not inappropriate to think of it as ‘black gold’.

The expression was coined to describe crude oil and its affinity to bunker fuel also means that their prices often follow the same trends. These, as every ship operator will know are generally upwards and with bunkers being an operator’s biggest expense after labour, thinking of it as ‘black gold’ puts it in perspective.

Back in the halcyon days of 2008 owners revelled in bunker prices of around $200 per metric tonne. Now, according to Seatrade magazine, prices are predicted to average $700 pmt by 2017.

Obviously bunker prices fluctuate and some operators may be able to shop where prices are lowest. Yet however you look at it, bunkers are getting significantly more expensive and failing to get a grip on them can make the difference between a successful business and a failure.

If operators are confident that they are buying their bunker fuel at the best possible price it then becomes necessary to look at ways and devices that will enable their ships to use less of it in the first place. These might range from the use of low-friction antifouling, weather routing or even kite sails. Yet ultimately an operator’s

bunker costs are dependent upon the efficiency of the ship’s engines and propulsion systems and the ways in which they are operated.

The range of fuel-efficient modern engines on the market today makes it easy for a prospective owner to make the right choice for a new ship. Yet although we can sing the praises of dual fuel or hybrid engine technology this is not a luxury available to those with fleets of older vessels. Scrapping them and starting again is rarely an option so ship operators have no choice but to ensure that the ships they use are at least as fuel efficient at possible.

This is where the first stage of fuel management technology can be applied to ensure that even old, inefficient engines are run as cost effectively as possible. A company such as Royston Limited that specialises in diesel technology can service and restore any age or make of engine and return it to its as new condition and performance. Operators may then at least be confident that their engines are performing to their manufacturers’ specifications.

The only remaining question mark hangs over the way the crews are operating them. Many modern engines, as with modern cars, have some kind of gauge that shows fuel consumption at that specific moment. It is a valuable feature that enables a ship’s master to moderate his speed to achieve maximum economy

Royston Enginei shows vessel track and fuel consumption on shore office display

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Royston Enginei data tanker

Complete engine room installation of Enginei fuel flow meters showing configuration with flameproof sleeves over fuel lines

‘‘

The introduction of SEEMP (Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan) monitoring in January this year now means that all owners and operators of ships over 400gt must document measures that they are implementing to reduce fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gases and other emissions

but it may be a luxury that is unavailable on older engines and it achieves nothing if the master is unconcerned about fuel usage and emissions.

The experience gained by the Royston engineering teams as they serviced ships’ engines around the world inspired the company to develop the Enginei system for monitoring the fuel consumption of any type, size or age of marine diesel engine. Not only does it display the current fuel consumption to the crew but, most importantly, it also relays it with the ship’s GPS position to managers ashore. They can see a Google Earth display that shows the real-time track of the vessel within its surroundings. A graphical presentation of the data being monitored can then be superimposed upon the track to create a display that shows, at a glance, how much fuel was being consumed when the ship was at a particular location as well as any other aspect of the engine’s performance that is being monitored. The track display then evolves as a continuous bar graph that follows the ship’s route. The system consequently helps management to play its part in reducing a vessel’s fuel consumption by only issuing instructions that enable it to work at the most efficient speeds for the job and by identifying and avoiding operating practices that might result in unnecessary fuel usage. The master nevertheless retains his autonomy as the system has no connection to the engine controls. He has the information needed to run his engines economically but retains the freedom to change the vessel’s speed as he thinks fit. This makes it possible to eliminate any tendency to sail faster than is necessary, to

reduce emissions and to concentrate the minds of bridge personnel onto what they can do to make their ship run more efficiently.

Emission monitoring has also become an increasingly important aspect of ship operations that operators must address. The introduction of SEEMP (Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan) monitoring in January this year now means that all owners and operators of ships over 400gt must document measures that they are implementing to reduce fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gases and other emissions. In addition the European Union is planning to introduce legislation from January 2018 that will require owners of large ships using EU ports to measure and report their annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Without emissions data nothing will be possible so it is fortunate that fuel management systems can also monitor and store the information needed. With Enginei, for example, sensors can be fitted to record such details as CO2 production, engine temperature and exhaust gases as well as exhaust and coolant temperatures to boost and oil pressure, heat exchanger efficiency, load, rpm. Fuel management systems can therefore now be seen as an investment that goes beyond being just a means of controlling consumption of the ‘black gold’. They can now provide a detailed insight into an engine’s performance while enabling a ship operator to easily meet his obligations towards environmental control. v

Enginei System

The Enginei system produces data that enables a ship’s optimum engine speed to be identified by the master while under way. Technical staff ashore can also view a live route projection on Google Earth that shows the vessel’s track superimposed with a graphic display of fuel consumption at all points along the route. These make it easier to avoid unnecessary speed and to achieve substantial economies by modifying the ship’s management.

For further information, visit: www.enginei.co.uk.

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 7

flow control products

A force to

reckoned

with

The importance of force friction ratio in determining valve reliability and performance. By Ognjen Starovic

E

ver more stringent international safety requirements on valves, such as the IEC 61508 and 61511 standards, are placing a growing burden on manufacturers to design products offering optimum performance on FPSO ships and LNG tankers operating in the most demanding conditions.

Historically, many solenoid valves not originally designed for these applications have been widely used, with the potential to compromise overall system performance - giving them an undeserved reputation for unreliability. Meanwhile, as well as Cv, temperature rating and certification, designers and customers have often traditionally relied mainly on mean time between failure (MTBF) to judge valve reliability.

However, MTBF is not a particularly good metric for determining solenoid valve reliability as it frequently relates to the number of operations a valve can withstand. In low demand mode applications – an attribute applicable to most safety functions where equipment often sits unused for months at a time - a measure of how likely the valve is to close on demand is clearly more relevant. Probability of Failure on Demand is a measure used to determine the likelihood that a valve will operate if required - but even this tells the operator nothing of the intrinsic design principles of a valve. This has led to the concept of Force Friction Ratio (FFR).

FFR is a measure of the relationship between the force presented by the spring return mechanism and the frictional resistance within the valve. The higher the FFR, the more likely the valve is to operate when required.

In principle, creating a high-FFR valve sounds easy, as a designer can simply use a large, powerful spring. However, as the spring force increases, so does the required magnetic flux from the solenoid to open the valve and hold it open. The knock-on effect of this is an increase in the electrical power required to operate the valve.

Causes of friction in a solenoid valve All solenoid valves used in FPSO ships and LNG tankers are either poppet or spool type solenoid valves. In order to maximise FFR, frictional force must be minimised. Friction is caused by

8 - www.shippingandmarine.co.uk

the interaction of o-ring seals with the valve body. There are two types of seal interfaces – dynamic, or spool type seals, and static, also known as ‘poppet’-type seals. In a static seal there is only interaction between the seal and the body at the end of the valve travel, where the seal contacts a flat surface in the valve body. This type of seal has a minimal effect on the friction within a valve.

In dynamic seals, the seal is in permanent contact with the valve body for the duration of the valve’s movement. Dynamic seals can impact significantly on friction as the seal is laterally distorted against the valve body surface during operation. The higher the

a) Reduce the friction by using a poppet-type design to minimise the number of dynamic seals b) Regular, continuous coil housings reduce magnetic flux leakage c) A dry armature allows the use of a soft magnetic core material, improving magnetic flux density d) Minimising air gaps in the thermal path between the coil and external surfaces improves heat dissipation, optimising improving solenoid valve efficiency e) Use the maximum spring power permissible by optimising parameters a to d

number of dynamic seals, the higher the friction. An additional drawback is the effect of thermal expansion on both friction and seal quality. A poppet-type sealing mechanism allows the designer to minimise the friction by reducing the number of dynamic seals.

Lubricant condition, time between operation, the presence of debris and contamination, and temperature cycling can also all cause the frictional forces experienced by the dynamic seals to increase over time, reducing FFR.

Mechanical operation of a solenoid valve All solenoid valves in process industry are poppet or spool type valves. In this 2/2 poppet valve there is only one static seal performing the isolation process. Two dynamic seals isolate process media from the valve’s ‘dry armature’ assembly. The spring must overcome the frictional resistance of two dynamic seals. A 3/2 design would require a further single static seal and no dynamic seals.

A typical 3/2 spool type valve has four dynamic seals, doubling the poppet-type assembly’s frictional resistance.

To maximise FFR, frictional force must be minimised. A poppet-type sealing mechanism minimises friction by reducing the dynamic seals.

What makes an ideal solenoid valve design for high FFR? There is no definitive set of design parameters to create a ‘perfect’ valve of maximum FFR, however valves designed to the following rules will be optimised for a high FFR.

Ognjen Starovic

Ognjen Starovic is managing director at Thompson Valves, which is part of Norgren. A world leader in pneumatic motion and fluid control technologies, Norgren works closely with customers to gain a deeper understanding of their engineering needs, and then connects its people, products and expertise to give their equipment and their business a clear advantage. Norgren’s reputation rests on a world-class portfolio of high performance products, the innovation and technical expertise of its 6000-plus people, and an ability to deliver exceptional local service. For further information visit www.norgren.com/uk/energy.

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 9

case study

The right

environment World’s largest shipbuilder creates first digital shipyard environment to improve productivity in Korea

U

sing Siemens PLM Software technology, Teamcenter and Tecnomatix, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ (HHI) has implemented the first PLM infrastructure specialised for shipbuilding, resulting in significantly improved information sharing and efficiency.

World’s number-one shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries’ (HHI) Shipbuilding Division, based in South Korea, is the world’s largest shipbuilding company. With ten large-scale docks and nine ‘Goliath’ cranes, it has the ability to customise ships according to different needs, and continues to develop new shipbuilding technologies with its large research staff.

HHI produces oil tankers, chemical tankers, bulk carriers, oil product tankers, container ships, car carriers, gas tankers, floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) ships, drillships, special ships, battleships and submarines. In addition to the shipbuilding

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business, HHI is also a recognised global leader in the marine, plant, engine machinery, electrical and electronic, and construction equipment sectors.

In 2005, the shipbuilding division implemented a new 3D computer-aided design (CAD) solution, but there was no connection between the CAD system and the division’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Also, most of the design data was managed on personal computers (PCs), causing security problems and duplicate work.

These drawbacks pointed out the need for a change, and HHI began searching for an innovative strategy that would help the division react to the fast-changing shipbuilding market and maintain its competitive edge.

Creating a digital shipyard The search led to product lifecycle management (PLM) technology from Siemens PLM Software, in particular its Tecnomatix software

PLM specialised for shipbuilding The strong production simulation capabilities of Tecnomatix, in conjunction with the use of Teamcenter, have created a truly digital shipyard environment that has improved design and work efficiency. Changes to designs and schedules are automatically managed by the system, which also routes work to the relevant departments, eliminating omissions that previously might have caused extra work. HHI has also been able to enhance the quality of its designs through re-use of existing information.

HHI is proud to have implemented what it understands is one of the largest PLM systems in the world specialised for shipbuilding.

Future plans include adding new functionality over time, such as support for mobile computing devices and bringing after-sale services under PLM management. Kim notes: “In the long term, we are considering expanding to a digital shipyard that also supports lifecycle services after ship transfer.”

Challenges: Fast-changing shipbuilding market

Keys To Success: l Digital shipyard environment created using Tecnomatix and

Teamcenter

‘‘

In the long term, we are considering expanding to a digital shipyard that also supports lifecycle services after ship transfer Seung-Seok Kim General Manager Hyundai Heavy Industries

l Single repository for all ship-related data l Digital manufacturing functionality for simulation of production

processes

Results: l More data sharing and re-use l Enhanced productivity l Less duplication of effort and high design quality l Fewer problems caused by scheduling errors

Industry: Marine

Client's Primary Business: for digital manufacturing and Teamcenter software for product data management (PDM). The addition of these solutions allowed the division to achieve the integrated management of shipbuildingrelated data and create an environment for design work and process innovation. “To deploy truly innovative product lifecycle management, we have implemented Siemens PLM Software, which allows integrated management across the whole process of sales, design, production, and after-sale services,” says Seung-Seok Kim, general manager at HHI. Now, bills of materials (BOMs) and 3D JT data created using the CAD system are managed with Teamcenter, making the information easy to share as well as quickly identifiable for possible re-use. Also, the design process has been standardised, creating a solid foundation for enhanced efficiency and better management of design changes. The new approach minimises errors and helps in keeping to the schedules by managing workflows and creating to-do lists (using Teamcenter).

Hyundai Heavy Industries is the world’s leading shipbuilding company, with marine, plant, engine machinery, electrical and electronic, construction equipment, and other business divisions.

Solutions/Services: l Teamcenter l Tecnomatix

‘‘

To deploy truly innovative product lifecycle management, we have implemented Siemens PLM Software, which allows integrated management across the whole process of sales, design, production, and after-sale services Seung-Seok Kim General Manager Hyundai Heavy Industries For further information visit: www.siemens.com/plm

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 11

it

Sensing the future

T

Sensorbots represent a new era in ocean sensing

he Ocean... incomprehensibly vast and teeming with life and potential, it plays an ever-increasing role in the world of today. As our understanding and appreciation of the oceans rapidly increases, so does the demand for underwater technology capable of remotely monitoring this inhospitable and underexplored ecosystem.

For this purpose, scientists at the Arizona State University have developed Sensorbots - a pathbreaking technology that promise to mark the beginning of a new era in ocean sensing.

How do they work?

Sensorbots are small, transparent spherical devices equipped with variety of surface mounted sensors for measuring various analytes such as pH, trace metals and temperatures related to underwater environmental micro and macro events and conditions.

Once the surface mounted sensors pick up a reading, this is reported to the inner electronics, which, in turn, transmit these into what is basically a visual Morse code of bright blue flashes of LED light. These optical signals are picked up and passed on by neighbouring Sensorbots until they are eventually received and transmitted to the surface by a central masternode.

Underwater optical sensor networks employ a spatially distributed array of communicating nodes, in which each node collects or transmits data that is temporally and geographically referenced to a broader context.

By means of such an UON, the optical signals transmitted by the Sensorbots are intelligently linked, using so called ‘multi-hop’ networking technologies, not unlike that used for cell phone and other land based wireless networks. This entails that information and data is ‘hopped’ between the nodes to overcome optical range limitations of underwater signal propagation.

In essence, this means that one will be able to apply Sensorbots like strings of pearls over great distances - with full utilisation of all the benefits of optical communications speed and energy efficiency, but without the detriment of optical loss attenuation in seawater. Furthermore, the Sensorbots feature an ‘omni-directional’ communicative capability. This entails that each Sensorbot can both emit and detect optical signals from any direction. This omnidirectional communication behaviour supports the simplified installation of sensor networks to effectively cover vast three-

Underwater Optical Networks (UON) This kind of optical underwater light propagation - where Sensorbots relay information about the surroundings to neighbouring bots and ultimately to a masternode, is based on the theory of underwater optical networks (UON).

UON of Sensorbots deployed to monitor a subsea pipeline

dimensional volumes of ocean.

A sea of potential

Networks of Sensorbots hold several useful applications in: l Ocean science l Environmental monitoring l Aquaculture l Fisheries l Geology l Marine biology l Oil and gas industries l Other marine industries l Accident remediation l Defence and security

The Sensorbot optically relays information about its surroundings by means of blinking LED light. In clear water, signal range is approximately 50 metres

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In Ocean Science, Sensorbots will help answer questions relating to topics as diverse and complex as detecting and monitoring oil spills, tracking and observing animal population migrations, hydrogeological flows, the evolution of emission plumes, ocean acidification, hazardous waste flows, and other chemical

distributions, all of which require extensive and accurate data to be gathered and analysed over vast areas simultaneously from remote ocean locations. When deployed, the Sensorbots will enable continuous spatiotemporal monitoring of key elements in the ocean and the ability to respond to events such as underwater earthquakes and hydrothermal vents.

The UON masternode for picking up Sensorbot signals is developed by MacArtney

Scope of sensor development

Cody Youngbull, assistant research professor at the Arizona State University, is an integral member of the Sensorbot team and has spent years developing the technology.

According to Cody, ‘because the scale of phenomena is so vast in the oceans, sensing networks are an exciting thing. Rather than delivering a single robot to a single point in space and then serially moving it around, often missing dynamic phenomena - an array of Sensorbots can cover a wide field, permitting real-time investigations of episodic events.

‘We are leveraging our automation, sensors, biotechnology, and systems expertise to develop unique robots that can be deployed by the hundreds and communicate together for exploration and discovery. No similar technology brings it all together like the Sensorbots, the embedded systems, the data transfer and communication’.

According to MacArtney Group CEO Niels Erik Hedeager, ‘for MacArtney, Sensorbots represent true innovation and a natural extension of our data gathering underwater technology solutions, aimed at enabling both industry and science to further understand the ocean’. v

Sensorbots are a platform technology that easily supports new sensor materials as they become available. For example, the sensors can be used for hydrocarbons and methane (for oil and gas Sensorbot types) and dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperatures, nitrates and chlorophyll (for ocean science, fisheries and aquaculture Sensorbot types) - as well as several other parameters.

Sensors for pH, dissolved oxygen, trace metals, and temperatures are now in operation, and several others are undergoing development. Currently under development are fluorescent polymers that respond to methane, sulphate, CO2 and other critical analytes in areas of diffuse flow in hydrothermal regions of the deep ocean.

Arizona State University and the MacArtney Underwater Technology Group are working closely with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). At MBARI, Sensorbots are tested to work with the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS).

According to Chris Scholin, president and CEO of MBARI, ‘the idea of using multi-hop optical sensor networks on the ocean floor is very innovative and potentially transformative technology that could create a host of new opportunities for the ocean sensing community at large’.

Cody Youngbull and MacArtney on Sensorbots

At Ocean Business 2013, in Southampton UK, Cody Youngbull of the ASU joined forces with MacArtney to successfully display and demonstrate Sensorbot Technology

An array of Sensorbots is escorted to the ocean floor by means of the Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science, ROPOS (Photo by the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University)

MacArtney Group

Swarms of autonomous Sensorbots As Sensorbot technology develops, they may blanket large areas of the ocean and transmit information regularly to a central data hub. Ultimately, Sensorbots will be capable of operating in semiautonomous self-propulsed robotic swarms, moving under remote control in a 3D geometric formation through precisely controlled volumes of seawater.

The MacArtney Group is a global supplier of underwater technology specialising in design, manufacture, sales and service of a wide range of systems to offshore operators, surveyors, the renewable energy sector, ocean sciences, security forces and navies across the world. The company offers an extensive variety of advanced and reliable systems from proven components, cables and connectors, to state-of-the-art integrated packages, including fibre optic telemetry systems and remotely operated towed vehicle systems. For further information, please contact Niels Erik Hedeager on neh@macartney.com or visit www.macartney.com.

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Firefighting

More than meets the

eye

Ruud Heijsman discusses why thermal imaging cameras are an essential on-board firefighting tool

F

irefighting is a dangerous job and not without risks.

Firefighters are trained to enter a foreign environment and operate as safely and effective as possible to fight fires and perform search and rescue missions.

Even when familiar with the environment entered, smoke and fire or lack of lighting can make the job much harder. This is especially true when entering the small spaces you will find on ships.

The environment on board ships is quite a different matter compared to ‘normal’ firefighting. Even though there is a limitless amount of seawater available for extinguishing fires every litre of water used on board has to be pumped out again. Temperatures can rise to extreme heights in a very short period of time because of all the metal, the small spaces and corridors on board. Navigating through a ship is often much more difficult, because of the lack of light and ventilation. Smoke builds up much faster and lingers much longer in the corridors, cabins and engine room. For this reason many Navies have qualified thermal imagers as an essential tool in the firefighter’s standard kit of equipment. A fire aboard a ship can quickly become a deadly cauldron.

Thermal imaging Thermal imaging is the use of cameras constructed with specialty sensors that ‘see’ thermal energy

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emitted from an object. Thermal, or infrared energy, is light that is not visible to the human eye because its wavelength is too long to be detected. It’s the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we perceive as heat. Infrared allows us to see what our eyes cannot.

Thermal imaging cameras produce images of invisible infrared or ‘heat’ radiation. Based on temperature differences between objects, thermal imaging produces a clear image. In contrast with other technologies, such as light amplification, thermal imaging needs no light whatsoever to produce an image on which the smallest of details can be seen. Thermal imaging provides full visibility irrespective of the prevailing light level and weather conditions.

Thermal imaging cameras can see in total darkness, in the darkest of nights, through light fog, in the far distance, through smoke and is able to detect anyone hiding in the shadows.

Attack the fire with thermal Firefighters can benefit enormously from thermal imaging cameras. Thermal imaging cameras do not only produce a crisp image in total darkness. With the ability to see through smoke they will help firefighters to find injured personnel in smoke filled rooms, navigate through a smoke-filled ship and in areas where the fire already is extinguished but are still filled with residual smoke. Furthermore the device can assist in investigating fires, locating the seat of a fire and indicating hot spots during overhaul. Thanks to their ability to measure temperatures firefighters can see if a fire is burning behind a wall. This knowledge can help them to avoid dangerous back drafts. Besides helping to save the lives of both fire fighters and people caught in a fire, thermal imaging cameras can however also be used for search and rescue and other lifesaving missions in which firefighters are often involved. v

Ruud Heijsman

Ruud Heijsman works for FLIR Commercial Systems. FLIR Systems is a leading manufacturer of innovative imaging systems that include infrared cameras, aerial broadcast cameras and machine vision systems. Its products play pivotal roles in a wide range of industrial, commercial and government activities in more than 60 countries.

For further information visit: www.FLIR.com.

World-leading thermal imaging cameras FLIR Systems, the world leader in portable thermal imaging, has introduced a brand new range of uncooled radiometric cameras, specifically for firefighting. The new FLIR K-Series enhances the company’s established presence in this sector by factoring in camera features developed for harsh industrial environments.

A typical example is the torch-style grip of this new model that has been proven in the industrial market. It is ideal for singlehanded operation and, unlike a monocular or binocular thermal imaging camera, can be used when the operator is moving. It provides a clear crisp image at arm’s length whilst allowing good situational awareness.

The FLIR K-Series is designed to meet the toughest operating conditions. For example it will withstand a drop of two metres onto a concrete floor. It is also water resistant to IP67 and suitable for operation in high temperatures.

FLIR Systems markets more thermal imaging cameras than any other manufacturer. As a result, it has been able to introduce the FLIR K-Series at an extremely affordable price thanks to the manufacturing economies.

Two models complete the series. The FLIR K50 produces thermal images up to 320 x 240 pixels. For those who do not require this high image quality, the FLIR K40 has a 240 x 180 pixels array. The object temperature range of the FLIR K-Series cameras is -20°C to +650°C. Both versions feature a bright 4” display and provide a choice of color palettes to suit the application. Control is via three large buttons on top of the camera that are designed to be easily operated when the firefighter is wearing gloves.

Thermal images can be stored in-camera and later used to enhance a post-incident report.

In common with all FLIR portable thermalimaging cameras, every FLIR K-Series thermal imaging camera carries a two-year product warranty that complements its ten year detector warranty.

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 15

tidal energy

The tide is

turning

Diccon Rogers takes a look at the tidal energy sector, and predicts there is growth to come

G

reen energy is a complex global quest. The political sensitivities are enormous, the economics controversial, the technologies evolving. Pursuit of ‘low carbon economies’ has led to the evolution of many forms of hydrocarbon-alternative renewable energy.

Within these, the nascent ‘marine’ or ‘wet’ renewables sector is mostly concerned at present with the generation of electricity through the motion of waves or tidal current flows at coastal and offshore sites. It is currently a young and experimental industry, with few devices or installations proven worldwide and, at present, no commercial scale multi-device offshore arrays fully operational anywhere. Presently, the UK is a world leader in the development and testing of modern devices by both UK and global companies, but international competition is increasing. Although there have been recent uncertainties in governmental levels of support via electricity market subsidies, and debates about the pace of development and the available and accessible natural resource (debates that the offshore oil and gas industry and the offshore wind industry also heard during their earlier years), there is no doubt that the business opportunities presented by marine renewables, both for energy generators and their supply chain, are vast.

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The shipping and marine industries are vital to the present and future of the global marine renewables industry. Whether as a key supplier - in development, construction, installation and maintenance of marine renewable technology devices, for instance - or in considering a new marine energy sea area for navigational care or exclusion, the rollout of marine renewables is of interest to all concerned in the maritime industry.

This article gives an overview of the present state of the tidal energy industry, and the future outlook. The daily predictability of tides is one of the few areas of certainty in man’s interaction with the sea, and harnessing the tides for power has attracted generations of engineers. Rotary motion using waterwheels in tidal mills for the grinding of wheat to make flour is at least early medieval, and one of Europe’s oldest continuous commercial tidal mill sites, Woodbridge in Suffolk, UK, only closed in 1957 after nearly eight hundred years of tidal milling on site. In the modern, energy-hungry world, the focus is almost exclusively on conversion of the kinetic energy of water flow into mechanical rotation for electrical generation. The closest modern analogy of the tidal mill is a tidal barrage, where an artificial barrier is emplaced to confine a tidal body of water, usually in an estuary. A barrage works in a similar manner to a conventional hydro dam. Such impounded

tidal schemes have been conceived from at least the 1920s, but first came to true commercial fruition in the La Rance barrage in Brittany, France. Completed in 1966 at a cost given as F620m with installed peak capacity of 240 Mw from ten turbines (at a quoted average capacity factor of 62Mw), it is estimated to supply 540Gw hours annually to the French grid. It is claimed that despite its high construction costs, the barrage has made a very successful return on investment and now generates the cheapest electricity in France.

Other countries including Canada, China and South Korea have experimented with the construction of tidal barrages and lagoons at various scales, and in the United Kingdom a controversial scheme to build a giant 18km barrage across the Severn Estuary continues to be promoted, despite concerns over high environmental impact, and obstruction to shipping routes and port access.

Apart from barrages, the global tidal energy industry has evolved fairly rapidly in the last 15 years, and new applications of technology continue to challenge any assumptions of a ‘norm’.

Unlike the offshore and onshore wind sector, where large threebladed horizontal units on monopile risers have grown and matured over the last two decades, there is as yet no dominant type of tidal generator device or foundation structure. Nevertheless, there are several recognisable kinds of tidal energy convertor presently coming to the fore as single device prototypes.

Firstly, a conventional two or three bladed single generator nacelle, working fully submerged to 25m in the water column and fixed or yawing atop a piled or gravity subsea foundation of around 20m from bottom - essentially, a wind turbine underwater, able to generate efficiently in semi-rotary tidal streams via controlled body azimuth and controllable pitch blades. An industry leader is Tidal Generation Limited (TGL), a Bristol, UK based former subsidiary of Rolls-Royce, now acquired as a subsidiary

by French engineering giant Alstom. The TGL device incorporates a unique low-cost small vessel installation/retrieval maintenance system. TGL’s 0.5Mw prototype device was successfully trialled in recent years, and its 1Mw full-scale device was first successfully grid-connected in early 2013 at the EMEC tidal test site in Orkney, UK. Secondly, non-yawing single or multi-nacelle subsea devices, sometimes on a surface-piercing foundation and riser which allows elevation of the nacelle above surface for maintenance, have also been successfully designed and installed in rectilinear tidal streams.

Siemens subsidiary Marine Current Turbine’s 1.2 Mw SeaGen at Strangford Lough, NI, UK, is an instantly recognisable example.

It first generated to grid in 2008, and following a long period of successful trials and operation the company plan to install similar devices in 10mw maximum pilot farms in the W UK in 2014/15.

Such farms will be world firsts.

Other innovative approaches currently at the generation stage include open-centre subsea turbines, such as Open Hydro’s technology, and floating surface devices such as Scotrenewables SR250.

In general, presently emerging industry leaders are those who have recognised early the technological and financial challenges posed by pioneering such energy generation, and are supported by a large OEM, utility or corporate such as Alstom or Siemens, and those who have been realistic about the operational challenges of developing and operating devices in the harsh tidal environment.

Designing in simple, sustainable and affordable installation,

operation and maintenance strategies has been the key to their success in the field, including building long-term relationships with competent and motivated specialist marine contractors and vessel operators with an affordable cost base.

From a marine construction and operations viewpoint, the installation of foundations, generators, and control/export cables, and the subsequent operations and maintenance phase, brings a unique combination of challenges only partially addressed in other offshore construction environments to date. Vessel station keeping in high-energy currents can be risky, with construction jack-up barges operating on or near their limits, moored barges requiring large, gravity-based mooring systems suitable for the poor holding in the scoured sea bottoms, and certain dynamic positioning system vessels requiring a large percentage of available power and control. Subsea interventions are limited to very short slack water windows, with ROVs and umbilicals hard pressed as tidal velocity increases, and diver-based tasks especially difficult.

Scoured rock, cliff and boulder sea bottoms mean that geotechnical conditions and bathymetry are often hostile to the installation of cables, anchors and foundations. Early stage developer budgets are often stretched, requiring high-specification vessel and equipment performance at rates that rarely match those achieved in the more mature oil and gas and offshore wind sectors. Despite this, the shipping and marine industries continue to react positively to the sector, with contractors, owners, designers, engineers, Classification Societies, and technology suppliers gearing up to meet the sector’s needs and overcome that unique set of marine challenges.

Globally, there are many maritime regions of the world where huge untapped ocean energy exists, and well-equipped specialist supply chains are fast emerging to serve local, regional and international markets. Current areas in the UK, for instance, include the two government-designated Marine Energy Parks (MEPs), one in Scotland and one in South West England. Using the South West MEP as an example, Cornwall has significant ocean energy resource, and its long established marine industrial and mining heritage makes the county home to industry-leading contractors and vessel operators such as Seacore, Keynvor Morlift (KML), Mojo Maritime, and Large Diameter Drilling (LDD). With their clients, these companies have in recent years pioneered the world’s first ‘offshore’ tidal installations, and many other successful renewable energy marine construction projects.

There is little doubt that despite the current resurgence of hydrocarbons, and the continued development of offshore wind, tidal energy is poised to grow. For the shipping and marine industries as vital suppliers to this new market sector, this is good news. v

Diccon Rogers

Diccon Rogers is director at Keynvor Morlift Ltd. Keynvor MorLift Ltd is a UK-based marine contracting firm. It is a specialist in shoreline, coastal and offshore marine operations, with a wealth of experience ranging from marine renewable energy construction projects to project cargo, marine civil engineering, subsea operations and salvage operations. In addition to its contracting activities, it offers independent consulting, advisory and project management services, which includes engineering design.

For further information, visit: www.keynvormorlift.co.uk.

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 17

Profiles There are thousands of ships sailing the oceans today, transporting every kind of cargo.

The global fleet is manned by over a million seafarers of virtually every nationality and the companies involved in this sector are among the most technologically sophisticated of any in the world.

The prominent and successful companies that are highlighted in the next pages of Shipping & Marine provide real world examples of how state-of-the-art technology, best practices and modern innovations are put into practice in the maritime sector.

l fenwick shipping services

l TTS NMF

l epsco

l port of gibraltar

l lauritzen kosan

l seamall

l sea-invest

l schottel

l wallenius wilhelmsen logistics

l Imperial Ship Management

l vikoma INTERNATIONAL l port of kemi l zamakona shipyard

l Bogerd martin l Port of Rotterdam (maasvlakte 2 project)

l maats tech

l Survitec group

l remontowa

l Stena Line

l STX FINLAND

l Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors

l frisia-offshore

l Pronav Ship Management

l port of split l roenne havn

l A-Rosa Flussschiff

l workships CONTRACTORS

l ABP grimsby and immingham

l Armona Denizcilik

l caterpillar marine power systems

l gestion maritime

l noble Chartering

Profile: Fenwick Shipping Services

Smart

decisions L

ed by Antony Louis Marden, Fenwick Shipping Services Ltd is the continuation of a family legacy of ship owning.

“My grandfather was a pioneer of the Hong Kong ship owning and financing scene, and instrumental in getting a lot of the Shanghai ship owners started with finance from the bank. His company, Wheelock Marden was sold in 1985 when together with my partner Oistein Thorsen I purchased the service company Wheelock Marine Chartering and changed the name to Fenwick Shipping Services,” explains Antony, who has over 30 years of shipping experience.

Today Fenwick Shipping is a bulk cargo shipping company operating out of Hong Kong with a fleet of six modern grab-fitted handysize vessels concentrating on the Asia and Oceania region. Capitalised at $5 million Hong Kong dollars, as an agent Fenwick Shipping acts on behalf of both principals and major industrial charterers. The company is supported by

representative offices in Sydney, Australia, and Pune, India.

“We are an anomaly in the Hong Kong ship owning fraternity in that we operate our ships entirely on the spot market and with contracts.

We also have smaller handysize vessels, whilst many others focus on larger vessels for the charter market,” notes Antony.

“We specialise in the Australia trade, carrying fertilisers in and raw materials and mineral bulk out. We also have held a contract for many years carrying wheat from Australia into New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Most of our customers are large Australian companies, that we deal with time and time again so we have very good relationships with them, and the broker sector.”

Over the last five years, Fenwick Shipping has transported something in the region of eight million tonnes of various dry bulk commodities that as well as fertilisers, minerals and wheat include steel, limestone, cement and

Tien Fei loading

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 19

Ma Cho at Sydney

Self un-loading

cement clinker, coke and petcoke, coal, salt, sugar, logs, alumina, and copper, lead and zinc concentrates. The company also prides itself on its ability to handle many of the more unusual or challenging cargoes.

Fenwick Shipping’s fleet has also evolved since the company began, having started out with three 18,000 tonne vessels in the early 1980s. “We were the first foreign company to order ships to be built in China,” notes Antony.

“These initial vessels were delivered from CSSC, Guangzhou shipyard.”

He continues: “We’ve since ordered ships three times from China. This includes our current 16,000 tonne vessels, M.V. ‘Ma Cho’ and M.V. ‘Sheng Mu’ which were delivered in 1997 and 1998 respectively from the Xingang shipyard.

We later ordered two 22,000 tonne ships from an independent privately owned shipbuilding company, Hongxin Shipbuilding, positioned alongside the Taizhou river in the Jiangsu province. These are the M.V. ‘Kuanyin’ and M.V. ‘Kuniang’, and they joined the fleet in 2008.

Finally we ordered one last set of two 24,000 tonne vessels from the Shanhaiguan shipyard, Qinhuangdao.”

As well as its own fleet, Fenwick Shipping has a close association and shareholding in National Marine Corporation in Manila, and the former Blantica Shipping Jakarta. Together these companies generated a gross freight income of approximately $40 million annually. “Blantica is no longer in operation, but we continue to work with its ex-employees for our agency work in Indonesia and to keep up-to-date with that

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Profile: Fenwick Shipping Services

Grain loading market. National Marine Corporation is part of a wider group, for which I am the foreign partner, that is a large shipping company with around 20 to 25 per cent of the local container market,” explains Antony.

With the shipping market having suffered like many others due to global economic events, Fenwick Shipping has been careful to keep a close eye on shifts in the market. Some of these are more positive than others as Antony explains: “Developments within the industry as of late is the rise and fall of the Somali pirates across the Indian Ocean, which have been a severe trial for us. We took various steps to fortify our vessels with razor wire, a citadel for crew members, a whole code of behaviour, and finally armed guards onboard, but for now the threat seems to have died down a bit.

“The other main area is crewing. Crew costs have gone up exponentially. We get all of our personnel from China, but we have found that the costs increase by ten per cent every six months or so, which makes it difficult and expensive to retain good crew,” he adds.

It is issues like these that Fenwick Shipping

has to balance in its daily business, alongside those challenging market conditions. In terms of the approach that the company is adopting in order to stay on top for the next period, there is very much a focus on smart decisions and increasing efficiency.

“As a business we will continue to take contracts as and when, try to keep on top of the ship management and crewing, and trade our ships hard to keep both debt and operating costs low. Those three points are the main key elements of survival for ship owners, as well as not making any highly leveraged purchases at the top of the market. By doing just that one thing you will be a successful ship owner,” concludes Antony. v

Fenwick Shipping Services www.fenwick-shipping.com • Bulk cargo shipping company • Modern fleet • Family heritage

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We have been consolidating due to the economic situation, but despite hard times we have increased turnover and are growing our customer base gradually

sea

Safety at

F

ollowing several years of working in the marine sector selling marine services, Andreas Ioannou founded EPSCO, Cyprus, as a single person venture in 1995 after seeing a gap in the market for an experienced co-ordinator between solution providers and ship owners/ship management firms. Wholly focused on the safety sector in its infancy, EPSCO began to offer more in-depth safety services and diving and technical services as its success grew. Today, the company offers worldwide marine and safety servicing, which includes life rafts, fire systems and extinguishers, dry docking, electronics, in water services, spare parts and certificate tracking. On top of expanding its services in line with customer demand, the company has also opened fully staffed branch offices in Norway, Germany and Singapore, run by 23 personnel with representation and contacts across the globe.

With safety accounting for approximately 90 per cent of EPSCO’s business, the company focuses on providing high quality, competitively priced on board/ shore servicing and supplying of a range of fire equipment.

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Profile: EPSCO This includes breathing apparatus, immersion suits, CO2 systems, EEBDs, medical oxygen resuscitators and cylinders, smoke/heat detection systems and emergency escape breathing devices; all fire services are carried out by Class approved/authorised service technicians.

On top of this, the company also has a global network of authorised liferaft service stations, such as Viking, DSB, Fujikura and CSM, where staff can service all major brands of rafts in any port that has an approved station. Dedicated to customer satisfaction and delivering quick turnarounds, EPSCO has ensured this service is available 24/7 and 365 days a year. This is a challenge for the firm, particularly with urgent requests, but is one that the company meets every time due to its experienced and reliable team.

Over the last 18 years the company has expanded its portfolio to such an extent that EPSCO now acts as the partner office of Denmark’s Viking Life Saving Equipment A/S. This means that any sales enquiries to Viking from companies based in Cyprus are dealt with

by EPSCO, thus positioning the company as a leader of maritime safety in the country, elevating

it from middleman to outsourced solutions provider.

Since last appearing in Shipping & Marine magazine in July 2012 the company has enjoyed steady growth despite a low shipping market, as Andreas, founder and managing director, elaborates: “We have been consolidating due to the economic situation, but despite hard times we have increased turnover and are growing

International Mining & Marine International Mining & Marine Ltd (IM&M) is a leading UKbased company specialising in the supply and service of safety equipment to the world wide marine industry. It works alongside some of the world’s largest and most important ship owners and ship managers and is currently supporting over 750 vessels. IM&M is responsible for the supply, service rotation and technical advice for portable gas detection equipment, which supports EPSCO to increase overall safety and reduce costs.

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Profile: EPSCO

FPS-USA (Fire Protection Service) FPS-USA (Fire Protection Service) is fully dedicated to the required round the clock services called for in the maritime industry. This type of dedication has strengthened its hold as a top marine service company and client confidence in its abilities. EPSCO has the same mentality when it comes to customer needs and has an unlimited desire to keep the customers’ needs first.

our customer base gradually. One area where we have seen a rise in demand, is for fleet contracts, which is where we offer customers contracts to take control of their safety services such as fire equipment, breathing apparatus and so on. We do this either on our own or together with Viking, depending on the requirements of the customer.”

Acting on behalf of its customers, the company takes full responsibility of all services and products it supplies; to organise this more efficiently EPSCO developed a new tracking software, SCMP (Ship’s Certificate Management Program) in co-operation with MAKE IT GmbH. Developed for ship owners it simply and efficiently tracks and reports on all services arranged by EPSCO, all relevant data is available onboard, shore side and online. In the previous article, Andreas elaborated on the innovative software: “SCMP tracks every single service that we carry out on behalf of the customer as well as all the certificates they have ever received from us; these can then be viewed online and downloaded at any time by the customer or vessel crew. The software also displays when the next service is due and we undertake to remind them 60 days before a scheduled service. You could call ESPCO a value-added supplier.” All records are totally secure and only accessible via allocated user names and passwords.

This commitment to stringent levels of quality, developing excellent customer relationships, and reliability is not just applied to the company’s safety services, but also to its diving and technical sectors of the business. “Diving services mean we offer diving inspections, hull cleaning, propeller polishing and in water repairs,” elaborated Andreas. “We work with a network of diving stations around the world, such as UMC International, who we also represent. Meanwhile, on the technical side, we represent manufacturers and trading companies that supply Japanese and Korean spare parts; these are very specific markets, we don’t want to be a jack of all trades, we want to be a focused specialist.”

Over the coming years Andreas aims to expand into the target markets that include the Middle East, China, Dubai and Shanghai: “These areas are still part of our long term strategic plan, but right now we are focusing on our core areas, which are generally Germany and Singapore.” Despite economic uncertainty, EPSCO has continued to enjoy growth, which is certain to continue due to its excellent reputation and proven record for quality. v

EPSCO www.epscocy.com • A worldwide provider of marine safety equipment and services • 18 years of marine safety experience • Also offers diving services and technical sales

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Profile: Lauritzen Kosan

Tenna Kosan

A reliable

partner

R Bureau Veritas Created in 1828, Bureau Veritas is a global leader in testing, inspection and certification, delivering high quality services to help clients meet the growing challenges of quality, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. As a classification society, Bureau Veritas assesses ships for conformity with specific sets of Class Rules. It provides ship and marine equipment certification on behalf of Flag administrations. Bureau Veritas has revenue of four billion euros, employs 59,000 people in 140 countries and classifies 12,100 ships of total 97 million gross tonnages

elied upon by a growing list of some of the largest and most demanding companies in the world, Lauritzen Kosan offers dependable transportation of liquefied gases, such as energy gases (LPG) and petrochemical gases. With an undisputed and unsurpassed record for the safe handling of volatile cargoes, the gas carrier division of J. Lauritzen A/S has added some of the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly vessels to its fleet. Controlling a

combined fleet of 43 semi-refrigerated/ethylene and fully pressurised gas carriers in the 3000 to 10,000 cbm segment, including vessels under construction, the division took delivery of Helle Kosan, the first of six 3700 cbm pressurised gas carriers to be built at Yangzhou Kejin shipyard in China in November 2010. The remaining five vessels were delivered in 2011 and 2012. “The Kosan brand has been in the market for the last 60 years and today operates in three different sectors: ethylene, semi-refrigerated and pressurised. We have three commercial offices,

Tenna Kosan, deck piping and vent masts

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Tenna Kosan, maintenance of cargo tank level gauge our head office in Copenhagen, an office in Singapore and another in Shanghai, which we share with other divisions within J. Lauritzen A/S. It is here we do our own in-house commercial management and technical management on the semi-refrigerated ships and ethylene carriers; the reason we have in-house management stems from our belief that technical incidents should be solved quickly,” says Thomas Woidemann, president of Lauritzen Kosan. “Meanwhile, our pressurised fleet is mainly managed by the Japanese technical firm Star Management in Tokyo.” In comparison to other gas carrier firms, Lauritzen Kosan’s ships are small in size, which

api marine API Marine is a designer and manufacturer of integrated automation systems and sensors for LPG&LNG carriers, oil & chemical tankers, offshore vessels & oilrigs. API Marine has supplied its advanced cargo control and automation systems for a wide number of Lauritzen Kosan vessels, among which ‘Isabella Kosan’ - first ship in a series of 12 fully refrigerated gas carriers, which won the prestigious Lloyd’s List award – ‘Ship of the Year’ back in 2008.

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means more port calls and shorter voyages; it also means any technical incident that arises needs a swift solution.

Having developed a strong reputation for the dependable ocean transportation of petrochemical gases and energy gases, Lauritzen Kosan has established a dominant foothold in the European and Mediterranean markets. Moreover, the division’s Shanghai office has increased its share in the Far East market, serving major oil and gas firms involved

returning clients, as Thomas explains: “We are very close to our customers and have a dialogue

in the development of massive operations in China.

Customer service is a core focus for the company, which is proven in its long list of

with them every day, either through the broker or directly. Some of our contracts of affreightment go back to the mid-90s and have been renewed year on year for the past 18 years in a row.

Profile: Lauritzen Kosan

Victoria Kosan market in the US and will continue to expand its business in the Middle East. Furthermore, the division will carry on enhancing services for its customers, as Thomas concludes: “We are a dominant market player with a diversified fleet that emphasises being a responsible company.

This includes setting high standards on CSR, environmental protection, health and safety, anticorruption but also that we require our suppliers to fulfill these high ethical standards, which we ensure through follow-up procedures including audits. This is something that we believe in – we don’t want to follow others, we want to be front runner and continue adding value to our customers.” v

Lauritzen Kosan www.lauritzenkosan.com To me this is very close customer contact; at Lauritzen Kosan we like to listen to our customers’ requirements and adjust our portfolio to what they really need. This can only be done with face to face contact.”

Being able to draw upon the support of parent group J. Lauritzen A/S, one of the world’s leading ocean transport providers, is one of the key strengths of the division, enhancing its profile as it continues building up international networks with customers based on trust, quality and flexibility. “Being part of an established brand name that has been present in the shipping industry for more than 125 years allows us to promote our company more easily because clients will recognise who we are and what the respective business divisions can offer,” explains Thomas.

With an unsurpassed record for handling volatile cargo safely, another major strength of the division is its fleet of modern gas carriers, which includes the Isabella Kosan, the first in a series of ethylene carriers delivered in 2007.

Ranking among the most technologically advanced ships in the category, she is designed with unique environmental protection and safety features and was voted ‘Ship of the Year’ at Lloyd’s List London Awards 2008.

“These ethylene carriers were built to meet the expansion in the Middle East, with 13 vessels constructed from 2007 - 2010. The demand for semi-refrigerated vessels is dying out, first of all because of high running costs and secondly the ethylene capability comes at a reasonable cost and offers flexibility. As we move forward, we aim to focus on larger carriers whilst maintaining

our presence in the pressurised sector,” says Thomas.

Looking to the future, Lauritzen Kosan will also concentrate on the booming shale gas

• Gas carrier division of J. Lauritzen A/S • Leading market position in Europe and Mediterranean • Has added semi-pressurised gas carriers to its fleet

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Profile: SEA-invest

link S

A crucial

NEMAG NEMAG congratulates Port Północny Gdansk and SeaInvest on their new operation in Poland. NEMAG has designed and supplied three off high performance clamshell grabs of 42 cbm volumetric capacity for handling coal.

The company is specialised in the manufacture of grabs for medium and large, to very large, mechanical four rope grabs for companies with extremely high berth occupancies.

Highest productivity and reliability are the key words in its design, leading to the lowest cost per ton material transferred.

NEMAG is very proud that Port Północny Gdansk and SeaInvest have chosen it again and wishes them all sorts of success in their endeavours!

EA-invest, one of the world’s largest terminal operators for dry bulk, fruit and liquid bulk, has established a worldwide reputation in the field of port related activities such as stevedoring, transport and warehousing. Active in more than 25 ports spread across two continents in eight countries, SEA-invest is involved in a wide range of industries due to its close proximity and connectivity to both producer and end destination, making it an imperative link in its customer’s supply chain.

Established in 1925 as a coal and scrap dealer, the company grew to become an international holding, boasting a global reputation for the handling of dry bulk, fruit and liquid bulk. With 5500 skilled and experienced personnel, SEAinvest is committed to delivering customer satisfaction through its core values of flexibility,

innovation, optimisation, knowledge and being client focused; this dedicated work ethic is evaluated daily to ensure ‘delivering quality’ its standard and is the reason behind SEA-invest having several quality certificates on each organisational level.

As one of the main players in the market of dry bulk handling, SEA-invest is active in a range of terminals; these include open-air and covered storage facilities, which can be found in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Poland South Africa and the Ivory Coast. Able to handle almost any form of bulk, the stevedoring firm creates added value for producers, traders and industrial consumers around the world by equipping its terminals with advanced ultra-modern installations. Aware that a strong infrastructure is essential in maintaining high quality services across a huge organisation, SEA-invest is dedicated to investing in its staff to ensure consistent quality on a global scale.

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Profile: SEA-invest

With its headquarters in the Belgian city of Ghent, SEA-invest specialises in operating port terminals, with Antwerp Bulk Terminal NV one of its most significant dry bulk assets. Part of the group for more than 20 years, it has become a dry bulk hub of activity across four terminals.

The largest of these is the Delwaide Dock, an 80 hectares area that specialises in solid fuels, iron ore and biomass goods; it handles ships up to capesize and also undertakes the loading of barges, trains and coasters. Second largest is The Sixth Harbour Dock, an area of 40 hectares that specialises in industrial minerals, solid bulk, break bulk, containers, biomass and agribulk; with a draft of 1450 metres and 60,000 square metres of covered storage capacity, as well as facilities for screening and packaging. Meanwhile, the bulk terminal’s Amerika Dock is a small four-hectare site that is used for the storage of industrial minerals and biomass goods in its 23,000 square metres of indoor warehousing.

It has an 11.4 metre draft that is able to accept medium sized vessels.

The newest addition to the Antwerp Bulk Terminal is Leopold Dock, a 12 hectare area with 50,000 square metres of covered storage

capacity. Opened in August 2011, the dock is dedicated to the handling of industrial minerals, agribulk and pig iron, and biomass.

Modelled on the success of Antwerp Bulk Terminal, SEA-invest’s most recent investment is its new Gdansk dry bulk terminal. Used as a dry bulk distribution and storage centre for the import, export and transshipment of raw materials such as coal and iron ore, the terminal’s facilities include two jetties, each with a draft of 15 metres; this allows for the loading or discharge of vessels with 150,000 dwt of cargo. The terminal also has two cranes, with a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes, one train loading station, five stacker – reclaimers, two maritime ship loaders able to load capesize vessels, 32 hectares of stockpiling area and modern environmental equipment.

Developed as a joint venture between SEA-invest, with 85 per cent share of the new facility, and global steel producer ArcellorMittal, owning the remaining 15 per cent shares, the terminal comprises of two former facilities, the Port Polnocny coal terminal, and the Rudoport terminal. Awarded a 30-year concession to operate the terminal by the Port of Gdansk Authority SA in 2010, SEA-invest’s short-term strategic aim is to handle ten million tonnes of

cargo in Gdansk. Costing no less than 40 million euros, the new terminal is anticipated to handle its first vessel in September 2013; in preparation for this, the company had its two portal mounted Liebherr LPS 600 cranes, which can handle up to 1000 tonnes per hour.

Currently handling approximately 120 million tonnes of cargo annually, the company’s most recent addition to its portfolio boasts advantageous navigational and hydrographic conditions, year-round ship accessibility without the ice-class and the potential to accommodate the largest vessels in the Baltic Sea, which will not only aid the Port of Gdansk to overcome the economic crisis, but also provide rapid growth.

Furthermore, the port’s good railway connection will enable the terminal to import coal and iron ore to other European countries, the latter of which Poland sources mainly from Ukraine via rail but the country also needs overseas iron ore for blending. Following these developments, SEA-invest intends to make Gdansk a base for its Baltic operations.

A pioneer in the shipping industry since its inception, SEA-invest will continue to improve its terminals and the services it offers in the future through strategic investments that will modernise the mature Antwerp Bulk Terminal and develop the terminal in Gdansk. Focused on asset improvements, while being pushed ever forward by its dedication for the highest standards of customer satisfaction and efficiency, the resultsdriven firm is certain to keep offering its global customer base an ocean of opportunities. v

SEA-invest www.sea-invest.com • One of the world’s largest terminal operators • Operates over 25 ports across two continents • New dry bulk terminal in Gdansk

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Profile: Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics

Flexible

solutions

W

ith offices throughout the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Europe, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) operates across the globe, offering an integrated global network that provides customers with efficient, reliable and punctual delivery, from factory to dealer. Owned by Wallenius Logistics AB, Sweden, and Wilhelmsen Ships Holding Malta, Ltd, the company benefits from more than 140 years of shipping expertise and a proven track record of reliability, quality, innovation and personal service.

Known in the industry as a company that can deliver innovative and sustainable shipping and logistics solutions for the manufacturers of cars, trucks and heavy equipment, WWL also handles specialised cargo such as rail cars, power generators, yachts and mining equipment.

The process of ocean transportation, inland distribution, terminal handling, as well as a wide range of technical services, is integrated efficiently by WWL’s sophisticated supply chain management services for such complex projects. From purchasing and contracting services to managing operations, quality, information systems, financial services and performance, WWL handles the full spectrum of the outbound supply chain in an efficient, accurate and cost effective manner.

Beginning all factory to dealer solutions with a

comprehensive understanding of its customers’ challenges, WWL believes in making the complex simple through offering services that reduce cost, enhance reliability and increase control. Once a customer has discussed what the cargo is, where it needs to be and at what time, WWL takes care of the rest through the integration of process management, visibility & reporting and supplier management services.

By optimising the physical flow of goods and the flow of information, WWL delivers speed, accuracy, improved visibility and improved costs to the outbound supply chain.

A leader in finished vehicle logistics, WWL was selected to manage vehicle processing for Subaru in Brunswick, Georgia in May 2013.

The project began in July, with WWL handling vehicle processing for Subaru’s auto imports, with services including accessory installation, pre-delivery inspection and preparations for trucks being transported to dealers. Chosen

by Subaru’s Brunswick operation for its skills, operational expertise and commitment to quality, WWL also manages auto processing at Subaru’s plant in Lafayette, Indiana. This intimate knowledge of its customer’s requirements will position both WWL and Subaru for success at the port of Brunswick.

Benefitting from more than a century of maritime experience, WWL has a comprehensive understanding of its customers’ transportation requirements, with deep-sea transportation,

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Profile: Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics RRS RoRo Stevedores Germany RRS RoRo Stevedores Germany GmbH is the dedicated stevedoring- & tally company for Wallenius Wilhemsen Logistics AS in the main European Automobile Hub Bremerhaven.

With its highly motivated and skilled staff, RRS RoRo Stevedores Germany GmbH covers the high quality demands of the leading global RoRo-Carriers.

Operations on a 24/7 basis, 360 days per year, guarantee cost effective calls and reliable schedules to its customers.

transshipment and short-sea shipping its core services in this unit. Dedicated to customer satisfaction, WWL carries almost two million cars, rolling equipment and static cargo at lengths up to 50 metres, heights of up to 6.5 metres and weights of up to 400 tonnes to most destinations across the globe on its modern fleet of PCTC and RoRo vessels.

As ocean transportation continues to rapidly evolve, WWL is focusing more on flexibility to offer its customers the best services without compromise; today, the company has 61 modern pure car truck carriers (PCTC) and RoRo vessels operating across the globe, servicing 13 trade routes to six continents.

Proud to pioneer the designs for these stateof-the-art vessels, the company’s innovation enables it to meet the requirements of its

customers with its fleet that can handle all types of cargo. Capable of carrying up to 7600 cars on 13 decks, WWL’s PCTCs feature up to six movable decks that can be raised for the accommodation of high and heavy cargo such as buses, tractors, trucks and bulldozers. The ramp capacity on these vessels is 320 tonnes, the maximum height of loads is 6.5 metres, and the maximum load capacity per square metre is three tonnes.

Representing the latest developments in maritime design, WWL’s RoRo carriers have a capacity of up to 7500 CEU’s, a ramp capacity of up to 420 tonnes, a maximum cargo height of 6.4 metres and width of up to 12 metres.

For greater stowage flexibility, in addition to cars, these vessels are capable of carrying RoRo cargo as well as project and heavy lift cargo.

Furthermore, with a maximum load of up to ten tonnes per square metre, the six decks on the RoRo carriers can accommodate heavy, high and specialised cargo.

On top of ocean transportation services, WWL has also moved 3.2 million vehicles and equipment safely to the point of sale through its extensive inland transportation network. Aware that high quality, efficient services require firstclass connections from factory to port and from port to dealer, WWL offers its customers firstclass connections and a modern fleet of trucks, including the trucks of its preferred partners.

With a dominant position in the shipping sector, the company aims to focus on expanding its foothold on land by increasing the number of inland operations it is involved in.

Over the coming years, WWL is looking to maintain its long-term contracts and partnerships and retain its global leading position in the shipping industry. To do this the company is to receive two ultra-modern Post Panamax Car carriers, with the option to build another two vessels in the future. Designed for the automotive, rolling equipment and manufacturing industries, the new cutting edge vessels will help ensure the ongoing delivery of first-class services to WWL’s customers once they are completed in 2014 and 2015.

These developments, alongside the company’s strategic aim to grow a stronger presence in the East and Far East, are sure to cement WWL’s excellent reputation for years to come. v

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics www.2wglobal.com • Delivers global shipping and logistics solutions • Operates around the globe • Main focus is on import and export between continents

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Containing the

V

spill

ikoma International Limited is a world leader in the design and manufacture of oil and chemical pollution control systems with a reputation in the global oil spill industry for developing innovative, high performance products to deal with all types of major response scenarios. The company, which provides solutions to over 140 countries, prides itself on supplying efficient, effective and reliable equipment for the containment and recovery of spilled oil and the protection of the environment.

Vikoma has built up considerable experience in its field, having been founded by BP in 1967 following the notorious Torry Canyon oil spill.

Today the company is the leading player in the market, a position that it has achieved due to its highly knowledgeable and experienced engineering and design team, an extensive global sales network and an in-house manufacturing capability.

The latter point is a key strength of Vikoma as the company’s ability to design and manufacture in the UK allows it to ensure quality and reliability standards remain at the highest level. In fact, the

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business is one of the few manufacturers of oil spill response equipment in the world to hold the BS ISO 9001:2008 certification for sales, design, development, manufacture, installation and commissioning.

Oil spill response and containment is becoming an increasingly important area in the offshore and marine industries, and as such Vikoma’s customers include many of the major oil companies, governments, ports and harbours, and major spill response organisations around the world. For these clients the company offers a wide product portfolio that includes a broad range of oil spill containment booms manufactured in high-quality neoprene and polyurethane for use in offshore, near shore and inland environments, high efficiency oil skimmers for both marine and industrial applications, a range of workboats and vessels, and a full complement of auxiliary equipment such as storage tanks, pumps, hydraulic powerpacks, and even training and commissioning services.

The company prides itself on continuously investing in and improving this range with the addition of new innovations. In fact, in April 2013 Vikoma launched a major new offshore oil

Profile: Vikoma International

recovery solution at Spillcon 2013, the AsiaPacific Oil Spill Prevention and Preparedness Conference and Exhibition that was held in Cairns, Australia. The new product, the OPRS 300 is the latest addition to the company’s range of class-leading offshore oil pollution recovery systems and is based upon patented oilattracting disks that have been proven to collect up to 300m3 per hour of oil, and can | work across oils with viscosities ranging from one to one million cSt. The OPRS 300 consists of a floating skimmer head that utilises Vikoma’s tufted disk

technology, combined with both an on-board recovered oil discharge pump and thrusters for manoeuvrability. Speaking of the product’s innovative design Vikoma’s managing director, Peter Tyler, explained that: “We are delighted to be launching this exciting new product at Spillcon 2013. Our design, engineering and manufacturing teams were presented with a challenging brief based on specific market feedback. Thanks to the introduction of a number of innovative solutions, the result is a system utilising a unique oil collection principle.

“This truly collaborative effort has seen us rise

Bootle Containers Bootle Containers Limited has been working alongside Vikoma International Limited for several years and enjoys a growing business relationship with the company. The two organisations complement each other; Vikoma International with its in-roads to national and international markets and Bootle Containers with its expertise in design and fabrication.

Bootle Containers Limited congratulates Vikoma International Limited on its success in the market place and looks forward to a long and prosperous future of mutual collaboration.

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Profile: Vikoma International

to the challenge of bringing this from an initial concept stage to delivering the largest capacity recovery system Vikoma has ever produced.

Our market research indicated a strong demand for this system and as such, we fully expect the OPRS 300 to become a leading product in our portfolio.”

The OPRS joins Vikoma’s skimmer products,

E. P. Barrus Ltd E. P. Barrus Ltd has a long association with Vikoma, initially supplying Yanmar L-Series and TNV-Series engines for their oil spill response equipment. Vikoma bid and won a military contract and together with Barrus’ military experience, skills and knowledge the two companies worked closely to comply with the MOD’s exacting specifications and requirements. The Yanmar 4TNV98, 4TNV98T and 3TNV76 were all selected for re-fuelling pump power packs used for aircraft and road vehicles and have been supplied to KBR for a substantial MOD contract.

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which are generally accepted as the world’s leading range of solutions in this area, with its Komara range having an oil recovery efficiency of greater than 98 per cent. Alongside skimmers, pollution recovery systems and spill containment booms, the company also designs and manufactures a range of workboats and vessels that can be used for a number of applications.

The Vikosprint, for example, is a fast, flexible and extremely agile aluminium trimaran, which is available as a standard workboat or as an oil spill recovery vessel complete with onboard recovery system and rigid booms. Offered in four sizes (12 metres, 16 metres, 21 metres and 30 metres lengths) Vikosprint can be provided with a range of Vikoma oil spill response equipment to deal with a wide variety of spill and contaminant situations. The company also offers a range of smaller vessels, such as the delta responder, delta clean and spillcat, which are for use in harbours or near-shore locations and are capable of meeting a number of spill or similar challenges.

Vikoma realises that an oil spill, regardless of size or environment, can have an enormous impact on a company’s operations. As such, alongside its products the company provides a range of after-sales training services ranging

from spares kits and individual parts, through to a full training and commissioning service. These include IMO Level 1 Beachmaster courses as well as engineer training and operator training programmes, meaning that the company can train a client’s employees in nearly every aspect of the product and its application.

For nearly 50 years Vikoma International has been dedicated to the recovery and containment of spilled oil and other contaminants. Today the business has built a world-renowned product range that is capable of meeting the most challenging environmental disasters. With the environmental impact of offshore and marine operations becoming an increasingly important issue worldwide, those in the industry can rely on Vikoma to ensure that these operations remain safe long into the future. v

Vikoma International www.vikoma.com • Highly experienced and skilled employees • Full range of oil spill recovery products • Extensive after-sales and training services

Profile: Port of Kemi

Mining for

growth A

cting as an excellent import and export harbour for industries within the Barents Region, the Port of Kemi, in Finland, offers the fastest route to the northern areas of Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Murmansk area in Russia. Situated along a range of favourable logistic routes, the port helps reduce the total costs of transportation; it also offers guaranteed ice-breaking and towing services to visiting vessels all year round and is home to Sampo, the only icebreaker vessel in the world operating specifically for tourism purposes.

The port consists of the Ajos harbour, which serves as an efficient logistics for the whole of Lapland and the Barents Region; it is located approximately ten kilometres south of the City of Kemi and approximately 39 kilometres from the Kemi Lighthouse. The minimum width of the channel is 100 metres and depth is ten metres. It has four quays, and the total length of the quays is approximately 920 metres, and two quays have railway connection. This harbour also includes the separate oil harbour, which has a mobile crane with a 7/6 – 12 tonne lifting capacity and container crane at its four quays.

There is also the Veitsiluoto Harbour, serving primarily as the import station for raw materials en route to the Veitsiluoto plant in operation by the Stora Enso Company. The total length of the quays is approximately

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810 metres, while the navigatable depth is seven metres; of the harbour’s seven berths, one is designed for the unloading from Sto-Ro ships from the side, while another is a normal Sto-Ro berth. The modern harbour has large huge warehouses and a wide area for the shipping of chemicals that are used in the production of paper, an industry that the Port of Kemi is an active player in.

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“Our main customers are companies in the forest industry, which is due to our area,” says Reijo Viitala, port director, MD, at Port of Kemi, “Traffic at the port has increased by more than ten per cent in the first six months of this year, with the production of bulk and cardboard going well. However, there are difficulties with the forestry industry at the moment as Europe is not using paper so much; this is an issue for us

because these are our main customers at the Port of Kemi.”

Handling a basic volume of 2.5 million tonnes a year in import and export, mainly from the forestry industry, the Port of Kemi has remained relatively stable despite the downturn. However, the port is keen to diversify its core markets and target new sectors such as the mining industry, as Reijo highlights: “We have a new customer, Baltic Bulk Ltd, which has begun to warehouse and export copper concentrate from a mine in Lapland. Our traffic is maybe growing 50,000 tonnes a year with cargo concentrate, but it is not so easy for mining industries nowadays as the cost of metal is going down. Despite this, we are in ongoing discussions with two mining companies and have spent the last four years importing equipment and machinery for use in mining. We are targeting volumes of up to five million in traffic if we are successful in our negotiations for two large contracts, one of which is a massive aggregate export deal from a major client in the mining industry, but no decisions have been made yet.”

As the nearest universal port to mines in North Finland, Sweden and north-west Russia, the Port of Kemi finalised improvements to

Profile: Port of Kemi

its railway connections in 2012 in preparation for the export of mining materials and also the potential increase in traffic from Russia’s Northern Sea Route. “We are very interested in the Northern Sea Route and anticipate changes happening between Europe and Asia; this could lead to cargo coming from Asia that will come on trains to these ports from Europe,” says Reijo. These investments are part of a huge 20 million euro upgrade programme that could possibly commence in 2015-2016 and involves developing port facilities and completely upgrading harbour facilities.

Another key investment at the port is a new larger and modern vessel that is expected to join its towing fleet in early 2015. This addition will enable the Port of Kemi to improve reliability and its ability to assist larger vessels during harsh winter months. These developments will also improve issues highlighted in a customer satisfaction survey the port and Kemi Shipping Oy conducted in early 2013. The results showed the majority of customers at the port are satisfied with the personalised service,

openness, fast response to changing customer demands and accessibility of the port, which were all viewed as core strengths. However, required improvements at the port include renovation, maintenance, and a faster response to customer enquiries; moreover, the port must aim to be more active in finding new business and traffic to support existing business.

Following the results of the survey, the Port of Kemi anticipates the mining companies it is negotiating with will make a decision either late 2013 to early 2014 that will enable it to generate more traffic and increase volume growth. Furthermore, the port is aiming to increase its presence in the renewables sector and is awaiting a decision on the development of a new bio-diesel plant close to the port area.

This proposed plan has been delayed by a year or two but the port is confident it will proceed, renting a 40-hectare site so work, once a positive decision has been made, can proceed immediately. “Our main hope for the future is that forestry industry continues because they are major players in our area; we also hope the

mining companies we are negotiating choose to partner with us in these upcoming projects,” concludes Reijo. v

Port of Kemi www.keminsatama.fi • Northern gateway port • Closest to the Barents Region • Beginning mining export

BALTIC BULK Baltic Bulk Oy has specialised in offering logistic services to its customers since 1991. The company’s operating area includes product handling, bagging, bulking, transport, warehousing as well as stevedoring.

Baltic Bulk OY operates with a wide range of products like grain, wood pellets, peat moss, coke, ores etc. In Kemi harbor Baltic Bulk Oy stores and handles ore concentrates at the moment.

Because of its position Kemi Harbor together with Baltic Bulk offer good possibilities to expand the services especially to the mining industry, which will grow significantly in Northern Finland during the coming years.

Baltic Bulk Oy is prepared and experienced to create advanced and economical logistic solutions for its customers. Furthermore the company is well known by its flexible services and full-time co-operation.

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Fishing for

opportunities F ounded in 1972, Zamakona Yards Group has evolved from its humble beginnings as a workshop dealing in ship repairs into a global partner in the shipbuilding and ship repair sector. As an innovative supplier of products services and solutions for companies within the offshore and maritime industries, the group has the expertise and more than 1000 dedicated employees working at its three prime locations, Bilbao and Pasajes in the Northern Peninsula and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to continue offering a global answer to customer requirements. Furthermore, the group’s strategic location and knowledge enables it to offer a quick response to customers in both Europe and West Africa.

The shipyard in Bilbao has been in operation

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since 1914, but didn’t become part of Zamakona Group until 1980. With more than 40 years experience in the industry, the group’s official inception was in 1972 when president of the group Pedro Garaygordobil created Napesca in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Starting with 12 employees, the group continued to expand through forming workships and shipyards that offer a comprehensive range of services.

Today the group has three shipyards, Zamakona Shipyard, which specialises in building tugs, fishing vessels and ferries and offshore supply vessels with the most modern design and manufacturing technologies; Zamakona Pasaia Shipyards, which specialises in building offshore supply vessels, fishing vessels such as tuna boats, freezing vessels, cargo ships and tugs, as well as repairs; and Repnaval Shipyards,

which specialises in the repair, conversion and maintenance of vessels. “At present our facilities are sized for the construction of vessels up to 110 metres in length, of various types, production facilities of approximately 35,000 metre squared and the latest technical advances in respect to steel and outfitting activities,” explains Luis Magro, managing director of Zamakona Shipyard.

“Our main slipway can be utilised for vessels up to 5500 tonnes and 25 metres in breadth.”

Dedicated to forming long-term relationships with its customers, suppliers and partners, the group strives for maximum quality in service provision and transparent engagement with its clients. “Our main customers are highly demanding ship owners from the north of Europe. For the last decade we have strengthened our commercial policy to attend our

Profile: Zamakona Shipyard

customers’ needs for tailor made vessels with the highest technological advances. The results of this have permitted Zamakona Shipyard to foster customer loyalty within niches such as standby vessels, anchor handlers and tug boats,” says Luis. The high standards achieved by Zamakona Shipyard stems from the group’s core values of working as a team, focusing on results, proactivity, work safety, environmental awareness and continuous innovation and training; the group also develops projects based on its own quality certification system and expertise. Furthermore, the group constantly expands and improves its installations, in terms of service and infrastructure, to improve accuracy and speed.

Linked to fishing vessels since it was first established, the group has seen an increase in demand for these ships due to a combination of new licences and stricter regulations in the farming industry. Having gained decades of expertise in this field, the shipyard won a major $35 million contract in 2012 with Echesbastar Fleet, Bermeo, as Luis highlights: “Last year we

achieved one of our greatest aspirations of building a state-of-theart tuna freezer vessel for the recognised ship owner Echesbastar Fleet, located in Bermeo.” At 89.8 metres in length, the ship will have a storage tank capacity of 2000 metres cubed and is due for delivery in the first quarter of 2014. The vessel is a prime example of the high quality work Zamakona Yards can achieve within the fishing sector and strengthens its position as a leading Spanish shipbuilder Moreover, Zamakona Yards signed a new contract with Solvtrans for the construction of a new 3200 metre cubed well-boat, with delivery scheduled for early 2014. The new vessel will

be built to the same specifications as its sister ship, Ronja Polaris, which is currently being built at Zamakona Yards. “We are building a live fish carrier of 3200 metres cubed for Solvtrans AS, the world’s largest well-boat company for transport of salmon and trout. This is the first

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Profile: Zamakona Shipyard

TÉCNICAS Y SERVICIOS DE INGENIERÍA Técnicas Y Servicios De Ingeniería, S.L. (TSI) is a Spanish, private limited company established in 1983 with the objective of competing and positioning in the specialised market of noise & vibration engineering solutions.

TSI has an extensive experience in the field of ‘Noise & Vibration Comprehensive Management’. As a result of this extensive experience, Zamakona Shipyard assisted by TSI as its noise & vibration consultant - as it has been over the last 15 years - form an expert team in constructing silent ships in compliance with the N&V limits requested by the owner.

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vessel of a new generation of wellboats designed and developed

by Solvtrans in co-operation with Zamakona and Rolls-Royce Marine AS.” Both vessels will boast cutting edge technology for fish welfare as well as new and improved solutions for fish handling. As part of the 22 million euro contract, Solvtrans has entered an option for an additional two vessels with delivery in the second half of 2014 and first half of 2015.

Renowned for offering ultra-modern, high quality vessels, Zamakona Yards was recognised for its efforts when the emergency response and rescue ship Esvagt Aurora was named Best Spanish Built Ship in 2012. “Esvagt Aurora was outfitted for cutting edge technology that will enable the vessel to sustain harsh weather

conditions; it incorporates the latest advances in rescue boat embarkation and launching, followed by a system for ice build-up prevention and necessary equipment battling marine pollution. This was the third vessel constructed

by Zamakona Yards for Esvagt, which confirms the strength of our relationship and this reputed ship owner.”

Looking ahead, the group’s strategic aim is to become a partner of its customers, while also generating new orders and focusing on strengthening the position it holds within its niche markets. “We also aim to become a solid alternative for new and interesting projects such as wind maintenance and seismic support vessels,” concludes Luis. v

Zamakona Shipyard www.zamakonayards.com • One of Spain’s leading shipbuilding and ship repair groups • Built the award winning Esvagt Aurora • Constructing state-of-the-art tuna vessel

Profile: Maats Tech

New approach S

ince its last inclusion in Shipping and Marine magazine in November 2012 Maats Tech Ltd (Maats) has continued in its mission to provide total marine project solutions. Driven by a sea change in the way the major subsea contractors approach new vessel acquisitions, the company has continued to grow, with requests for quotations reaching the company on almost a weekly basis.

Working with shipyards to provide onestop solutions to the varying aspects of naval architecture and marine engineering, the company helps to facilitate the acquisition of new vessels for the major offshore operators including Subsea 7, Technip, McDermott and Aker

Solutions. From its three work sites across the UK Maats also specialises in providing bespoke carousel systems for specialist ship requirements.

The company designs all of its carousels individually and has catered for requirements of up to 7000 tonnes, plus the equipment is able to handle flexible pipe, umbilicals and power cables. The carousels are usually either a basket type or reel type (with or without an outside wall) although combination units can be provided to operate in either mode depending on the project requirements. The company’s head office is based in Micheldever, Hampshire, with its Engineering and FEA Office in Gloucester and its Naval Architectural Office in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear.

Maats also supplies dolly base systems for

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Profile: Maats Tech Underdeck carousel

Xstrata coal support

Pressure vessel

deck-mounted reels. The reels can store up to 240 tonnes of flexible pipe product on each of eight 9.2m diameter reels. Maats also provides overboarding and load-out equipment associated with the carousel system, including tensioners, chutes and a range of loading arms.

During the past eight months, the company’s growth has been accelerated by the different approach the major subsea contractors have taken to acquire their new vessels and at the same time the coming together of an uplift in deep water flex pipe laying and increase in demand for heavy cable laying for the wind industry and power distribution industry. Elaborating on the subject, managing director, John Holt, observes that: “In the past, the subsea contractors would commission a shipyard to build the vessel and supply the mission equipment – diving systems, large cranes, pipelay systems – to the shipyard for the shipyard to install. The operator would make the capital investment in the mission equipment and provide the financing. This approach has seen a major change wherein the operator says to the shipyard this is the vessel we require and here is the functional specification of the mission equipment, go out and find it, deliver and finance it. The result is that Maats and other manufacturers get an enquiry from four or five shipyards all for the same project.” On the back of this approach, the company has secured four contracts, including a 7000te underdeck carousel for Subsea 7 HCV, which is currently under construction at HHI Korea. It has also secured contracts from Subsea 7 for three flex-lay vessels with VLS top tension of 650te. These vessels will include carousels and 30te loading tensioners.

The 7000te Subsea 7 carousel is an ambitious project, representing the largest under-deck unit the company has produced so far and is designed to handle heavy cable or flex pipe-lay products. The flex-lay Subsea 7 vessels have been commissioned for a Brazilian company.

As well as these projects the company has several other constructions underway, including vessels being built in Romania and outfitted in Norway for Bergen, Kleven and Vard. There are also DSME (Korean) new builds for the Techip/Oderbrecht partnership in Brazil, one vessel for Subsea 7 being built at IHC Holland and two vessels for IHC, which are also being produced at the Merwede facility in Holland.

Drawing on its comprehensive experience with carousel systems, the company has developed a detailed knowledge of varying deck layout and pathway engineering and boasts growing expertise in assisting operators to find solutions to complex operational handling requirements. Having worked in the sector for over 25 years, Meets has earned a detailed understanding of the requirements of vessels operating in the offshore environment. This means that in addition to its design services it is able to offer a specialism in Finite Element Analysis, which is critical in assessing the interplay between the incoming heavy mission equipment and the vessel.

At the core of the company’s mission is its dedicated team of engineers.

Reflex vessel

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Profile: Maats Tech

Hiring in an offshore environment is difficult.

Maats aims to provide quality management and design services. To ensure that the company is able to recruit the best people for its team, it looks to expand its human resources by engaging graduate and track record proven engineers. This can be challenging as the company is keen to

hire career personnel and the availability and fluidity of the market can make finding the right staff hard work. However, Maats is dedicated to having a strong core team. Despite the challenges its staff levels have increased by 20 per cent since 2012 and has a 30 per cent female to male makeup. These staff have mainly added to the company’s project management and detail design teams who underpin its ability to obtain new contracts.

Also vital in moving forward is the company’s finite element team, which is continually being expanded to further take advantage of the expertise that Maats is able to offer its clients.

Additionally its in-house project support has

attracted work with Rutherford Labs for pressure vessel analysis, Nepean coal mine support fatigue analysis, Diamould ESP Cable Thermal FEA and Reflex Tech Solutions for whole ship analysis and Bergen for vessel/carousel interface assessment.

The net result of this investment in people and partners is that Maats is able to offer new solutions to its clients. As such, the company is currently engaged in the development of a whole vessel design for an inshore cable laying vessel that would include its established carousel and handling equipment. John further explains: “Offers for the full detail design have been made to the operators and we await feedback as we are quite keen on these vessels as they are not the usual run of the mill. They have to have the capability of laying in reasonably deep water (N/SBaltic), but at the same time have the ability to ground if they lose the tide on a beach approach – our Caspian tugs had the same grounding capability.” The company’s development of new products is set to be bolstered in August 2013 as the company’s team has been tasked with commissioning Maats equipment on the Subsea 7 Seven Waves at IHC. “This is the first of the five Petrobras bound vessels that Maats is involved with and will be a milestone in the learning curve for the other vessels,” John elaborates.

These developments will place Maats in a strategic position to meet the challenges of an ever-changing market. Possible future projects are circulating due to the collision of offshore wind and platform cable lay requirements and the movement of flex lay operations into ever-deeper waters. During the second half of 2013 the company intends to focus on HR and product expansion to meet the future demands of the market. In the short term, focus will be on shifting the direction of the business by moving some of the team from design and building operations to production operation.

This change reflects the fact that projects for Subsea 7 and others are repeat contracts, which are something rarely heard of in the industry and quite challenging. However, the ability of Maats to retain its customers and consistently rely on repeat contracts and product support operations demonstrates how the company’s specialist engineering is fast making it an industry leader. v

Maats Tech Ltd www.maats.co.uk • In operation for over 25 years • Total marine project solutions • Specialist engineering

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Profile: Remontowa SA

A long

history

A

s the operators of Poland’s one of the largest and oldest shipyard, Remontowa SA has developed a reputation as a company synonymous with quality and expertise. With 15 vessels currently under construction, four of them powered by LNG propulsion, the yard boasts a full order book until mid 2015. Wholly owned by Remontowa Group,

the company’s slipways and docks allow for the construction of a diverse range of vessels.

Operating seven floating docks, the yard’s quays are well equipped with essential infrastructure, such as 24 cranes with the ability to lift up to 300 tonnes.

“Remontowa Group is the largest group in the north of Poland and contains 26 companies; the core of these is Remontowa Ship Repair, which focuses on conversions, followed by Remontowa Shipbuilding, which takes care of newbuildings,” says Jan Paszkowski, director of commerce at Remontowa SA. “The latter began in 2005 when Remontowa SA acquired the nearby Northern Shipyard and renamed it Remontowa Shipbuilding. This yard was built in 1945 with most of the production located under a roof, which at the time was used to allow the building of vessels for the Polish, USSR, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian and East German navies after the Second World War. These days, covered production facilities are a great asset as they offer weather protection during production.”

Currently Remontowa Shipbuilding only employs approximately 700 workers and around 1500 subcontractors, while Remontowa Group employs approximately 4500 workers at and subcontractors in its two shipyards located in

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Sable

Fannefjord and Romsdalsfjord

Gdasnk, Poland. On the Baltic Sea, Remontowa SA is a leader among European ship repair yards and a huge player in the world market, repairing or converting more than 200 vessels and offshore units for clients across the globe each year. Alongside several affiliated companies and subsidiaries that are also members of Remontowa Group, the company offers a wide range of ship repair and shipbuilding services for ferries, container carriers, floating docks, training and research ships, offshore units and steel structures.

“To give an example of our diversity and the range of interesting projects we are involved in,

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Remontowa SA is currently building ten PSVs for a US customer, one LNG powered PSV for a Norwegian client, and three LNG ferries for Norwegian and Danish owners that are going to be revolutionary. We also have a number of Navy projects and a series of ice breaker container vessels for the arctic,” says Jan. To support this comprehensive range of services offered, the company’s yard is fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and essential infrastructure. Nevertheless, the company is keen to not unnecessarily over invest, instead making financial decisions based on the orders it receives, as Jan elaborates further: “Our

investments tend to depend on the orders we are getting so with a niche being developed for bigger vessels we have been building a reinforced large launching facility. We also have a very large storage and outfitting hall where all of the supplies come straight from the tracks under the roof; we are now planning to enlarge this platform to double its size.”

Following its construction of the first Polish built LNG carrier in May 2008, Remontowa SA has developed a strong foothold in the production of LNG propulsion vessels, with a contract for the construction of two specialist vessels intended for supplying oil mining and oil drilling rigs signed on 5th July 2013. Valued at nearly 100 million euros, the contract will be for the first supply vessels powered by LNG-fuelled engines; the vessels will be fully constructed in Gdansk and will be equipped with cutting edge navigation systems, including gas-electric propulsion. The ship is also equipped with an external FIFI system (Class 1 or 2) from Fire Fighting Systems AS, for external fire fighting on platforms, offshore installations, other vessels or oil terminals. Confident that the successful completion of this innovative project will result in further orders from customers within this sector, the company plans to expand its operations further into the Norwegian LNG market.

Specialising in the offshore and ferry markets, the company is cautious about focusing on any core business area in a complex and ever changing industry and instead is keen to remain flexible. Recent projects in ship repair and conversion area include the upgrade and modernisation of three Maersk vessels, Maersk Launcher, Maersk Lancer and Maersk Leader, which received improvements such as new working deck coverage, stern installed A-frames to facilitate heavy anchor handling and the conversion of two fuel tanks into chain lockers.

Furthermore, Leader and Launcher had an additional anchor 170 T pull-handling winch installed to ensure ultra-deep water anchor handling.

Another recent major project for Remontowa Shiprepair and Conversion involved the conversion of shuttle tanker Siri Knutsen into the world’s largest well-stimulation vessel (WSV), while also retaining its shutter tanker capabilities.

Up to 19 various major items of equipment, mainly well stimulation system components, have been installed as well as new dedicated piping and electrical systems. On top of this, Remontowa SA installed a new accommodation module to house quarters for additional crew of 18 and the well stimulation system control room.

Profile: Remontowa SA

Landegode

Highland Defender

All of the above activities require adherence to stringent health and safety standards. Remontowa Group’s yards have developed their own safety departments that meet the highest offshore requirements. The yards also run their own, well-equipped Fire Brigade that serves both yards and the City of Gdásk if required.

Fully booked until mid 2015, and as vessels continue to require repairs or conversions, global energy demand continues to rise and the market for liquefied gas grows, the future looks positive for Remontowa. v

Remontowa SA www.remontowa.com.pl • Operators of Poland’s oldest and largest shipyard • Offers a range of ship repair and shipbuilding related services • Undisputed leader in gas-powered ferries in Northern Europe

Fire Fighting Systems Fire Fighting Systems (FFS) is the leading designer, maker and supplier of external fire fighting equipment in the marine market. In close co-operation with its partners Remontowa ship building, it supplies complete external fire fighting systems for offshore vessels, PSV, AHTS new buildings, comprising up-to-date and supply of product. This includes PTO / electric driven pumps with drivers, monitors, foam mixers, deluge systems, remote control systems and all related equipment for a complete systems. It also offers detailed tailor made design, and engineering, providing the most competitive and best performing system including class approvals and performance warranty and start up and final commission as standard in its scope.

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Maantielautta Stella

SA Agulhas

S

RV Mirabilis Starboard

Yards ahead

TX Finland Oy operates three shipyards in Finland: Turku shipyard, Rauma shipyard and Arctech Helsinki Shipyard, of which STX Finland owns 50 per cent. Each yard has its own areas of specialism, so for example, the Turku Shipyard is an experienced builder of cruise ships and other technically demanding specialised ships and offshore units; the Rauma Shipyard is known for ferries, research vessels, naval ships and multipurpose vessels; and finally, the shipyard in Helsinki specialises in ice-breaking and ice-going offshore and Arctic vessels.

The company is part of the international STX Europe Group, and also has its own subsidiaries - Aker Arctic Technology Oy, STX Finland Cabins Oy, Shipbuilding Completion Oy and ENG´n´D Oy. STX Finland was last featured in Shipping and Marine in November 2012, when Toivo Ilvonen from Rauma Shipyard noted that he believed the outlook for the shipping market was improving and the number of enquiries the company was receiving was rising.

This fact is borne out by the success the yards have seen since that magazine was published. At the end of November 2012, STX Finland Oy’s Rauma Shipyard celebrated the naming of the double-ended ferry Stella, built for and delivered to Suomen Lauttaliikenne Oy (Finferries).

The environmentally friendly vessel will operate in Turku archipelago, Finland, on the Korppoo – Houtskari route, the length and challenging ice conditions of which will set special requirements on the vessel’s performance. Particular attention has been paid to the ferry’s energy efficiency and safety. “The design, procurement and building processes at the STX Finland’s Rauma Shipyard have proceeded according to plans, and the co-operation with the customer, authorities and co-

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Baltic Queen

operation partners has gone very smoothly. We are very satisfied to be able to deliver this ferry, representing the cutting edge of shipbuilding in this vessel type, to Finferries and the residents of the Turku archipelago," commented Toivo.

STX Finland’s Turku Shipyard also saw progress in November 2012, when TUI Cruises confirmed the order of a second cruise ship from the facility. The sophisticated and highly innovative GT 99,300 cruise ship will be approximately 294 metres long and approximately 36 metres wide.

The ship will have 1250 staterooms, serve 2500 passengers and have a crew of 1000 people. The cruise ship will have many environmentally friendly features, with a particular emphasis on the vessel’s energy efficiency.

Furthermore, new developments have begun at Rauma, which Toivo had discussed in 2012 as part of STX’s approach going forward.

“An important aspect of STX Finland’s strategy will be to move further into the offshore business,” he said. “By adding a greater repertoire of platform supply vessels or windfarm support vessels to our portfolio alongside our existing business we will be adding two legs more to our business, making it more stable. This, along with ongoing research into environmental technologies, is the future of STX Finland.”

True to his ambitions, in February 2013 Toivo was able to witness the laying of the keel of an offshore patrol vessel at Rauma. Scheduled for delivery in November 2013, the 96 metres long and 17 metres wide vessel is technically highly advanced, using the latest technologies and environmentally friendly innovations in accordance with the Government decision-in-principle on sustainable public procurement. The vessel is equipped with machinery using liquefied natural gas (LNG) and diesel

Profile: STX Finland

as fuel. The requirements of energy efficiency and safe operation of the vessel in different accident situations have been taken more extensively into account in the design of the ship than earlier.

The vessel is being built for the Finnish Border Guard, but in addition to border safety and frontier supervision missions, the offshore patrol vessel can also be used for maritime search and rescue, military national defence and various underwater assignments both independently and in collaboration with other authorities. The vessel will also feature substantial oil destruction capacity with important meaning for the maritime oil destruction capability of Finland and the Baltic Sea region. The Finnish Environment Institute has been closely involved in the design process of the vessel.

Speaking at the keel laying ceremony, Toivo noted the significance of this vessel: “Today, we have reached an important milestone in the production of the offshore patrol vessel. Now it is time to begin the assembly of the ship’s hull, and thus the ship will gradually find its final form by the end of July. This order by the Finnish Border Guard is extremely important for the Rauma shipyard, as it combines the shipyard’s Arctic, environmentally friendly and technological competences. This vessel has a direct influence on employment by providing approximately 450 man-years of labour.”

As work on the border patrol vessel nears its end, the Rauma yard can focus more attention on another new contract, signed as recently as June 2013. Moving back into its traditional area of ferries, this deal

is for the conversion of the cruise ferry MS Bergensfjord. The ship will undergo extensive interior changes, whereby several cabin areas will be converted to public spaces, a tax-free shop, cafeteria and the restaurant areas are to be increased significantly. As Timo Suistio, EVP & CMO of STX Finland Oy commented, this is a noteworthy agreement for the yard: “The signed contract is a proof of STX Finland’s strong position as a builder of large passenger ships and demanding conversion projects,” he said.

As extra proof of this, on 3rd July STX Finland announced a LOI of two newbuildings for Scandlines. “The ferries will be double ended and construction, which will allow them to be used on the route Puttgarden (Germany) - Rødby (Denmark) as well. Each ferry will have a capacity of 1300 passengers and 72 trucks or 382 cars. The ferries will be operating on environmental friendly LNG instead of traditional heavy fuel, thus reducing CO2 emissions significantly,” said Toivo, who is presently SVP Newbuilding projects in STX Finland Oy. v

STX Finland www.stxeurope.com • All three yards have vessels on order • Subsidiaries have wide range of functions • Turku yard constructed the world’s biggest cruise ships

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O

Delivering design

pening in May 2010 as a subsidiary of the successful ferry operator AG Reederei Norden-Frisia, Frisia-Offshore (FO) has earned a reputation for delivering innovative design solutions and expert marine co-ordination services. The company was created after the successful completion of a co-operation between its parent company and Offshore Wind Technology (OWT), where personnel collaborated on foundation design, crew transfer and shipping co-ordination. The experience was positive enough to encourage the decision to make a committed entry into the offshore sector, and the business has continued to grow since its inception. Drawing on over 135 years of shipping experience, the company has a core knowledge of the requirements of the marine sector and has identified three key areas: operating crew transfer and guard vessels, as well as offering marine co-ordination services.

The company has designed and operates vessels built to specifically address the needs

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of offshore operations. These are its Wind Force boats, which operate as crew transfer vessel (CTV) and support vessel. Wind Force I and II (built in 2009 and 2013) are completely new build aluminum catamarans designed to focus on offshore requirements. The bow of the boats has been specifically designed to allow them to operate around wind farms and their aluminum design allows an impressive speed up to 25 knots. Project manager Stefan Goldbach explained some of the benefits of these vessels: “Compared to most CTV, which offer an offshore personnel capacity of 12 personnel, the Wind Force vessels are able to transport a compliment of 24 personnel while retaining the ability to carry equipment or supplies. In addition to this the vessels are equipped with deck cranes and have enough deck space to carry up to ten tonnes.

Both vessels are fully classed by Germanischer Lloyd (GL) or Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and fulfill highest safety standards.” Beside this, FO is able to take advantage of the infrastructure of its parent business, as the two are located in the

same area. This gives Frisia Offshore access to a host of facilities including storage areas and workshops with a minimum of start up cost.

Investment in the design and operation of the company’s CTV portfolio has given it a marketleading advantage in offshore crew transfer. With its two Wind Force vessels and a former patrol boat, which has been outfitted to meet offshore requirements, the majority of Frisia Offshore’s fleet operates at twice the capacity of other crew transfer vessels. The company’s competence in crew transfer operations was demonstrated in 2009, when it won three contracts for crew transfer, guard vessel and buoy laying on the Alpha Ventus project. Since the successful completion of this project the company has been awarded contracts that will see i.e. Wind Force I in operation until at least next year, which has bolstered the company’s reputation and given it a steady revenue stream while it explores future projects. One of the key developments in its crew transfer operations is a proposed joint venture with Offshore Wind Services B.V, which

Profile: Frisia-Offshore

would see crew transfer projects shared by the two companies. While the venture remains in development at this time, it would see OWS and Frisia linking their markets and co-operating in executing crew transfer operations. OWS currently has strong links to the UK market while Frisia Offshore has links to the Scandinavian market. The goal is running the CTV-business together in the future, referring to the market in Germany, Holland and possibly the Benelux countries. It is hoped that the effect will be to create an extensive market chain with both OWS and Frisia-Offshore leading the way in crew transfer services.

In addition to its crew transfer service the company is able to offer support in marine co-ordination of the operation of wind farms in an offshore environment. It operates Germany’s only privately owned buoy tenders and is able to facilitate the deployment and collection of buoys throughout the year. Beside this business, guard vessel duties bring a steady stream of work to the business and compliment the company’s design and crew transfer operations. Frisia-

Offshore has been successful in winning multiple contracts in this area including one recently with Dong Energy, which will be crucial in the short term while the proposed joint venture with OWS is put into operation as Stefan elaborates: “We are currently focused on serving a new Guard vessel contract, so this will be our main focus for the next two years. We would also seek to earn more contracts for the boats. Likewise, our focus will also be on the CTV market with an order for a third vessel and the possible joint venture with OWS. We would like to try to achieve at least a

few more contracts in this sector over the next few years. Of course we have made very good progress with the marine consultancy sector, which we will also hope to gain some contracts in this area.”

Frisia-Offshore has seen a rapid entry into the offshore sector and shows no sign of losing any of its momentum. Its innovative design and offshore experience have given the company the tools to succeed a competitive market and its connections to local business and other offshore operators are set to drive the company in its goal of becoming the leading provider of crew transfer and offshore services in the German offshore wind industry. v

Frisia-Offshore www.frisia-offshore.de • Innovative design solutions • Rapid entry into offshore sector • New build aluminium catamarans

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City Port Basin

Prime

T

position

he bustling city port of Split is Croatia’s largest passenger port and one of the largest in the Mediterranean. With number of passengers on the increase it is vital for the city that its port is able to manage the flow of goods and passengers effectively. At present the statutory task to the Port Authority of Split is the construction, maintenance and management of the Port of Split area. The key mission of the Port Authority is to provide excellent customer service to the businesses and residents on the Croatian islands as well as to the port’s increasing tourist traffic.

The Port’s location on the Adriatic coast has made it an important centre for local and international maritime travel, as managing director of the Split Port Authority, Milan Blazevski, explains: “One of our key strengths is a

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favourable position on the Adriatic coast, situated in the heart of Europe. Split is located in the centre of the future EU's Adriatic-Ionian macroregion, and thus in a good position to benefit from the establishing of the EU’s Motorways of the Seas of southeast Europe. That will be a great opportunity for the Port of Split to improve both passenger and cargo services. Among our key strengths are possibilities of intermodal transport, so that both the freight and passenger parts of the port are connected to the railway and the road, which is close to the A1 motorway Split-Zagreb. Previous, ongoing and planned infrastructure investments should also prove to be our strengths.”

Currently the Port of Split boasts six port basins. City Port basin is designed to cater for the passenger transport and freight lorries passing through the port. Vranjic-Solin Basin is designed

for cargo ships. Kastela A, B and C basins are designed for the needs in industry while Kastela D basin is to serve as a hub for the transfer of passengers from the Split airport.

For a port as large and strategically placed as Split it is important that the Port Authority be able to recognise and adapt to the changing needs of region.

With heightened interest in the region as a tourist destination there has been an increase in the number of passengers using the port. During 2012 4,253,135 passengers travelled through the port, an increase of four per cent on 2011, while in 2010 the number was 4,109,881. Split itself saw an increase in cruise ship passengers of 35 per cent between 2011 and 2012, with the number of calls of cruise ships increasing by seven per cent. Milan observes: “The main customers are the residents and businesses from

Profile: Port of Split

the Croatian coast and islands, the rest of Croatia and neighbouring countries. Important customers of the port are Croatian and foreign tourists. The dues paid by cruise ships and ships connecting the eastern and western coasts of the Adriatic Sea provide a significant part of our income.”

To meet the growing needs of the port’s clients Port of Split is currently involved in a multi-million Euro investment project, focusing on the expansion and development of the port.

Milan elaborates: “The Port of Split Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project is the largest project of the Port of Split Authority. It consists of the construction of two passenger berths for cruise ships and large ferries on the outer side of the breakwater. One berth will be 300 metres long while another berth will be 320 metres long.

Thus the port of Split will expand outside the current frame of the City Port Basin and the port capacity will be increased, which will relieve traffic congestion on the existing berths and provide more space for ferries, especially those that connect Split with Croatian islands. The investment, including the VAT, would amount to more than 23 million euro and will be funded by the 18.8 million euro EBRD loan.”

The expansion of internal berths 26 and 27 represents the beginning of the finalisation of the pier of the City Port basin. The investment of 4.7 million euros on upgrading berths 26 and 27 with two 140-metre long berths and two 30-metre wide unloading ramps has increased the operating area of the berths to 2770 square metres, which has led to a significant increase in passenger traffic capacity for the port.

Another current project is the construction of a fishing port and wholesale market in Komiza.

Working in conjunction with its partners - the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, the County of Split-Dalmatia and the City of Komiza, the Port Authority is currently working on a redraft of the project to ensure that it can be accountable towards public money while meeting the projects core principle of helping local fishermen to remain competitive while complying with European fisheries policy.

Throughout 2013 The Port of Split Authority Project Implementation Unit will focus on the public procurement procedure for infrastructure rehabilitation projects. It is also preparing an action plan for the adoption of the PERS, the only port-specific environmental management standard that is fully recognised by the ESPO. It is hoped by the Port Authority that it will soon be able to obtain the EcoPorts port standard.

The Port of Split is undoubtedly a dynamic economic hub, fuelled by its strategic location

and increased tourist interest. However, even as the Port Authority works to ready the port for continued growth the port’s managing director retains an ambitious attitude regarding the port’s future of the coming years, concluding that: “Five primary objectives set before the Port of Split Authority are: providing excellent port service for domestic traffic throughout the year, remaining the leading passenger port in connecting the eastern and western coasts of the Adriatic Sea, providing top quality service for cruise ships throughout the year in order to ensure that Split and the region remain an unavoidable destination in the Mediterranean, revitalising of geostrategic position of cargo parts of the port in order to substantially increase the competitiveness, and last but not least, that the Port of Split should become the backbone of the new development paradigm of Split and the region. I would like to point out that Split is a peninsula with two sea shores which will be used in the optimal way.” v

Port of Split www.portsplit.com • One of the largest passenger ports in the Mediterranean • Leading passenger port in connecting the eastern and western Adriatic coasts • Development contracts worth around 30 million euros

MSC Cruises MSC Cruises Ltd is the market leading cruise company in the Mediterranean, South Africa and Brazil and operates across the globe. MSC Cruises sails throughout the year in the Mediterranean and offers a wide range of seasonal itineraries in Northern Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the Antilles, South America, South and West Africa and the UAE. The 12 ships comprising its modern fleet carry 1.4 million passengers.

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vision to reality

From

T

he Port of Rønne is situated on Bornholm, a Danish island at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, and today is the municipality’s only remaining commercial port. Approximately 45,000 people are resident on the island whilst more than 500,000 tourists visit every year. The port is crucial for all the maritime services – such as goods importation and exportation – that ensure daily life continues as well as being a hub for tourism, one of the island’s most important markets. A wide portfolio of services and solutions has developed to fulfill this role.

The Port of Rønne is spread across four sections, the first three of which are home to the port’s primary businesses: North Harbour, containing ten quays; South Harbour, containing 15 quays; West Harbour, containing four quays; and the Southern Boat Harbour, which provides

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mooring and docking services for personal vessels. They cover a huge area including three kilometres of quay at a draft of five to seven metres. As well as being of importance to the island’s goods and oil import, the three main harbours are also essential to Bornholm’s exportation economy.

Port director Thomas Bendtsen talks more about the island’s export market: “Bornholm is a farming island so there is a lot of produce being shipped overseas. We also have some special products: there is a large company here, for example, that produces sand. It processes sand gathered from the ocean and sources it for many different applications. The island also produces a lot of gravel for use in engineering foundations, and this is all exported via the Port of Rønne. On top of that we are also the second largest cruise port in Denmark. In 2012 there were 54 calls at our terminal and we are very proud of that.”

Bornholm is an island with a unique Scandinavian culture and outstanding geography, drawing many people to visit the island. It is also placed at the mouth of the Baltic Sea, making it ideal stopping port for cruise liners in the region. Together, they make tourism and the cruise industry a major part of the island’s economy. The existing cruise terminal has served the Port of Rønne well but as the nature of the market changes, port authorities are looking at ways of ensuring it remains up-to-date.

“At the moment we are a little bit restricted by the infrastructure in place so we are working hard to raise the finance for constructing a new cruise port able to handle today’s larger cruise ships,” explains Thomas. “With enforced footprint regulations we foresee new vessels entering the sector and these vessels will be a lot bigger. As a result we are planning to create a 400-metre cruise pier that will give us the

Profile: Port of Rønne

capacity to host the latest cruise liners. We are working with the entire island to deliver this. It is important that we are generating the knowledge needed in order to facilitate passengers in the best way possible. The entire island is backing these developments.”

Wind energy has become an increasingly important sector during the past decade and Bornholm is situated at the centre of many proposed offshore wind farm projects. The Port of Rønne authorities are understandably interested, therefore, in bettering the port’s wind energy facilities in order to attract new business.

To date it has already had a good track record of becoming a base for survey vessels carrying out pre-construction seabed studies, but there are many more opportunities in the future as some of those projects become fully realised.

“There is a lot of wind farm activity within a 30 mile radius of the Port of Rønne at present

and we have had the good fortune to be able to attract some of that business, managing to get come companies using us as a base port,” Thomas says. “At the moment we are not ideal for a single large project but we are situated perfectly for servicing several different wind farm areas at the same time. As I see it, the port has a lot of potential for economy of scale for servicing companies. In order to be ready we are devising plans to expand our capacity, land area, and facilities. We want to be ready as soon as the regional market commences its heavy activity.”

Business at the port to date has proved very resilient, with most industries experiencing little slowdown during the recession. The most notable market drop was consumer imports on the island but other activities at the port have remained stable. The emerging wind farm sector has even added new activity to the Port of Rønne, providing it with a healthy

business outlook on the future.

In addition to a new cruise terminal and expanded wind energy sector capacity, the Port of Rønne authority is working to optimise the entire port infrastructure so that it can better serve all its target markets. Thomas notes that vessels are growing in size and that of particular importance to the port is to be able to handle these larger ships. To determine the best developments, local companies are being consulted for their views on the future of trade, commerce, and shipping requirements.

The port director ends with a brief outlook on the future of the Port of Rønne and Bornholm: “We want to make the quays and infrastructure suitable for the future. In order to keep local businesses competitive we must take their views on board, so we are working very closely with the local community to improve the Port of Rønne. The processes we are implementing in the organisation right now are collected into a programme called From Vision to Reality.

That phrase sums up what we are attempting to do.” v

Port of Rønne www.roennehavn.dk • New cruise terminal planned • Growing wind farm activity • Gateway to the Baltic Sea

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Versatile

D

utch ship and project management firm Workships Contractors is a leading asset manager for the offshore oil and gas and renewables sectors, with almost 25 years of experience in managing drilling and service platforms, crewing, vessels, procurement, vessel audits and concept development. Using its expertise and innovation in operating a wide range of rigs in strategic locations across the globe, such as semi submersible drilling rigs in the North Sea and Brazil, dynamic positioned accommodation vessels in Mexico as well as anchor handling and platform supply vessels world-wide, the company takes pride in providing its clients and stakeholders with a high quality service.

Viewing each vessel as individual, Workships Contractors offers tailored management services as required by the owner and traditionally gets

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operator involved in unique projects that benefit from the company’s versatility. Through forming close working relationships and co-operating closely with owners and clients, Workships Contractors ensures the development of bridging documents; requirements and management system responsibilities are shared easily.

Seeing an opportunity to expand its service offering, Workships Contractors began operating as an asset manager for the offshore wind industry with its wholly managed subsidiary Offshore Wind Services BV (OWS) in 2006.

Established as a joint venture between Workships and Netherlands based Royal Doeksen, OWS provides quality crew transfer vessels, accommodation barges, jack-ups and data solutions to the offshore wind sector.

In 2012 in line with Workship’s strategic objective of becoming a leading provider of quality crew transfer, OWS acquired Offshore

Wind Power Marine Services (OWPMS), one of the best known operators in the offshore wind crew transfer industry. A pioneer in the safe transfer of crew to offshore wind farms located in the UK, OWPMS is one of the longest serving companies in the industry and has outstanding experience of operating more than 300,000 safe transfers.

To further enhance its presence in the offshore wind market, Wind Contractors has announced a co-operation between Frisia Offshore and Offshore Wind Services for the Dutch and German offshore wind markets and their plans to invest in new CTVs as part of a new joint venture in 2013. By increasing the number of vessels, the joint venture anticipates becoming the quality provider of safe and reliable personal transfers in Europe. In the company’s last article with Shipping & Marine magazine, operations manager Philip Woodcock explained the mutual

Profile: Workships Contractors

benefits further: “For Workships Contractors it will be an important first step into Germany, strengthening its name as a workboats operator across Northern Europe and forming an important part in its future objectives; for Frisia Offshore, it means a strong partner outside of Germany.”

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology and designed to transport personnel and equipment comfortably and safely to offshore wind turbines, the company’s fleet is specifically targeted for wind farm projects throughout Europe, with new larger vessels coming on stream also built to conform to other European member state rules. The newest addition to the OWS’s fleet, Offshore Wenduine (OW3), was converted into a multi-purpose catamaran work boat by shipyard Den Breejen under the supervision of Workships Contractors. The conversion was completed at the end of April 2013 and the vessel completed her first deployment for Ampelmann Assisting in the testing of Ampelmann L-type access system and SSC in the same month.

Offshore Wenduine was constructed to become an ideal vessel for diving support projects but can be adapted for survey and cable works. Specifications include a forward moonpool hatch with staircase into the waster, aft stairs, survey desk with two seats, a 19 inch rack for survey equipment and tracks to allow easy fitting of project specific equipment, such as a desk; two anchors with the possibility of increasing to four-point mooring, large storage space and lockers, KPM DNV-classed suspension seats, all with a table tray and power sockets, USB charger and day & night lights.

Over the coming years, Workships Contractors is focusing on its objective of becoming the service provider of choice for all of the industries it operates in. Within offshore wind, the company plans to further increase its fleet with larger CTVs, accommodation solutions for construction and O&M, both in DPII and moored configurations, the former of which is being designed in cooperation with DAMEN shipyards. Once this step is complete, the company will expand its service offering with complete O&M solutions. v

Workships Contractors www.workships.nl • Currently operating ten crew transfer vessels with the aim to expand • Acquired OWPMS in March 2012 • Developing a strong partnership with Frisia Offshore

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Managing success

A

t the beginning of the 21st century, shipbuilders in Turkey started to specialise in the construction of small tankers. As a result, the Atlantis Tankers Group, which concentrates on the transportation of chemicals, refined oil products and edible oils around the world, contracted its newbuildings to its subsidiary Armona Denizcilik AS, which was founded for this purpose.

Armona itself contracted with Turkish shipyards for steel construction or complete build projects, serving as main contractor with responsibility for logistics (purchasing), classification issues, design, supervision, quality control and mobilisation. Later, when it also took on a ship management role, this proved to be extremely advantageous, as the company had detailed knowledge of the vessels and their maintenance.

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Founded in 2002, Armona has to date built ten tankers for Atlantis Tankers, and also provides ship management, comprising technical management and crew management.

Its construction experience has given the team a superb knowledge of the tankers it manages today, enabling it to maximise the efficiency of all activities. Beyond the Atlantis Fleet vessels Armona also performs technical and crew management for a part of the Borealis fleet, which does not share the same commercial management.

Technical management encompasses all services that maximise the operational efficiency and physical condition of a vessel throughout its working life, in compliance with the requirements of industry regulators. These services include the organisation and supervision of dry dockings and major repairs, purchasing, vessel inspection and budget control. The fleet that is technically

managed by Armona now includes the Atlantis Armona, Atlantis Alvarado, Atlantis Antalya, Atlantis Aldabra, Atlantis Andaman, Atlantis Antibes, Atlantis Alhambra, Bomar Mercury, Bomar Pluto and Bomar Ceres. The fleet ranges in ages from nine to five years, and in size from 3502 dwt to 7003 dwt.

When it comes to successful technical management, Armona has found that a critical element is the cost effective procurement of the miscellaneous stores, spares and services, which are consumed by vessels. The ability to obtain the most attractive prices on competitive terms for major consumables is a deciding factor that contributes to the success of the organisation, which is located amid vast shipyard facilities in Istanbul.

In addition to a streamlined and efficient procurement process, Armona also maintains a dedication to health, safety and environmental

Profile: Armona Denizcilik

protection. It is firmly committed to achieving ‘zero incidents, zero spills’ in all its operations by means of continuous improvement processes, and by obtaining recognised certification in relevant areas. Its management system is certified to ISM, and in 2011 the management systems ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management, OHSAS 18001:2084 for Occupational Health and Safety Management and ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management were introduced and certification in all three was completed in mid 2012. The next target is to prepare for the ‘Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan’ (SEEMP) legislation and to establish the right foundations for this.

Also on the agenda for the future is investment into dynamic and purpose-built software. Armona Denizcilik is looking for technology that will enable the company to optimise business practices and increase charter revenue while improving compliance and conformance with key regulations and commercial guidelines.

In order to achieve its ambitious plans for the future, Armona Denizcilik devotes money and resources into recruiting and training only the highest quality personnel, because it believes that only the best people can deliver the best results.

Armona Denizcilik’s crew management services encompass a broad range of activities including recruitment and selection, deployment, training and on-going management of all officers and ratings engaged on its vessels.

One of the approaches that sets Armona Denizcilik apart as an employer is its approach to managing these staff. The company believes in giving team members the necessary authority to take decisions - open communication is encouraged, and constructive criticism is expected. At Armona Denizcilik, people are encouraged to identify with the company and realise how they can help enable its success, not only by doing a good job, but also by suggesting improvements. An equal opportunities employer, Armona Denizcilik welcomes employees from countries around the world, who enrich and provide a dynamic, international environment.

Armona Denizcilik may be a relatively young company, but it is keen to see its parent Atlantis Tankers become renowned as one of the best tanker companies in the world. Since it built its first tanker, it has expanded and improved the fleet to meet changing customer needs ever since. Today, the Atlantis Tankers fleet is one

of the most modern and most independent medium-sized fleets in the world. Its tankers comply with the highest safety standards, are all double-hulled and meet the requirements of the most demanding customers and authorities.

Both Atlantic Tankers and Armona Denizcilik are committed to providing a first-class service and continually strive to offer a safer, more environmentally friendly service. Customers benefit from these continuous efforts to find cost effective solutions for the transport of their cargoes.

In the Mediterranean, the organisation’s commercial managers are market leaders in each of the market segments in which they

operate. Overall, Atlantis Tankers and Armona Denizcilik are confident they give customers real value through their large, reliable fleet of modern vessels, which all meet, or exceed, current safety standards. v

Armona Denizcilik www.atlantis-tankers.com • Ship management arm of Atlantis Tankers • Also undertakes shipbuilding projects for Atlantis • Health, safety and environmental protection are given highest priority

A. Riva A. Riva B.V. is a Rotterdam-based company specialising in the supply of stores, spares and provisions to vessels at all European ports. A. Riva B.V. wishes to congratulate Armona on their excellent and high quality fleet built up over the last years and their high reputation as chemical vessel owners. A. Riva B.V. would also like to take this opportunity to thank Armona Denizcilik for their kind support over the past years and is looking forward to an excellent co-operation for many years to come.

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The full

package

F

ounded in 1976, privately owned shipping firm Gestion Maritime has grown from humble origins as a small family company into a major global provider of dry cargo bulk carriers. Offering a comprehensive range of high quality shipping services and tonnages for the global transportation of dry bulk cargoes, such as coal, grains, iron ore, bauxite, steel products and fertlizers, the company manages and operates six Panamax and two Kamsarmax size vessels with a total tonnage of approximately 680,000 dwt and an annual carrying capacity of 4.3 million tonnes. Furthermore, Gestion Maritime’s expertise and dedication to quality service has resulted in a substantial and growing competitive advantage in the dry bulk market.

“Gestion Maritime currently manages eight bulkers and is supervising the construction of two tankers; additional vessels are anticipated to join our fleet shortly,” says Danilo Fumarola, CEO of Gestion Maritime. “We are a one-stop-shop, offering the full package of ship-owning services at the best possible level. It’s an approach that is ruled according to the traditional precepts of the past, combined with a modern and young view of the market, with an innovative and open communication between the team at Gestion Maritime and our international customer base.”

Benefitting from being a trusted name in a changing shipping market, Gestion Maritime views reliability and reputation as key drivers to its ongoing growth and success. Fully compliant with the latest MLC International Conventions

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dealing with on board labour standards, Gestion Maritime is also ISO 9001 and 14001 certified; it is also in the process of gaining the ISO 50001 certification for energy management on board. This commitment to high standards is a huge advantage to the company as it expands into the tanker market, as Danilo explains further: “Our quality and safety system developed for our dry bulkers was already at tanker level and developed by tanker specialists. The level of innovation on tankers is currently more advanced than the dry sector, which has facilitated our R&D activity to shift and fit new technology from wet to dry. Moreover, our superior level of management combined with our expertise on dry bulkers is bringing Gestion Maritime to successfully differentiate our vessels on the market.”

Known as Panamax and Kamsarmax ship managers, the company’s intention to become known for high quality services in both dry and liquid segments has progressed with the order of two 50,000 dwt IMO II MR newbuildings to be constructed at Hunday Mipo Shipyard, South Korea, and delivered by mid 2015. The tankers will have the highest fuel efficiency, with savings of $6000 to $8000 per day in comparison to existing MR tankers. “This move represents Gestion Maritime’s debut in the wet sector,

which will bring significant advantages to the company in terms of better exploitation and further development of internal know-how, more diversification in terms of vessel types and the possibility to transfer new tanker technologies onto dry bulk,” says Danilo. “Before continuing with the further development of our tankers fleet, we shall carry on with our dry bulk sector first, which remains our core business. We remain fully committed to the expansion of our presence in this specific sector and thus developing an increasingly stronger position.”

Boasting long-term relationships with companies such as Cargill, EDF, Glencore and Ultrabulk, the concept of customer service is an important role in the company’s business model, as Danilo highlights: “Our list of charterers include top mining companies, utilities, top traders and operators; with this in mind we are accepted and credited by all Stock Listed Customers who require diligence and full transparency on financial statements. We aim to ensure our customers receive smooth operations by offering high

Profile: Gestion Maritime

where commercial, administration and crew matters are dealt with, and the office based in Riejka, Croatia, which is the heart of the firm’s technical management, research and development and other operations.

Dedicated to establishing standards of work and internal career paths that fulfill expectations of staff, Gestion Maritime offers its employees a stimulating work environment with potential for progression.

Over the coming years the company aims to focus on head-hunting high quality shipping personnel in order to

strengthen its team further and help facilitate the management of a growing fleet that will continue growing in the future, as Danilo concludes: “Our vision is to become a benchmark tonnage provider and to play a key role between the shipbuilding world and top operators. We also aim to connect those who employ vessels every day and those who build them by intercepting the changes in trading and the operations of vessels and bringing in a new shipbuilding formula. We also aim to reduce the average age of our fleet, enhancing our vessels so they are more modern and efficient.” v

Gestion Maritime www.gestionmaritime.com • One-stop-shop for ship management services • Specialise in dry bulk carriers • Expanding fleet with two tankers on order

standard vessels and the best services.”

Covering a full range of services, such as crew, technical, safety/vetting and quality, risk, insurance, operations, commercial management, administration and finance, the company is particularly focused on research and development, which has resulted in Gestion Maritime setting up its own formula in building new generation ships and improving the efficiency and green footprint of second hand tonnages in relation to the requirements to reduce CO2, NOx, Sox emissions from incoming International Regulation. Complying with all current and proposed environmental regulations, as part of the international code and regulatory requirements, is a core business strategy for this ship management firm.

As a team of approximately 20, Gestion Maritime’s personnel are well experienced, educated, young and dynamic. They are spread between the company’s two offices, its headquarters based in Monaco,

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Addressing the

T

challenges

TS NMF is situated in the southwest of Hamburg, Germany, at the mouth of the river Este. The company, which was part of the Sietas Group, has been producing cranes and hydraulic equipment since 1968, and today offers its clients an extensive range of products supported by worldwide service and a hard working team.

As TTS NMF is focused exclusively on the manufacture of marine and offshore cranes, it is able to offer a variety of products designed for every conceivable application. TTS NMF cranes are characterised by their narrow footprint and their indefinite slewing range of

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360˚. All electrical and hydraulic components are arranged inside the crane house in order to achieve the triple advantage of protection from marine atmosphere, ease of maintenance and service as well as maximum operation safety. TTS NMF builds sleek cranes that move smoothly and reliably and do not get in the way.

As Thies Bliemeister, head of engineering, noted: ‘Our designs are known for their elegance and superior structure.’

As TTS NMF’s prime concern lies with the protection of clients’ investment, it pays special attention to the design aspects that extend the life of cranes. All mechanical and electrical components are installed inside the crane house

to safeguard them from the hostile marine climate and improve safety. Indeed, TTS NMF is known for its emphasis upon this latter area.

Its cranes and lifting equipment are designed to protect the equipment from operator error and adverse environmental conditions, and are designed and manufactured in rigorous accordance with international safety standards and certified by recognised authorities such as GL, BV, LRS, DNV and ABS. Equipment and fitted components are arranged for easy maintenance, while standard automatic speed regulation during starts reduces wear on the drums. TTS NMF cranes are power-regulated so that all three movements can be operated simultaneously at maximum speed. TTS NMF cranes also have a low overall height to maintain stability of the vessel.

The sorts of features highlighted above have evolved through investment in research and development and a dedication to working in close co-operation with customers. As a result of this strategy TTS NMF has created numerous custom-made designs such as the slim crane DK III, specialised service cranes with electric sea-motion followers, telescoping and knuckle boom cranes or service cranes with automatic positioning assistance and steering gear.

‘TTS NMF products are known to be robust, reliable, easy to operate and easy to maintain,’ Ralf Ressel, managing director of TTS-NMF, sums up. ‘Our exquisite quality and cost effectiveness is rooted in German craftsmanship

Profile: TTS NMF

in the production and assembly of European components made to our specifications for heavy lift cranes.’

Alongside taking a pride in the quality and usefulness of its products, TTS NMF is very committed to technology and solutions that will help make efficient use of the world’s natural resources. To this end, it creates reliable, safe and innovative solutions for the growing market of producing energy offshore, and today brings state-of-the-art lifting technology and an imaginative engineering team to the hoisting challenges associated with the erection and maintenance of offshore wind turbine farms.

In addition to its standard combinations of service and boat control cranes (BPK) and the combined crane, and rescue system (KD KombiDavit) for life boats, most of its heavy cargo performance cranes (DK II and V) can be used in offshore operations. Tasks such as the loading of supply vessels, windmill towers, turbines and blades, the installation of windmills, deck and subsea lifts are accomplished efficiently with TTS equipment fitted with electric sea-motion followers or an Active Heave Compensation system.

Furthermore, the company’s commitment to expanding the product range has resulted in a number of successful collaborations with world-leading customers in heavy lift shipping.

Recently, TTS NMF designed, constructed and produced several heavy lift cranes for jack-up vessels - its expertise in the design, manufacture and installation of cranes and hydraulic equipment allows the company to offer integrated turnkey solutions for hydraulic jack-up systems.

TTS NMF deep-sea cranes are intended for operation on offshore construction vessels and semi-submersibles and are operable to up to 2000m water depths. Like others, this NMF product can be equipped with Active Heave Compensation.

Over the four decades it has been in existence, NMF has evolved from a traditional manufacturer into a highly co-ordinated, consistently productive and efficient industrial company. It is dedicated to fulfilling all clients’ requirements, and takes pride in its direct and active long-term relationships with its customers.

‘TTS NMF has a soul,’ Sascha Reetz, improvement manager, remarked about the company-wide sense of personal commitment.

Also thanks to its dedication to pursuing innovation, quality and overall excellence, TTS NMF is now an integral part of the worldwide TTS Group of companies supplying a large number of products for the marine, offshore, heavy lift, port, yard, and mega yacht industries worldwide.

TTS NMF is now ready to set the stage for the next phase of its growth. Its experience and vision will serve to strengthen a prime position in the offshore and heavy cargo market while exploring new markets, new products and new services to ensure the success of customers in today’s flexible economic environment. v

TTS NMF www.nmf-kran.de • Forty years of experience to draw upon • Works in partnership with Mariner Ship’s Equipment • Service and problem solving available 24/7

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Well

stocked A

lthough the company’s history began in 1912, the name Oy Maritim Ab didn’t come into effect until 1918. Initially the company’s main business was to deliver and sell boats as sailing was on the rise in Finland, and this included boat accessories. This side of the business continued to grow to the extent that today Oy Maritim Ab is a wholesale supplier of marine accessories.

The company has over 250 suppliers from all over the world, and more than 10,000 items in stock. “Our main markets are the local OEMs, retail, export into Russia and the Baltic states,

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and a few other branches. The main focus is on the products we carry in our daily inventory, however we also provide special deliveries through contracts on request,” explains CEO Kim Tigerstedt.

Based in Lauttasaari, Helsinki, Oy Maritim Ab has its own 1100 square metre showroom for marine and boat equipment. This enables it to sell directly to the consumer alongside its wholesale business. As such, Oy Maritim Ab enjoys a customer base that includes both commercial and professional purchasers.

The types of product on offer include heaters, painting materials, locks and handles, ovens and

grills, winches, ropes and cables, life jackets and survival equipment, electronic and navigation devices, deck fittings, water and refrigeration systems, and batteries and electrical accessories as well as general care and maintenance products. Also in stock is a range of interior accessories such as tables and chairs, as well as other décor items. Oy Maritim Ab continues to update its range constantly and to bring in new product types ensuring its customers are always ahead of new developments and regulations.

Recently Oy Maritim Ab invested in a new warehouse automisation system from Kardex, which is expected to bring a number of benefits

Profile: Oy Maritim Ab

conditions companies perhaps expect a bit more from their suppliers as they aim to make their supply chain work harder. As such, Oy Maritim Ab has taken the initiative to invest in improving its business in order to be able to offer more when the industry picks up again. “At all times we are working to improve our business. The current economic situation presents such opportunities in terms of time to really focus on the internal operations and how to improve on these. For example we are focusing on how we can do more over the web such as the flow of information, marketing, and an effective ordering system,” highlights Kim. “We want to be an easy partner to work with and a strong supplier to our loyal customers. Our vision is to continue to be the leading supplier of marine equipment to the Finnish OEMs and retailers, as well as in our

export markets. We believe we have all of the tools to achieve this and to remain on top, and are now eagerly awaiting a positive upturn in the economy,” he concludes. v

Oy Maritim Ab www.maritim.fi • Marine equipment supplier • Wide product range • New automisation system

to its processing. “This gives us real efficiency when talking about delivery times, storage and inventory,” notes Kim. “It was a big investment but all the trends in our daily operations show that it was worthwhile. By making these changes we also now finally have a terminal area in our warehouse.”

Although activity in the boat building industry has noticeably dropped since 2008, Oy Maritim Ab is seeing a more positive outlook being adopted by the sector for 2014 onwards. Whilst no significant growth is expected in the shortterm, Kim believes that as much as ever it is important that the supplier-customer dialogue remains open and straightforward.

“Lead times are longer and therefore all the pre-planning at the production plants and retailers is vital,” he explains. “Together with the supplier the client needs to go through those plans, and establish a goal, which can then be worked towards by both parties.”

By positioning itself with its clients in this way, Oy Maritim Ab can bring the greatest value to its projects, and ensure that equipment is delivered when and where it is required. The company’s vast range means it can assist with everything from legislative stipulations such as survival and safety equipment through to personal tastes when it comes to the vessel’s interior design.

Likewise, with the current squeezed market

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Rock and

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Profile: Port of Gibraltar

F

rom its vantage point at a key position for global trade, the Rock of Gibraltar has established a solid reputation as an important staging post for the international shipping community.

Over 71,000 ships sail through the Strait of Gibraltar every year and a significant number of these stop in the Port and make use of Gibraltar’s services.

As a result of its strategic location, the Rock is a major bunkering Port – the largest in the Mediterranean - and its bunkering companies continue to go from strength to strength. Over four million tonnes of bunkers were delivered in 2012 compared with just 0.84 million tonnes in 1990 and bunkering is now the main activity within the Port of Gibraltar. Around 9582 vessels called at Gibraltar in 2012 and of these, 6362 were supplied with bunkers.

Furthermore, Gibraltar companies are involved in a wide range of activities, providing reliable, quality services to international ship owners. The local airport is just a few minutes

from the harbour, from where there are several daily flights to various destinations in the UK and experienced agents are on hand to obtain spare parts, supply provisions and effect crew changes.

Established in 2005, the Gibraltar Port Authority’s (GPA) strategy is to build on Gibraltar’s unique geographical position and fiscal status and provide a vital link between all stakeholders to ensure a cohesive strategy aimed at achieving common goals. The Captain of the Port, Roy Stanbrook, oversees all operational matters including navigational safety and the smooth running of the Port.

With 11 years of experience gained from his time as Harbour Master at the Port of London Authority in the UK, Roy Stanbrook was appointed as Captain of the Port of Gibraltar in February 2012. A Younger Brother of Trinity House, a Fellow of the Nautical Institute and the holder of an STCW Master Unlimited Certificate of Competency, Captain Stanbrook oversees the growth and development in the various sectors of Port operations, with positive feedback

Over four million tonnes of bunkers were delivered in 2012 compared with just 0.84 million tonnes in 1990 and bunkering is now the main activity within the Port of Gibraltar

G-Tec Marine Training Allabroad is Gibraltar’s MCA and RYA Recognised Training Centre delivering a range of maritime courses and training to both local operators and those from further afield wanting to take the first steps or progressing their maritime careers.

Allabroad offer STCW95 Basic Safety courses and SSO all in one convenient location. ENG1 medical are available locally and for those wanting to fast track their careers at sea it offers four month long fully inclusive courses to Master of Yachts 200GT.

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Profile: Port of Gibraltar

very important to the GPA’s operations but they are by no

already being received from many major players in the region. In fact, in the 18 months since his arrival, several efficiency improvements have already been made in the Port, including streamlining the process of booking bunkering slots, joining the Green Award Scheme and most recently, launching a mobile version of its website.

The Green Award certification scheme is open to oil and chemical tankers, bulk carriers, LNG carrying vessels and inland navigation barges. Ships holding a Green Award certificate are offered various incentives such as discounts on port dues, maritime products and training courses and reimbursement of certification costs by a few banks. By rewarding high safety and environmental standards in shipping, a Green Award makes above standard ship operation economically more attractive.

In keeping with its mission to ensure navigational safety and pollution control, the Port of Gibraltar decided to provide a five per cent reduction in tonnage dues for all Green Award certified vessels entering BGTW (British Gibraltar Territorial Waters) and calling at the Gibraltar Port.

With the Port of Gibraltar being a major bunker port and the gateway to the Mediterranean, the Port’s decision to grant incentives to ships with the highest safety standards and which are confirmed by the Green Award certificate, motivates more ships owners to invest in improvement on board.

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In addition to environmental issues, the Gibraltar Port Authority is also keen to enhance its communications and bring instant information to the general public, business partners and clients. As a result, it launched a new website in October 2012, and in May 2013 released a new mobile-optimised version of the Port’s website, which allows access to the full website facilities that users currently enjoy but in a more user-friendly format on all smartphones (Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Phone). It provides a more convenient and easy-to-read alternative for those who might be on the move with a simple top-level menu giving quick and easy access to the different areas of the website. The mobile site is available from a smartphone at www.gibraltarport.com.

Gibraltar has a plethora of benefits to offer cruise visitors - location, facilities, unrivalled levels of service and an abundance of attractions and a growing popularity. In 2012 a total of 172 calls brought more than 290,000 passengers ashore to the Rock.

For operators, the Port offers flexible and convenient berths. Its one metre tidal range means cruise ships can berth alongside the Cruise Terminal at any time of day or night within an hour of leaving the main shipping lanes of the Strait of Gibraltar. In addition, cruise ships and other vessels calling for bunkers or water can be accommodated on both sides of the Western Arm. Bunkering and cruise services may be

means the only strings to its bow – Gibraltar is also home to a wealth of shipping expertise, and to many specialist companies offering a compressive range of maritime services. These include ship management, shipping agency, ship registry, ship repair, provisions, waste, and ship arrests.

It also has yachting facilities, which include a choice of three marinas and a service and support network that would grace many larger ports, with the British atmosphere of Gibraltar in a Mediterranean port as an added attraction for visiting yachtsmen.

When the Port of Gibraltar last featured in Shipping and Marine magazine, Captain Stanbrook was determined to rectify previous underinvestment at the organisation and was confident that the Port and Gibraltar’s strengths could be enhanced through a strong Gibraltar Port Authority administered plan for the future.

Significant progress on this has already been made, and going forward it looks likely that Roy will continue to build on a maritime heritage that goes back thousands of years, and create a vital, modern and competitive Port on the Rock of Gibraltar. v

Port of Gibraltar www.gibraltarport.com • Cruise calls still significant activity for the port • New mobile website launched • Results already being seen under new CEO’s leadership

Profile: SeaMall

Pooling

resources L

aunched three years ago, SeaMall’s objective is to secure individual ship owners the best possible terms and conditions in their procurement needs from relevant suppliers. The company was founded in cooperation with a number of partners and is built on a membership model.

Essentially this means that the company acts as a pool for its members, which enables it to aggregate purchase volumes and thereby secure the best possible prices through

securing larger contracts for suppliers. The main areas being explored at present are lubricants and paints, as well as spare parts and other services needed to operate a ship.

The concept is carefully designed so that it requires no changes to members’ existing systems and processes.

Working across the globe, SeaMall’s current member base numbers 13, including some of the industry’s leading players in their respective segments. What’s more, benefits are being seen at both ends of the chain as Per

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Nykjaer Jensen, president and CEO of SeaMall highlights: “As well as large volumes and better prices, we also save our members time as they don’t have to scrutinise the market for the best deal when they renew their contracts, and can instead concentrate on their core business.

“SeaMall also works full time within the market analysing and following trends, as well as product developments. This gives our members the kind of consolidated market

Per Nykjaer Jensen, president and CEO of SeaMall

Whilst the individual owner has a local outlook, we adopt a global outlook through working with suppliers and members throughout the world, so if there is a difference between regions we can utilise this to get the best deal available anywhere 72 - www.shippingandmarine.co.uk

knowledge that is usually only possible for larger companies. Whilst the individual owner has a local outlook, we adopt a global outlook through working with suppliers and members throughout the world, so if there is a difference between regions we can utilise this to get the best deal available anywhere,” he continues.

From a supplier perspective, working with SeaMall gives them an opportunity to enter into large volume contracts without the need to visit a larger number of small companies to achieve the same volume. This saves a lot of individual sales and contract work as SeaMall can provide that figure in one contract. Likewise many suppliers also see SeaMall as a way to market, as the entire network becomes aware of new ideas or upcoming products.

“We are almost the agent between the producer and the end user,” notes Per. “Moreover we have built a system where the members remain in close contact with the supplier. They get the best of both worlds, so large-scale contracts at good prices, but maintaining that direct link with the supplier.

Most end users don’t like to be too far away from their suppliers, so they appreciate that they can have a frame agreement that covers the prices and products, but also keep the personal relationships.”

Certainly the market conditions of the last few

Profile: SeaMall

years following the economic downturn have been favourable for SeaMall and its business model. “When the industry was at its highest point little attention was paid to daily costs and the most valuable thing was time, so it would have been more difficult to attract people’s attention,” confirms Per. “Today all shipping companies are running saving and reduction programmes, so there’s a high focus on the bottom line. The savings that we help create can be very valuable in these times when a lot of companies have very limited profits.

“I think the industry has learned the lesson that cost control is very important. If you look at the development of operation expense in the last ten years it is fair to say that it has exploded, and so now everyone is much more aware of this. I think going forward the concept will be implemented more and more, which will

give us even more opportunities as cost control is here to stay.”

These opportunities are also likely to increasingly open up as the benefits to members and suppliers become more widely known. “The lessons we have learned though are that tradition and culture are not something you change overnight. For the shipping industry this is no exception. Third party ship management is now a booming business, but it took some time for owners to realise that bigger units specialising in what they do could be more efficient than doing it individually. At SeaMall we offer third party procurement management and we see the same thing when we visit new member candidates - once they come onboard they realise it is very much business as usual but for a much lower cost,” highlights Per. “Our main focus now is to develop the

existing concept and attract more members, and therefore ships. The model we have is subject to the snowball effect so the more ships we get, the more interested suppliers we can attract and the better prices we get, and again that brings in more members. At present we are focusing on products like paint and lube oil that are used by everyone, but going on we also plan to develop services and spare parts for more specialist equipment,” he concludes. v

SeaMall www.seamall.eu • Procurement pool • Benefits to members and suppliers • Widening scope

C.C.JENSEN

Bureau Veritas

For more than 60 years, C.C.JENSEN has supplied oil maintenance equipment to leading shipping companies and owners like Maersk, Edison Chouest and Hapag Lloyd. Its experience within marine applications enables the company to be at the forefront of new technologies e.g. online monitoring.

C.C.JENSEN is the ideal partner for ship owners wishing to increase oil system reliability and lifetime. This includes diesel engine fuel and lubrication systems, hydraulic systems, thrusters, reduction gears, stern tubes, water jets and bilge water systems.

Created in 1828, Bureau Veritas is a global leader in testing, inspection and certification, delivering high quality services to help clients meet the growing challenges of quality, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. As a classification society, Bureau Veritas assesses ships for conformity with specific sets of Class Rules. It provides ship and marine equipment certification on behalf of Flag administrations. Bureau Veritas has revenue of four billion euros, employs 59,000 people in 140 countries and classifies 12,100 ships of total 97 million gross tonnages.

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Profile: schottel

Motrac Hydraulics Motrac Hydraulics is proud to have worked as a partner with one of the top propulsion system builders, Schottel company, for many years now.

Motrac Hydraulics operates as a technical solution and a system components provider for the hydraulic steering solutions. With f.i. Linde Hydraulics motors and pumps, hydraulic gear products, valves and cooling systems, Motrac Hydraulics makes sure that machines operate with long lifetime quality products.

Incredible lifetimes of six number figures are not an exception.

The propulsion

experts

S

CHOTTEL was founded more than 90 years ago, at first operating as a yard for smaller barges and passenger vessels. In 1950 the SCHOTTEL Rudderpropeller (SRP) was developed and launched, and with this invention SCHOTTEL started to concentrate on the design, development and manufacturing of propulsion systems. The SCHOTTEL Rudderpropeller continuously conquered the shipping world and is now the first choice propulsion system when utmost manoeuvrability is required.

As the company continued to evolve, further propulsion systems were added to the product range, and SCHOTTEL now offers an entire product range necessary for moving a vessel. As Gerhard Jensen, CEO, explains, there remains a focus on manoeuvrability applications: “We have a large number of customers for tugs and offshore vessels that have been our partners for many years,” he began. “But our systems have been adapted continuously to various applications so that we have a great stake in the areas of ferries, passenger vessels and river cruise vessels. We also have other interesting applications in research vessels, river bulk vessels, river tankers and yachts.”

Cerro Itamut - one out of 14 tractor tugs for the Panama Canal propelled by SCHOTTEL© Astilleros Armon

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Profile: schottel

KRW KRW is a German manufacturer of high quality standard and customised bearings for the marine industry. KRW and Schottel have been co-operation and development partners for propulsion solutions for a significant amount of time. For more than 100 years KRW has been producing reliability and clients can trust that products are ‘Made in Germany’. KRW is a solution provider, from the engineering idea to the series product. Competence is made by KRW.

It is clear that SCHOTTEL places a lot of focus on the development of products and at the end of 2013 the company has a new launch planned – the NAV. Gerhard gave some more details about this important development: “The new SCHOTTEL Navigator is a very interesting product that has no comparison on the market. It is a complete outboard unit consisting of an engine and the SCHOTTEL Rudderpropeller as well as the SCHOTTEL steering system. The yard just has to prepare the basement of the vessel and the complete propulsion system can easily be mounted with this unit called NAV. You could call it ‘plug and play’. It is interesting for smaller work vessels and small ferries but also big offshore barges. You can add as many of the NAV as you need, e.g. two at the stern for a ferry or a work vessel or maybe four for big barges (two NAV at each side of the vessel). It has definitely never been easier to motorise a vessel.”

The NAV 200 will be exhibited at Europort in November, and exhibitions are a tool that SCHOTTEL uses frequently to keep in touch with customers: “Europort has been a leading show in the industry for many decades and SCHOTTEL together with a Dutch subsidiary

Our systems have been adapted continuously to various applications so that we have a great stake in the areas of ferries, passenger vessels and river cruise vessels

The new SCHOTTEL NAV Generation

SCHOTTEL STG 50 - Intelligent Power Generation

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World Diamond – one out of six new state-of-the-art PSV propelled by SCHOTTEL © Damen has exhibited there for many years,” Gerhard confirmed. “It is a place to meet important customers and to present news in a familiar atmosphere. So I anticipate Europort will be an excellent opportunity to present the new generation of the NAV to an interested audience.”

The NAV is not the only important new release from SCHOTTEL though. Gerhard was also keen to highlight the new SCHOTTEL Rim Thruster (SRT), which he described as: “The ideal side thruster for OSVs, superyachts and inland water vessels when reduced noise and vibration, high efficiency, savings in space and weight as well as eco-friendliness are key requirements.”

He added: “Furthermore we have expanded and upgraded our SRP series and the series of our electric Combi Drive (SCD) as well as the Transverse Thrusters (STT), the SCHOTTEL Pump Jet (SPJ) and the retractable systems.”

All of these new innovations wouldn’t be possible without ongoing investments in research and development (R&D) and Gerhard confirmed that this was an area to which

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Profile: schottel SCHOTTEL Rim Thruster SRT

SCHOTTEL is very dedicated: “Special focus is put on gear design and hydrodynamics using advanced numerical simulation tools,” he added.

“We are in very close contact with the most important technical universities and research institutes and undertake tests together with these institutes to develop the best propulsion systems for a vessel under various and adverse circumstances.”

It is clear to see why the strength of its products is one of the key foundation stones of the company, but as Gerhard noted, they have to be supported by a reliable team and excellent customer service in order to create an all round package. “Skilled technicians ensure the optimum commissioning and operation of the systems, so we pay great attention to the best possible training,” he said. “We set great value on skilled engineers and qualify them in what we call dual studies, which is in our company and at university. So they learn our business from scratch.

“We also know that the best product is not worth its price if a manufacturer cannot ensure best quality service,” he added. “So we have

done a lot to give our customers the best support when service is needed. We place great value on having the best engineers and technicians in the SCHOTTEL Group, plus we make sure that experts in our propulsion systems staff our service stations all over the world. Moreover, we have a state-of-the-art training centre in Germany, the SCHOTTEL Academy, which means the employees at our service stations undergo in-depth training on how to operate our systems, and we can train customers as well.”

SCHOTTEL is also flexible enough to be able work in close co-operation with the customer to create integrated solutions for specific applications. “We have highly skilled engineers that can develop the best possible concept for the vessel and, if requested, we can develop the propulsion system with the complete power train including the engine or the generator sets.

With our customers we develop state-of-the-art eco friendly solutions like hybrid drives or electric propulsion solutions with our electric Combi Drive,” Gehard noted.

“We also attach great importance to keeping

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Cross-view of the SCHOTTEL Combi Drive

DESCH Antriebstechnik With over 100 years of experience, DESCH represents the leading edge of power transmission manufacturing, providing a wide range of: clutches, pulleys, couplings, plain bearings and planetary gearboxes, worldwide. Its powerful switchable clutches in particular are supplied to the German company and propulsion experts, SCHOTTEL, where they are operating in the drive line between diesel engine and rudder propeller, essential for safety and manoeuvrability of vessels, tug boats and ferries.

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a large part of our manufacturing in-house,” he added. “This not only saves time and simplifies business processes, but also safeguards our know-how and ensures consistent high quality.”

The manufacturing facility mentioned by Gerhard is under scrutiny at the moment – after

nearly a century of production and growth, the company has outgrown its location: “Our manufacturing sites are no longer what you would call ‘state-of-the-art’, said Gerhard. “The machines are new, of course, but the logistics do not cope with modern standards anymore

Profile: schottel

and are inefficient. The plant is situated in a small village, which doesn’t offer any more space. We are planning to move to a place with a lot of space and the optimum logistics for the complete supply chain. We are creating this new site close to the present one, so we can keep our skilled employees and offer them the most modern working environment in the industry.” Setting the foundation stone for the new manufacturing site and launching the SRT are the major focuses for SCHOTTEL for the rest of 2013.

Considering these ambitious plans, it is clear that the growth at SCHOTTEL is not slowing down. Gerhard also pointed out that more exciting ideas are already on the agenda, this time with further establishing its tidal energy business: “We have noticed a strong interest in our very economic approach of harvesting energy from the sea,” he said. “The first prototypes were sold to customers and we are convinced that in three to five years many of our systems will be working across the world.”

It is not just the tidal products that will be in action across the globe however, as

SCHOTTEL’s other products already have a worldwide presence, and Gerhard noted that some markets are currently performing very well: “The Asian markets, mostly the Chinese, are very strong,” he said. “The Americas are doing well too, mainly the US and Canada, but there are many other areas that are seeing success, such as the Russian and the Nordic markets.

“The SCHOTTEL sales and service network is already covering the globe and, of course the most important shipping regions, so we have established strong hubs to cover important regions and provide optimum support to the local sales and service stations. We are also further intensifying our service network in some areas such as the Americas.”

SCHOTTEL is also looking to expand the gears and drives activities of its subsidiary PW (Wolfgang Preinfalk GmbH.) PW is a professional in the whole process of manufacturing gear drives as well as design and production of gearboxes for a wide application range. The PW core objective of being a manufacturer of premium quality products will generate additional growth for SCHOTTEL in the future.

Cross-view of the SCHOTTEL Rudderpropeller

Bierens On course for successful co-operation companies must have a clear and open vision on business. An example of successful industrial joined forces in the maritime sector is that between the Bierens companies and Schottel.

The basis of this success lies in creating a climate of mutual energy and openness. A partnership founded on ‘open innovation’ results into a higher quality; effective collaboration in the supply chain leads to a better achievement in the entire chain. Bierens and Schottel: full throttle ahead!

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Profile: schottel

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Jensen “This gives very good perspectives for both companies,” said Gerhard at the time of the merger. “The venture perfectly meets our motivation to diversify from the maritime sector on the one side while on the other side utilising the potential of the new partnership for our core business.”

Nearly 100 years of innovation have resulted in SCHOTTEL holding a leading market position, but as Gerhard concluded, the company never takes its position for granted. “I would like to thank all our customers for the trust in us and our systems,” he said. “We really value the long-term partnerships we have with many customers, and always work to ensure that we keep their satisfaction at the heart of what we do.” v

SKF SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, couplings, mechatronics, lubrication systems and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training.

SKF has for many years assisted the marine industry in working more efficiently. Innovative solutions for rotating machinery have continuously driven increased productivity and reduced operating costs. Its marine product and service offerings include full condition-based maintenance tools and services as well as integrated solutions for propulsion systems, gearboxes, transmissions and electromechanical motion control.

SKF provides products and services for design, new build, operation and maintenance for all ship types.

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SCHOTTEL merged with PW in 2011, and in the company it found a medium-sized partner that stands for continuity based on 90 years of history. The mutual exchange of knowledge and experience will be good for the further development of both partners.

SCHOTTEL www.schottel.de • Close customer relationships • In-house experience and technology • New site under development

Profile: Imperial Ship Management

Ship

shape

B Our main strengths are that we have full DOC documents for many flags...

ased in Gothenburg, Imperial Ship Management was established in 2007 as part of parent company Imperial Shipping’s strategic plan to expand from an internal ship management firm for its own ships to offering services externally.

“Our parent company was established in 1997 as a ship building firm, which originally turned to third parties for shipping management solutions.

However, in 2006 the board decided to move into providing ship management for both themselves and third party operators; thus, Imperial Ship Management was formed in 2007,” explains Lars-Arne Inberg, managing director of Imperial Ship Management.

With core activities in the dry cargo market, Imperial Ship Management is responsible for operating and maintaining the shipping line’s own fleet of six general cargo vessels and seven RoRo ships, which mainly range in sizes from 6000 – 35,000 dwt. “As a company we provide full ship management services including crew, technical, ISM qualifications, security safety and IT,” says Lars. “Our main strengths are that we have full

DOC documents for many flags, including the UK, Sweden, Bahamas and Gibraltar. This is a big advantage for any operators looking to enter our group; the fact we can offer a comprehensive package of ship management solutions is also beneficial.” Offering complete in-house ship management, the company has worked in close co-operation with the OSM Group for many years on crew planning, working with crews primarily from Sweden, the Philippines, Poland and Russia.

In 1999 Imperial Shipping became the sole owner of the Swedish Orient Line (SOL), which resulted in services between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean beginning again. SOL has been operating in European shipping for a century and has developed a strong customer base within the forest industry; in addition to freighting forest products between ports, SOL also offers management. “Imperial Ship Management is based in the same building as the SOL, which operates as a separate company and has some of its own ships. We supply shipping management to SOL; this means that it is able to run efficiently and can communicate effectively,” says Lars. Together with SOL, the company’s

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Garrets International Serving a fleet of over 1000 merchant ships, Garrets’ comprehensive marine catering management service contributes to improved crew welfare and retention through healthy menu planning addressing the specific needs of multi-ethnic crews.

Committed to sourcing sustainable products of high nutritional value with low salt, sugar and saturated fat contents, Garrets contributes to a healthy crew diet.

Garrets catering management solution is independent of supplier interests and reduces shipboard and shore-side administration and accounting, delivering cost-effective galley management at predictable costs. .

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vessels transport cargoes from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and Africa and also deliver a wide range of project and contract cargoes around the world.

A number of Imperial Ship Management’s vessels transport forestry cargo from the Baltic Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, while another two vessels are chartered to Stora Enso, for the transshipment of goods between the Baltic Sea and Europe. This assignment includes fleet management, positioning of empty equipment, SECU’s (Stora Enso Cargo

Profile: Imperial Ship Management

1A, and have an overall length of 170 metres, a beam of 23.5 metres, speeds of 16 knots and a cargo capacity of 8200 tonnes, with a double loading deck design. They are the first in the world to be specifically designed for cassette handling and each has a longitudal bulkhead that separates the decks into two 10.5 metre wide areas that have room for four cassettes athwartships, which minimises the danger of cargo damage and load movement during transportation. These vessels continue to offer a successful service from London to Rotterdam via Helsinborg to northern Sweden. “We have strong, long-term relationships with SCA and NOCC; we value these relationships and aim to maintain ongoing business relationships with all of our customers,” highlights Lars.

Looking ahead, Lars anticipates growth and the possibility of acquiring new ships, but is keen for Imperial Shipping Management to retain its own niche market. “We have no plans to compete with major ship management firms; we have our niche and aim to continue operating within that by providing the best, comprehensive service possible to our customers. This is our core value, to continue to deliver the most complete and high quality management solutions,” he concludes. v

Imperial Ship Management www.imperialshipping.com • Operates out of offices in London and Gothenburg • Wholly owns the Swedish Orient Line shipping firm • Currently manages 13 RoRo and General Cargo ships

Units), budgeting and an operational follow-up of the system, the repair and maintenance of load carriers, booking cargo, SECUs and container units, tonnage acquisition and co-ordination with ports and other stakeholders.

Dedicated to providing the best, comprehensive service possible, Imperial Shipping Management has developed positive, long-term relationships with customers such as SCA and Norwegian Car Carriers (NOCC). The company signed a management agreement in September 2011 with NOCC, which owns MV Helena, a RoRo carrier operating in the shuttle trade between Sweden and Germany; Holmen charts the vessel for its forest products logistics requirements. Built in 1991, the vessel has a length of 169 metres and weighs in at 22193 tonnes. Following this contract, the company was awarded a new management contract with SCA Transforest for the crewing and technical operations of its three ships, MV Ostrand, MV Ortviken and MV Obbola.

The contract, which began in December 2011, includes the purchasing of materials and also maintaining compliance with international safety regulations. “We have staff at our offices in Sweden who oversee the management of these operations,” says Lars. Imperial Ship Management manages the technical operation of these vessels, while the crew is the responsibility of OSM/Transforest AB. Despite the vessels being 17 years old, the equipment has been replaced over the years to ensure its technology remains new and modern.

The three RoRo vessels are all under the same classification, Ice Class

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On track

A dedicated digital desk serves monitors and processes customer orders for ENC’s

I

The newest version of Chart Track is expected to launch shortly

t has been a challenging year for Bogerd Martin since it was previously in Shipping & Marine magazine in July 2012; a leader in the distribution of printed and digital charts, it has had to contend with the downturn in the new build market and the impact of the economic crisis on the shipping industry as a whole.

Despite this, the company has focused on preparing for market improvement by investing in staff training, enhancing products and expanding its services. “The demand for Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) has not increased dramatically, and we don’t expect it too either; it is a big investment for shipping companies to set up their systems and this is being done in a very controlled manner so there hasn’t been a peak, only gradual growth,” says Michael Martin, managing director and owner of Bogerd Martin. “Because ships are not

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being built in the same quantities our market is down; however, we have a number of contracts coming up in 2013 and will also be launching the enhanced version of our Chart Track product, which is anticipated to be completed in the next four to six weeks.”

Under new SOLAS regulations, any vessels over 500 gross tonnes must be fitted with ECDIS by 2018. As a leader in the supply of electronic charts since they were first launched more than ten years ago, Bogerd Martin has the expertise to help ship owners and managers select the right product at the right time. With an expertly trained digital team offering comprehensive knowledge and advice in the intricacies of ENC licensing, Bogerd Martin’s personnel can help customers through the process of selecting the correct electronic charts, whether it be for their voyage ahead or pre-set routes relating to each vessel’s current trading plan. Furthermore, the company

has the flexibility to generate permits 24/7 at short notice, thus ensuring vessels can make last minute route changes and receive the required navigational data.

The implementation of ECDIS is spread over a period of six years, from 2012-2018, with new passenger ships over 500 gross tonnes and new tankers up to 3000 gross tonnes the first required to legally comply in July 2012.

The next ships required to have ECDIS installed are new cargo ships up to 3000 gross tonnes and existing passenger ships up to 500 gross tonnes; this will become mandatory in July 2014.

“The implementation of ECDIS is a gradual roll out throughout the fleet, and as you know the new build market is currently very flat. However, there was a recent press release announcing the conclusion of a contract our Shanghai based subsidiary firm, Bogerd Martin China, negotiated over a period of two years, which involved PC

Profile: Bogerd Martin

Print on demand is available in Antwerp and Tianjin to maximise availability of charts Maritime’s Navmaster ECDIS being chosen

by China shipping Group to be fitted in 50 newbuild bulk carriers,” says Michael. “We have a number of interesting contracts in the pipeline in China that should be realised in the next 12 months; these will also be for large quantities of ECDIS.” An amalgamation of two Antwerp chart agencies, Martin & Co, founded in 1911, and Bogerd NV, established in 1946, Martin’s brought over its competitor, Bogerd, in 1985 before merging both companies in 2002. Today, the company has its head office in Antwerp, where a huge stock of charts, nautical publications and marine material is held. This office serves both Northern Europe and the Mediterranean region.

On top of this, the firm has a Shanghai office that deals with all contracts between the head office and ship owners and shipyards in China; as well as supplying charts and publications, Bogerd Martin’s Shanghai office also deals with the supply of safety and technical equipment for shipyards. Unlike Antwerp and Tianjin, this office does not hold stock. Meanwhile, the Tianjin office operates as a stockholding centre that

offers services to vessels in the Pacific area; it also provides an efficient and quick service to the Chinese market.

With 3500 paper charts available, and with a vessel having a stock of 1000 or more, a captain ensuring he has up-to-date information

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Profile: Bogerd Martin

Bogerd Martin’s Antwerp office

UKHO UKHO has charted the world’s oceans for over 200 years with the primary aim of providing nautical products and services for the Royal Navy and merchant mariners to save and protect lives at sea. UKHO supports the MCA in discharging the navigation element of the UK’s SOLAS Treaty obligations and produces a worldwide series of 3500+ paper nautical charts, 200+ publications under the ADMIRALTY brand and ENCs. The ADMIRALTY portfolio is sold globally and used by nearly 70 per cent of international shipping.

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is a time-consuming process. This obstacle was met a number of years ago by Bogerd Martin, with the introduction of Chart Track, a programme that retains a record of what charts are onboard a vessel and checks these against the company’s onshore servers every week. If a new edition is available for the ship’s inventory, Chart Track automatically places an order for the updates, which are then delivered to the vessel once a month. “Chart Track has been used for a number of years as a method for updating and managing paper charts and publications onboard ships; over the past two years we have been working hard to bring out a new, enhanced version of Chart Track that will be used not only for updating paper charts, but also for updating electronic charts as well,” highlights Michael.

“The ships will have a programme where the owners or operators can update their navigational information, whether on paper or digital format, and they can do this all in one place. This is a completely new product for us, which we anticipate will be successful as it addresses a lot of needs within the shipping industry and is a platform for us to build several add-on

functionalities as and when required.”

Confident that the market will pick up again, Bogerd Martin aims to continue investing to improve service as it migrates into digital navigation. Through training and its new product the company intends to become closer to its customers and retain long-term relationships with them. “It is clear to us that our customers rely on us for advice and assistance in selecting the right paper or electronic charts. It is a complex matter and it requires expert advice; with this in mind, our expansion plans over the next 12 months include ways and means of developing closer working relationships with our clients and ensuring they get the expert advice they need.” v

Bogerd Martin www.martin.be • One of the leading distributors of printed and digital charts • Leading supplier of ECDIS for ten years • Soon to launch a new version of Chart Track

Profile: Port of Rotterdam (Maasvlakte 2 Project)

Groundbreaking

developments R ecognised globally as one of the main ports and the largest logistic and industrial hub in Europe, the Port of Rotterdam had an annual throughput of 450 million tonnes of cargo in 2012. By far the largest seaport in Europe, it is the gateway to a European market of over 350 million consumers; a number that is destined to increase as the Maasvlakte 2 project comes into fruition. “In total the port is an area of 12,500 hectares, if you include Maasvlakte 2, and there are approximately 80 – 90 thousand people working at the port directly; the Port of Rotterdam and all of its activity is related to three to four per cent of the gross national income. It is of huge economic importance for the Netherlands and larger Rotterdam region, with around 16 per cent of people in the region working for the port. It is of economic and national importance,” says Rene Van der Plas, director of project organisation for three billion euro Maasvlakte 2 project.

Encompassing 1000 hectares net of industrial ground, located directly on deep water, Maasvlakte 2 will expand the port by 20 per cent, thus enabling it to meet increasing demand way into the future and ensure its leading role status on a European and global scale is retained. With ample room for container transfer, distribution and chemical industry at the expansion, Maasvlakte 2’s 20-metre depth offers 24-hour accessibility to its ports to the largest ships in the world as well as the deep-

Plan area

The Maasvlakte 2 project as off June 2013

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Hard seawall under construction

Recreational beach, dune and parking area

One of the dunes

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draught container ships of the future, a service that no other port in Europe can match. Furthermore, the expansion means capacity for container transfer will double, which presents excellent opportunities to businesses interested in establishing themselves at one of the most accessible ports in Europe.

Due to the national importance of the port, the national government assessed the situation and the impact of port extension on natural and social environments before a decision was made between the state and the Port of Rotterdam in 2004.

“There were a lot of parties involved at the start of this project so we defined a strict manager programme to stakehold their interests and take them into account,” explains Rene. “Early discussions included matters such as nature, environment and fisheries, which would ensure Maasvlakte 2 and quality of life proceeded in parallel.

As a result are all those parties in favour of this project, so we didn’t have to change our plans dramatically in the later stage and in the end we managed to suit all interests, which was very important.”

In 2008 the Project Organisation for the Extension of the Maasvlakte (Puma), a 50/50 joint venture between dredging and marine contractors Boskalis and Van Oord began the extension by creating 2000 hectares of new port zone, complete with 20-metre deep port basin. Other developments included the construction of the overall sea defences, such as an 11-kilometre sea wall, of which 3.5 kilometre is constructed as a half-open block dam and a cobble beach; this design allows savings in construction and maintenance costs while also maintaining safety. The other 7.5 kilometre consists of beach and dunes.

Built in Voordelta, a protected nature reserve, the Maasvlakte 2 project has been carried out with respect for the area’s environment; however the development still had an impact on the local ecosystem. “There will be compensation for the effects of Maasvlakte, in full compliance with relevant European legislation,” says Rene.

“For example, a sea bed protection area reservation of 25,000 hectares, with a resting area for birds and seals, will be created as well as a new 35 hectare dune area along the coast of Delfland.”

Profile: Port of Rotterdam (Maasvlakte 2 Project)

New quay

From 22 May 2013, with construction largely completed and access available via road, rail and water, Maasvlakte 2 was officially opened for shipping and became an integral part of the port area. With phase one almost finished at a cost of 1.55 billion euros, the expansion project is 150 million euros less expensive than first estimated; this is due to thorough preparation

and well thought-out risk distribution between client and contractors. Constructed to primarily accommodate growth sectors such as container terminals, distribution activities and the chemical industry that have businesses interested in industrial sites located on the edge of deep water, the new space will not only benefit Rotterdam, but the Dutch economy as a whole.

With contracts signed for more than 40 per cent of the sites at Maasvlakte 2, the port is focused on gaining contracts with companies in chemical industries, particularly bio-based chemicals where the market is strong. “Now that Maasvlakte 2 is up and running we are looking to develop a roster of chemical industries in the port of Rotterdam; this is a challenge because companies have the option of going to other ports in the UK or the US. However, we have an extensive network of pipelines and other facilities at the Port of Rotterdam and this is what companies looking to start their businesses somewhere new are looking for,” says Rene.

“The first two terminals will start up business and production over the next few years, with

both due to be in operation by the end of 2014.

As we believe the port will only grow and be operational if we focus sustainability and the environment, it is important that our customers have similar values; this is of vital importance to the future of the port.” v

Port of Rotterdam (Maasvlakte 2 Project) www.portofrotterdam.com • Recognised as the most important port in Europe • In the process of expanding the port by 20 per cent • Phase One is almost complete and under budget as well in time

Evides Industriewater Evides Industriewater BV offers full-service water solutions for all the industry in the Rotterdam port-industrial park. It produces and supplies various qualities of process water and demineralised water, treats waste water and reuses condensates and effluents for re-introduction in the production process. This is how the company contributes to the sustainability efforts of its clients and the Port of Rotterdam: use surface water only, preserve water and reuse water.

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The art of

survival

T

he words survival and technology don’t just form the Survitec Group’s name, but also sum up everything about the business. The Group traces its heritage back to the 1850s and has grown over recent years as a result of the merger of several key manufacturers including liferaft manufacturer RFD, and air-sea equipment developer Beaufort. As this remit has continued to expand over the years, including establishing a network of over 600 service stations for through-life product support, so has Survitec’s reputation as an internationally renowned expert in critical safety and survival equipment.

“The most visible strength of the Survitec Group is our size and global coverage,” says Mark Barker who recently relocated from his role as managing director of Survitec’s Australian business to the newly created position of group marine sales director. “Our ability to serve

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customers out of 600 locations covering 2000 ports is unrivalled when it comes to providing safety and survival equipment to the industry.

“A further key strength is our ability to source and supply such an enormous range of safety and survival equipment which assists our customers in meeting their compliance requirements. Acting as a one-stop-shop for critical items through to ancillary products makes life much easier for procurement teams to get what they need in one place.”

In 2011, the Group welcomed two new names to the fold; the marine division of Cosalt PLC, and the SOLAS marine division of Zodiac. This brought a number of operational synergies, as well as filling market gaps such as cruise and passenger ferry, for liferafts and MES. More recently the Group acquired Abteilung Seerettung (Life Saving Appliances) and Servimar Sur SL’s Marine operations, providing new servicing facilities in key ports Bremerhaven, Emden and

Algeciras. Then in July 2013 the purchase of Risk Safety Systems Inc, (RSS) an offshore safety specialist based in Houston was completed and brought into the Group.

“Whilst 2012 was very much focused on integrating these businesses and building on their historical strengths, 2013 has been all about targeted growth, introducing new products and capabilities, and also expanding our footprint.

We’ve been developing a new MES for the offshore market and also a number of suits for offshore transit and over-the-side use. We’ve also introduced a new range of fire safety equipment for marine and offshore use, and have been working with a number of key accounts to roll out a full range of safety products and services,” highlights Mark.

This is in response to the significant growth that Survitec is seeing in its offshore segment.

The company has long delivered equipment and services to such projects, as well as maintaining

Profile: Survitec Group

a very successful passenger and crew transit safety business with a rental fleet of over 30,000 immersion suits and Lifejacket Air Pocket (LAP) jackets, but now is building on this further with an even broader range. “Customers are keen on a cost competitive solution to all their safety and survival needs, and with the new MES we can offer complete onboard safety and survival with multiple means of safe evacuation. A number of orders for new build and refurbishments are already in place and we will be carrying out the first installations in the New Year. Customers have been asking us about this product for some time and we’re delighted to be bringing it to market after several months of intensive design and product trials,” elaborates Mark.

At present Survitec works within the broader offshore industry, as well as the oil and gas sector where it delivers both marine and operational support. This includes supporting major operators in the equipment of both their offshore platforms and the supply and crew transfer vessels that service the industry.

The biggest requirement from this market is the exacting safety standards and the need for reliable performance in the harshest conditions.

As such, Survitec has developed a range of MES, lifejackets, liferafts and survival suits which are in use all over the world on offshore platforms, supply vessels, bulk carriers, container and freight ships. Furthermore the company is a major supplier of ancillary products including everything from distress flares, fire fighting equipment and deck cradles, to intrinsically safe lifejackets and lifebuoy lights. These systems are relied on the keep personnel safe in the event of an emergency.

Another area that has proved a great success is Survitec’s Global Liferaft Hire Programme, especially with major passenger carriers such as P&O, Holland America Line, and Carnival UK. Although it has been running for ten years now, this offering has only become global as of September 2012 and Survitec now has 7000 hire liferafts on vessels all over the world. The programme is also now gaining traction with the large ship operating companies responsible for container vessels, tankers, and bulk carriers like

Rickmers Group, Bernhard Schulte, and AET Tankers.

Although Survitec has seen growth in many markets worldwide, several recent developments have been within the company’s more traditional markets such as the UK and Europe. “We’re continuing to expand our servicing footprint and in the last 12 months have added Bremerhaven and Algeciras to our portfolio,” explains Mark.

“We recently announced a joint venture with Servaux which will operate in two very busy French ports in Marseille and Le Havre. These will be up and running in the next few months.”

In February, Survitec relocated its Gosportbased business to a new building, which is known as a centre of excellence for design.

Elaborating on what this brings to the Group, Mark says: “Our Crewsaver brand has a tremendous heritage in the UK market for marine safety equipment and apparel such as lifejackets, immersion suits and buoyancy aids, and we wanted to give the team in Gosport facilities in which they could design and build future ranges in more modern and purpose-built surroundings.

“We are successfully taking the Crewsaver ranges into new geographies and have had excellent results in the leisure, commercial and emergency services markets in Australia and

Mark Barker New Zealand already. We are also seeing a lot of success in our low profile life preserver for the Special Forces, bringing the Crewsaver brand to a completely new user base. With such a great foundation it is primed to grow – and our new facilities can adapt and grow with us,” he concludes. v

Survitec Group www.survitecgroup.com • Renowned survival equipment supplier • New marine evacuation system • Growth in offshore sector

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Strategically

placed O

“

Richard Horswill

Stena Performer

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ver the last five years Stena Line has placed overall investment in the region of £250 million into the Irish Sea area, which demonstrates our confidence in the continued growth of the ferry service market. We have received fantastic feedback from our customers, both on the freight and passenger side of the business, which tells us that the decisions we have made in terms of upgrading our ports, ships and route network choices have been the right ones,” says Richard Horswill, Stena Line’s head of freight for UK and Ireland. “The last 12 to 18 months have been challenging but due to these investments we have been able to stimulate growth in the market, particularly on the freight side of the business.”

Since last appearing in Shipping and Marine magazine in December 2011, Stena Line has seen a steady increase in its freight market share following the acquisition of the Belfast – Liverpool/Heysham routes and the opening of Loch Ryan Port. The company has also enjoyed sustained growth across most Irish Sea routes and there are positive indications that the

economic climate is to improve, giving Stena Line a strategic advantage in being well placed to help its customers when demand increases.

“Despite the challenging economic climate, we continued our commitment to the Irish Sea region as it is a strategically important part of our business,” highlights Richard. “In order to grow our current and future business levels it is important to invest in our infrastructure and fleet to provide our customers with a service they are happy to return to again and again.”

Voted Top Ferry Company by Northern Ireland Travel & Tourism Awards every year for the past 21 years, Stena Line has achieved a significant and prominent position in the travel and tourism sector. Based in Sweden, the company operates internationally through Europe’s most comprehensive route network, which offers connections between eight countries and 19 routes around Scandinavia and the UK. With three core geographical markets: Scandinavia, the North Sea and the Irish Sea, the company has invested heavily in acquiring routes to enhance its services in these areas dramatically.

In December 2010 Stena Line announced its acquisition of DFDS’ Liverpool to Belfast, and

Profile: Stena Line

Stena Mersey Heysham to Belfast routes for approximately £40 million. This development enabled Stena Line to offer several transportation alternatives between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has resulted in the company today being the first choice for the UK automotive industry moving new cars to Northern Ireland via Birkenhead.

“Specialist receiving facilities at Birkenhead ensure efficient and secure reception of unaccompanied trade cars moving to Northern Ireland with around 70 cars on each sailing. Birkenhead Port has worked with the automotive industry to ensure approved secure handling methods and we regularly achieve 100 per cent in customer audits,” states Richard.

“This is just one example of how Stena Line works towards adding value for our customers who work in a wide range of industries.” Another example of this is Stena Line’s investments into the controls and procedures it has in place for the handling of temperature controlled freight, as Richard adds: “Making further investments in this area means we will remain the first choice for the food and pharmaceutical industries as

well; understanding the market and shaping our business to leverage the maximum opportunities will continue to be a key strategic focus for us.”

With an unrivalled five routes on the Irish Sea, including the Belfast – Cairnryan route

that was officially opened in November 2011, Stena Lines makes taking the ferry to Ireland easier than ever before for both passengers and customers in freight. On top of its investments in new routes, the company also replaced

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Profile: Stena Line Stena Superfast VII

three existing vessels with two superfast vessels; these additions to its fleet enabled Stena Line to accommodate freight vehicles of all shapes and sizes and attract new freight customers. “These

emphasis towards our growing freight business on the Irish Sea, however, this doesn’t mean Stena Line’s travel customers have suffered.

On the contrary; we have continued to invest in our onboard services, which has benefitted our customers across the Irish Sea over the last two years,” Richard said.

developments have certainly shown a switch in

In line with the expanding freight sector, Stena Line introduced new F-class roro ships in September 2012 on its Belfast – Heysham freight service. The increased capacity of 30 per cent has proven popular with customers, with mid-week sailings immediately reaching full capacity. “For now our focus is on increasing awareness of our extended and growing network of routes in the North and Baltic areas,” says Richard. “Looking further ahead, we think intermodal integration with rail networks into Europe will be of interest to UK and ROI customers. We are actively discussing longer term arrangements with a range of companies to drive efficiency and lower overall shipping costs.”

Despite market conditions remaining challenging, Stena Line has already achieved sustained growth in freight volumes and expects this trend to continue over the coming years.

“As confidence steadily grows in the economy we are strategically placed to help facilitate increased economic activity and the resultant volume increases. We have seen an increasing proportion of unaccompanied traffic and this trend is set to continue,” concludes Richard. v

Stena Line www.stenaline.co.uk • World’s leading ferry company • Invested approximately £250 million into the Irish Sea area • Has been voted Top Ferry Company for the last 21 years

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Profile: Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors

bar Raising the

B

ased in Antwerp, Belgium, Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors is an offshore marine contractor specialised in offshore installation and transportation projects; with core expertise in marine heavy lifting, the diverse firm also supports a wide range of other marine related projects with its two vessels. Active in a number of challenging projects, such as the installation of jackets and topsides for the oil and gas industry as well as renewable market, the company has earned a strong reputation as a reliable partner to both clients and contractors undertaking projects that involve marine-based heavy lifts.

Working mainly in five different market sectors, civil construction, oil and gas, renewables, decommissioning/deconstruction and heavy lifting in related salvage works, one of Scaldis’ key strengths is the close working relationships it develops with clients from an early stage.

This enables the company to develop the most effective and efficient methodology for the project.

Accredited with certifications, including ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001: 2004, OHSAS 18001: 2007, VCA and ISM, Scaldis can guarantee high quality, successful operations to its customers.

A recent project for the company involved the installation of 16 gravity base foundations (GBF) in the Swedish part of the Baltic Sea in 2012.

For this project Scaldis used its largest heavy lift vessel, the globally unique Rambiz, which has two cranes, shallow draft, large deckspace and renewed large accommodation facilities. The arrangement of these facilities and equipment, among other qualities, enables the vessel to operate in areas that are impossible to similar vessels.

Able to operate in both deep and very shallow waters, Rambiz provides flexibility; furthermore, the combination of two main cranes means the vessel can lift unusual structures without the

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need for another separate vessel. Water depths at the site varied from eight to 21 metres, which means the foundations have different weights and dimensions. Constructed on two pontoons the heaviest foundation built has a weight of 1950 tonnes and a height of 24.5 metres. The pontoons with the foundations were then towed to the location in Sweden, where the foundations where then lifted from the pontoons and installed onto the seabed by Rambiz.

As a new field for most energy companies, the wind industry has enjoyed rapid growth and an impressive speed of maturity over the past five years, Scaldis offers turnkey solutions for the transport and installation of jackets and topsides, while also offering a cost-effective solution with its multipurpose vessels.

To further enhance and expand its service offering, the shareholders of Scaldis have ordered an extremely powerful, self-propelled DP2 crane ship, with similar characteristics to the existing vessel, Rambiz. With one eye on the future requirements of the oil and gas and offshore industries, the Rambiz 4000 will have the capabilities to work on the complex projects related to the installation of offshore infrastructure, decommissioning activities in deep water and the installation of offshore wind farms.

With a 4000 tonne hoisting capacity, the ship has a number of specific

Innovative Input Innovative Input accepted Scaldis’ challenge to design and produce a 3000 tonnes, 11 metre spreader. Innovative Input (based in Ridderkerk, The Netherlands) is a specialist in the development and construction of heavy-duty equipment for offshore, onshore and civil engineering applications.

To meet the very strict deadline, intense co-operation between client, engineering, production and certification authority was required and managed

by Innovative Input. Its compact and flexible organisation allowed the engineers to design an innovative and adaptable spreader. Clear communication between all companies involved, and local production facilities, made timely design appraisal and certification by Lloyds (LRS) possible.

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Profile: Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors

characteristics that make it unique in its field; for example, it has two Huisman cranes, each able to lift 2000 tonnes, and the ship has an extra carrying capacity of 3000 tonnes. Furthermore, the cranes can be moved by 25 metres on the vessel, which allows the deck to be used to transport and relocate cargo.

Boasting an integrated design, the ship and the cranes allow the maximum load to be hoisted in wave heights of up to 1.5 metres; when these circumstances arise, the freeboard is not lower than three metres anywhere on the ship. Meanwhile, in standby or transport modes, the significant wave height can be up to five metres. The vessel’s four azimuth thrusters and DP2 system means installation work can be carried out in deeper waters without the use of anchors, which guarantees efficiency and flexibility and also means it can operate in zones where a wide range of pipelines and cables lie on the seabed. The crane ship also has four main working anchors and winches as well as four secondary devices.

Seeing huge opportunities in the offshore wind sector, Scaldis has installed the OHVS for the Northwind Offshore Wind farm on the Bank Zonder Naam, approximately 37 kilometres off the coast of Belgium, the substation Borkum Riffgrund 1 project in Germany and West of Duddon Sands project.

Scaldis has also recently been awarded a contract for the installation of jackets and topsides in the Adriatic Sea (Croatia); installation of substations for Amrumbank West and Butendiek in Germany and deconstruction works of K10B platform.

In relation to this, it has been successfully promoting its expertise in this sector at exhibitions in Europe; in June the company exhibited at Offshore Wind 2013 and will attend the Fifth Annual Offshore Wind Construction, Installation & Commissioning Conference in Hamburg, Germany in October 2013.

As it continues to develop a stronger presence within the offshore wind sector and anticipates the delivery of the Rambiz 4000, the future looks increasingly more positive for the innovative and well renowned firm. v

Scaldis Salvage and Marine Contractors www.scaldis-smc.com

• Operates globally unique Rambiz vessel • Sees huge opportunities in the offshore wind sector • Recently promoted expertise at exhibitions

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Profile: Pronav Ship Management Hansa Safety Services GmbH Hansa Safety Services GmbH, which provides fire & safety service solutions for ship-owners / ship managers, is co-operating with Pronav Ship Management GmbH & Co. KG on all of their LNG-Fleet. It supports not only their fire fighting & safety equipment annual inspections and maintenance service, but also provides a custom made safety consulting & management solution that suits their vessels’ individual needs to comply with SOLAS / IMO fire & safety regulations, to ensure their vessels are sailing safe and protected.

With reference to their new-building projects, Hansa will be able to support Pronav Ship Management GmbH & Co. KG with their initial fire fighting equipment fit-out, due to its representation of leading fire fighting equipment manufacturers, as well as make sure their vessels have the best equipment for their needs. This is part of the full customer service package it offers to its customers.

Al Ruwais

In-house

expertise S

pecialised in developing, building and operating of LNG carriers under long-term contracts, PRONAV Ship Management (PSM) began alongside crew management arm PRONAV Schiffahrtsberatung (PSB) as part of privately owned group PRONAV in 1995. With proven experience in the management of human resources within the LNG sector, the company provides first class services to the highest safety and reliability standards, as Karl Wiegand Braun, managing director of PSM, explains further: “We were founded in 1995 and right from the start we have been concentrating on the LNG carrier business and the management of LNG carriers.

There has always been a huge focus on LNG for us, with some of our staff having a background in LNG experience for more than 30 years, so it is very much with a solid foundation that we run our business on today.”

Today the Hamburg-based company is among the world’s largest privately owned LNG carrier operators, with nine currently under operation, four of which are partly owned. Its success stems from its forward thinking approach in focusing on an unusual sector during the mid 1990s; as a pioneer, the company developed strong longterm partnerships in a market that has grown in

importance over the last decade. Having gained a spotless record, the company is dedicated to living by its core values, as Karl highlights: “With our knowledge, background and experience, we have developed this company to ensure all personnel offer strong communication skills and expert support. We also believe in being open, transparent and fair to our customers.”

Committed to customer satisfaction and generating the best results, throughout long term contracts, the company is developing crew management and crew supply in-house over one floor of its facility. “The development and availability of crews, as well as the long-term planning of crew supply forms an important part of our operations,” says Karl. “We offer a career path and co-operate with universities in Croatia and the Ukraine to get the students with high potential right from the start. They can then have a career within our company following on-board training and complementary training on special equipment and operational requirements.”

With its expertise, PSM was awarded a contract with QatarGas in 2004 for the design, supervision, plan approval, commissioning and vessel management of four Q-Flex two-stroke diesel vessels; all of which was carried out inhouse. “LNG carrier management is our main focus, but we see our involvement not only taking

Q-Flex - Al Safliya

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Profile: Pronav Ship Management

Milaha Qayar

vessels in management; we start off very early, specifying the type of ship for our customers so we have early involvement in the design and tailoring of the vessel to the customers’ needs,”

the facilities to carry out most items in-house, such as electronic engineers, cryogenic engineers and other experts, who then form a project team to handle any issues and find the best solutions.

explains Karl. “External expertise is typically not required because we have the knowledge and

By working on profound expertise, expectations are regularly being met.”

Involved in steam-propelled ships from the start, PSM’s commitment to the long-term is proven in the age of three of its steam vessels, which were built in 1978/1979. However, despite being conservative to new technologies, the company has remained at the forefront of changes surrounding increasing fuel prices by participating in the development of two-stroke diesel engines that can be retrofitted to utilise LNG as a fuel source. Current technology converts four-stroke diesel engines into highly efficient dual-fuel propulsion systems, with results of the conversion proving highly beneficial.

However, PSM continues with the research and development of two-stroke conversions through engaging with engine manufacturer MAN and its charterers.

“We are carefully looking into new developments and are looking into new technology and designs with thorough investigation and risk analysis. We don’t ignore the latest developments and look into fuel efficiency a lot and how we can improve this, particularly with our charterers, but we are not yet 100 per cent convinced. It is more important to us that a vessel can trade, because efficiency is also about reliability and availability; if a vessel can’t trade, then our customers cannot transport their LNG and therefore cannot fulfill duties, so the consequences go far beyond a vessel merely being out of service,” explains Karl.

Looking to the future, Karl anticipates LNG becoming a bunker fuel, which will generate increased demand that will further expand the business. “This is a long-term development, not for the next two or three years, but something that will drive the demand for LNG worldwide, which will be advantageous for everyone in this sector. Furthermore, we aim to slowly and steadily expand the business with more modern and new-build tonnage with the right partners and on a long-term basis.

“We are acting as a consultant for the construction of five new vessels, which will be created at a rate of one per year for five years,” said Karl. “It is our target to optimise the efficient transportation of LNG for many years to come.” v

Pronav Ship Management www.pronav.com/ship-management • Part of Pronav Group • World’s largest privately owned LNG carrier operator • 50/50 split between steam engine and diesel driven engines

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Profile: A-Rosa Flussschiff The A-Rosa Aqua on the Rhine

Cruising future

horizons A

-Rosa Flussschiff GmbH is a German shipping company, providing luxury river cruises along the Rhine, Danube, Rhône and Saône. The firm can trace its roots back to 2000 when it was first established by Seetours, a joint venture between DSR and the British shipping company P&O. Originally the company possessed two river cruise ships before an ocean going vessel was added in 2002. By 2003 the company began to change and the company was acquired by the Carnival group who sold the A-Rosa brand and river cruise fleet to DSR. From 2004 onwards, the ocean cousinship remained in operation with the Carnival group under the AIDA brand.

DSR retained and continued to develop the A-Rosa brand by introducing new tonnage and new destinations while laying the foundations for further fleet development. In Spring 2009, the management of A-Rosa acquired 100 per cent of the company’s shares and the rights to retain the A-Rosa brand. The management buyout was lead by current chief operating officer, Markus Zoepke, Lars Clasen and Waterland Private Equity and the group continues to own and operate the firm. The company is based in Rostock, Germany and as of 2012 employs around 560 members of staff. The company has continued to grow despite challenges faced across the market due to inclement weather conditions and high water and achieved sales of 70 million euros in 2011.

At present A-Rosa operates ten vessels with an eleventh under construction and set to go into operation in April 2014. Each of the vessels was purchased new and construction of the ships was undertaken at the Neptun Shipyard in Rostock-Warnemünde. For A-Rosa the acquisition of vessels represents more then simply fleet expansion, it represents a carefully considered extension to the company’s brand as chief operating officer Markus Zoepke explains: “We are a fully integrated company where we have the tour operator and the river operation in one location, so we do everything from A-Z. We design our own ships and we develop our own concepts. We do everything from marketing and sales, hotel operation, product management, and nautical staff. Everything has one identity and that identity is A-Rosa.”

The company has long established routes operating throughout the continent and is known for offering high quality and modern river cruises in the heart of Europe. It is able

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The christening of the A-Rosa Silva on the Danube, launched in 2012

The A-Rosa Silva - showing the passenger lounge and one of the many suites

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to offer customers trips on the Rhine, Danube, Rhône and Saône along with stops in Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Hungary and Austria. More recently the company has made inroads into the United States as Markus Zoepke elaborates: “This is proving challenging however, we have had the first year in the US and have found success in the area. Now we will be focusing on increasing the number of cruises for next year from 13 to 16.

“We have a representative in the States called David Morris International, who is organising and managing our sales in the States and the projections for the cruises are looking quite good at the moment,” he adds.

Crucial in differentiating the company is its dedication to quality and the uniqueness of its product. A-Rosa has currently transitioned through a complete brand re-launch extending from the look and feel of its brochure through to the services that it provides. One of the key changes in the company has been its move to encourage family bookings where it had previously focused on the twilight market. To accommodate these bookings its two newest ships, the A-Rosa Silva (2012) and the A-Rosa Flora (due 2014), are fitted with suite and junior suite cabins, which have so far received a positive response. So much so in fact that the company has decided to increase the number of these suites as it further focuses on family markets.

Profile: A-Rosa Flussschiff Complimenting this, A-Rosa has developed a programme of special shows aimed at children as well as a number of fun activities like spaghetti cooking and lessons in making a delicious apple strudel. However, the company’s traditional market as well as breaks for younger couples remain highly catered for. In contrast to its family orientated cruises, the group can offer relaxing gourmet cruises complete with gourmet chefs and sommeliers. It is also able to offer specialist cruises centered on the music of Howard Carpendale and classical music inspired journeys, which include visits to Vienna’s opera hall and the Bazilika in Esztergom.

The past few years may have proved challenging for the sector in general, with high water conditions causing a dip of between eight and ten per cent in the market for A-Rosa, however in contrast to its competitors this represents a significantly lesser blow for the company and a drop that it fully expects to recover from in coming seasons. Part of the reason A-Rosa has proven so resilient is its flexibility as Markus explains: “We are able to make decisions very quickly, which has proven very important as high water has made this year incredibly tricky. However, as we are so flexible we are able to change our itineraries quickly if necessary. As we do everything ourselves we do not need to go through several operators to reach a decision.

“We have had strong capacity growth at A-Rosa over the past few years so the next few years will be spent consolidating,” he continues. “Except for this year, since 2009 we have had one new vessel coming into operation each year. We are going to concentrate on this new premium image for our premium brand and expect our sales to continue to grow over the next few years.” v

A-Rosa Flussschiff www.a-rosa.de • River cruises throughout Europe • Expanding in American markets • Themed cruise options • Now focusing on family bookings

Top: On the Danube and below on the Rhine

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Investing in the

future

Above: Port of Grimsby and right, renewable fuels terminal Port of Immingham

“

T

here has been a transformational change in Grimsby in recent years with the introduction of the automotive and offshore wind industries,” says John Fitzgerald, port director of ABP Grimsby and Immingham. “Offshore wind operations and maintenance support has seen massive growth over the last 48 months in terms of development and we as port operators plan to invest huge amounts into the infrastructure and to support this. We have also spent £26 million on the new Grimsby river terminal, which is predominantly for the automotive business but will serve the offshore wind industry too. Grimsby has been in Immingham’s shadow for a long time so I’m very proud of the massive regeneration taking place and the recognition Grimsby is getting as the UK’s centre for the developing offshore wind industry.”

Combining to form the UK’s largest port by tonnage, Grimsby and Immingham handle up to 55 million tonnes of cargo each year. Traditionally connected to the fishing and food industry, the port of Grimsby today focuses on the handling imports and exports of trade cars, with more than 600,000 vehicles handled through the port

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each year. This number is set to grow massively over the coming years following ABP’s £26 million investment in developing the Grimsby riverside terminal, which will enable the port to handle the largest operating car carriers. Until recently car-carrying ships have solely used Grimsby’s Alexandra’s Dock, which is accessed through the port’s original Royal Lock. The terminal not only cements Grimsby’s role in the automotive market, but will also ensure increased efficiency and speed of service during the production build up for the two registration peaks each year.

“The new terminal is now operational and is already receiving ships but it will officially open on 20th September,” explains John. “We decided to future proof the port as new ships are getting bigger whilst older and smaller ships are being scrapped. The inner port can take ships that can carry up to 800 or a 1000 cars, depending on the type of car, but with the river terminal we can take ships that can carry up to 3000 cars and we have already seen double the previous maximum volume on a single ship.” Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Toyota, Peugeot, Citroen and, most recently, Suzuki are the manufacturers currently serviced at Grimsby, however John anticipates

more contracts in the future: “We have already seen new business come into the port since the terminal was announced with Suzuki arriving as a new customer and Volkswagen increasing volume; I am absolutely certain our decision to move forward helped these customers in their decisions.”

ABP is investing £100 million in the Humber ports in connection with a 15-year contract with Drax Power Limited to handle biomass shipments for the company’s power station in Selby. This investment in the ports of Immingham, Hull and Goole will support Drax Power’s conversion to a low carbon electricity producer through replacing coal with sustainable biomass. The Drax power station at Selby is the UK’s largest single producer of electricity and meets approximately seven per cent of the UK’s electricity needs; new plans at the power station include converting three of its existing coal-fired generating units to burn sustainable biomass, resulting in its output being predominantly from renewable resources over the next few years.

This new major investment is certain to

Profile: Associated British Ports Grimsby and Immingham

secure the region’s position as a hub for the development of the low carbon energy future.

As part of the development ABP will invest in new discharge and storage facilities at the three ports, while the Port of Immingham’s Humber International Terminal (HIT) will boast a new dedicated import facility, the Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal, to handle up to three million tonnes of wood pellets each year in Panamax sized vessels. Furthermore, the investment will require a new quayside discharge plant and associated equipment to move the biomass from ships to new silos, which will have the capability to store 100,000 tonnes.

From the silos, cargo will be conveyed to a new train loading facility that will service specialised rail wagons which Drax are currently having manufactured and which will transport the biomass to the Drax power station in Selby.

ABP’s Humber ports are already at the forefront of the renewables industry thanks to continued investments by leading offshore wind operators such as EON, Siemens, RES, Centrica and Dong developing operations and maintenance bases at the port of Grimsby.

“Our sister port in Hull is involved in assembly and manufacture of offshore wind turbines, while Grimsby is already established as a centre for the operations and maintenance services to the offshore wind industry. We have already seen major investments from EON, Siemens, Dong and Centrica, so the big players are already establishing themselves at the port of Grimsby and we are in discussions with a number of others,” explains John. “Centrica recently opened a £3 million operations base/control centre in Grimsby, EON are constructing at the moment and Dong are setting up a 950 square metre construction base for its Westermost Rough project. All of these companies are investing a lot of money and that is bringing new jobs to Grimsby and improving the town as a whole; it has a domino effect and it is all very positive.”

As investments continue over the coming months, ABP has secured the future of Grimsby and Immingham by ensuring they move forward with customer demands in the burgeoning offshore wind industry, while also enhancing infrastructure and access as a whole. “We have a lot of plans in the pipeline in terms of

infrastructure upgrade, for example we are looking at how to improve access at the Royal Dock. We will also be upgrading the marine management of the port in preparation for increased activities, thus ensuring the port is operating most effectively.

“The Grimsby River Terminal project is the biggest investment in Grimsby since the port was built and we are immensely proud of it.

It was a well thought out decision and gave us the opportunity to consolidate and develop our position in the automotive trade while also enhancing our position as the centre of operations and maintenance for the offshore wind industry,” concludes John. v

Associated British Ports Grimsby and Immingham www.abports.co.uk • Grimsby is the UK’s centre for the developing offshore wind industry • More than £100 million investment in the port of Grimsby and Immingham over the next 18 months • New Grimsby river terminal is in operation

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Power the

S

future

ince its last inclusion in Shipping and Marine, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems has continued to develop its role as the central point of sales and service activities for Cat and MaK branded marine products within Caterpillar Inc. The company identifies its essence as one of progress and with this at the forefront of its operations has continued to build on its impressive portfolio of products and services.

Although the company’s main focus is on propulsion engines and generator sets, it also provides a wider portfolio of products including auxiliary engines, electronics, displays and pleasure craft solutions. Its view is that when it comes to reliable engine power on the water, compromise is not an option and it strives to deliver world-class durability across each of its market sectors. Currently the company produces Cat branded engines operating between 250 to 21,475 bhp and MaK Engines with a range between 1020 to 16,000 kW. The company’s range of engines are designed to meet the requirements of sectors including cruise ship, ferry, cargo, government, pleasure craft, inland water way, offshore, tugs and salvage, dredging and fishing. It approaches engine design with an aim to achieve maximum productivity with minimum outlay, understanding that in both industrial and leisure pursuits cost-effectiveness is of paramount importance. Its engines are designed with long-term durability and high fuel efficiency as the key selling points for its customers. Its Cat Marine generator sets operate from 12 to 5200 ekW, while its MaK generator sets operate between 970 to 7680 kWe and are likewise designed to be rugged and reliable. Crucially, all Cat generator sets are designed to be approved by major marine classification societies and are constructed in ISO 9001 certified facilities.

The company consistently strives to develop new technologies and expand on its existing ones to drive its business forward and improve performance. In 2007 over 400 patents were granted throughout he company and these figures continued to rise for the next two years consecutively. More recently the company has been focused on LNG engine technology as part of its on-going commitment to developing environmentally clean, fuel-efficient engines for the marine industry. In 2011 it introduced the MaK 46 DF duel-fuel engine platform, which is scheduled to be available to the commercial marine industry in the first quarter of 2014.

In addition to this the company has been in simultaneous development of an LNG-fueled, high-speed engine below two MW that will be designed primarily for electronic propulsion. The application of this engine is currently focused on offshore and ferry industries, however other sectors remain a possibility.

“This extended focus on LNG technology reflects our greater understanding of and response to current and future customer needs,” elaborates Marine Power Systems project director Bob Hallengren.

“These fuel-efficient, sustainable propulsion engines will offer enhanced performance, productivity, reliability and longevity while enabling our customers to meet ever-stricter emissions requirements.”

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Further expansion of its product portfolio has been in its pleasure craft range, which has been broadened with the introduction of a new supercharged, high performance diesel engine. The company’s pleasure craft range is designed to provide its customers with the power to explore, while retaining its reputation for reliable, cost effective propulsion systems.

The new Cat C8.7 super-charged diesel engine was created in tandem with Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT Industrial S.p.A) and is expected to be ready for delivery in 2014. FPT advances in second-generation common rail fuel injection systems coupled with an innovative air management system enables the C8.7 to develop an impressive 650 mhp at 2300 rpm, while meeting EPA tier three, IMO two and CCNR stage two emissions requirements: “We are extremely excited to bring the first of several new engine products to the market,” explains David Shannon, pleasure-craft global sales manager. “The C8.7 pleasure craft engine will replace the 575 mhp C9 with a common rail fuel system and a new air management system, allowing us to produce 650 mhp from a smaller and lighter package. In addition to the horsepower gain, this engine will have one of the strongest torque curves in our industry. The customer will experience impressive power gains and vessel performance with this new product, especially in the pod market.”

Logistically, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems is a truly global company with marketing and customer service infrastructure covering Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Asia Pacific and The Americas. Regional headquarters in these areas are responsible for working with dealers to ensure that the company is able to provide expertise, specialists and spare parts to marine customers wherever in the world their ships may be. Complimenting the 90,000 personnel working throughout Caterpillar, its global sales and service network comprises 2100 dealer locations around the world working with over 100,000 people. Dealers must meet rigorous standards for excellence and only the best are authorised to service Caterpillar customers. An ongoing education system is in place to ensure that dealers are able to provide the best service for the company’s new products and that they are able to operate within ever-more stringent industry standards.

One of Caterpillar Marine’s more unique services is its dedication to providing details for its legacy products that are no longer in production. The company has been designing and building engines and generator sets for the marine sector for over 80 years and due to their rugged design, many of these older designs are still powering vessels around the world. Product specifications are made available through the company’s website so that required parts can be identified and passed to one of its dealers to track the availability of the parts around the world or find suitable alternatives as necessary.

Future technology is a core principle for the company in moving forward.

For Caterpillar Marine, research is not simply driven by market demands, but by developing technologies that drive positive, sustainable change in every corner of the world. The company is dedicated to preserving the world’s seas, lakes and rivers, and works to develop marine applications that benefit

Profile: Caterpillar Marine Power Systems

from its overall activity in test and development. The company has an expert awareness of environmental and emissions regulations and invests heavily to ensure that regulations are met without any impact on performance. Its engineers are supported in this by the company’s technical research centre in Peoria, Illinois and Caterpillar Motoren in Kiel, Germany, which carry out fundamental research on combustion, emissions, noise, structures, materials and complete power systems. Caterpillar Marine is dedicating to embedding an environmentally driven culture within its business and delivering solutions to difficult problems and one area it has been particularly keen to develop is fuel efficiency. Its $500 million development in ACERT Technology allows the combustion process to be shaped and managed with an extremely high degree of precision, resulting in more efficient engines and less environmentally damaging emissions.

The company is also committed to operating in a way that is sustainable for marine habitats and the creatures that live in them. Recently it embarked in a multi-year partnership with OCEARCH, which will propel the organisation’s research on shark populations: “Most people think sharks are invincible,” explains OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer: “But they are in real danger. We must find a sustainable path forward because sharks play a crucial role in maintaining balance in the delicate oceanic ecosystem. Now, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Caterpillar, we can continue our critical research expeditions that generate the data needed to inform policy makers, students and the general public on this issue.” Fischer’s vessel,

the MV OCEARCH, is already powered by Cat on the water. It operates on two Cat engines and three Cat generators that power the ship’s onboard laboratory, custom-built hydraulic lift and 55,000-pound capacity research platform.

“OCEARCH’s significant work is advancing our knowledge and sustaining the waters that are so vital to people and economies around the world,” comments Tom Frake, Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for the Marine and Petroleum Power Division: “The fact he’s a loyal Cat customer is an added bonus. We’re proud to associate our two brands, which share common values, high levels of success and a commitment to sustainability.”

Caterpillar Marine Power Systems is at its core a quality driven company offering propulsion solutions to the marine sector for and range of applications. Its customer focused global support network and its dedication to offering sustainable growth that benefits both its customers and the environment will undoubtedly encourage the company to continue to its research as it powers into the future. v

Caterpillar Marine Power Systems www.marine.cat.com • Reliable propulsion systems • Environmentally sound solutions• Global supply network

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River port grain terminal

Hands-on

approach

T

he Noble Group is a marketleading global supply chain manager of agricultural and energy products, metals and minerals. One of the backbones of the organisation is its subsidiary Noble Chartering Ltd. (NCL), which is a leading independent shipowner, operator and trader, providing high-quality, reliable, cost effective, safe and efficient logistics solutions. In its own right, NCL transports more than 94 million tons of dry bulk cargoes annually.

This includes both general market and Noble Group’s mined and traded cargoes with a ratio of 65 per cent third party and 35 per cent in-house cargoes. Currently NCL independently owns 12 vessels on the water and of these nine ships were delivered in 2010 or later. At any given time, NCL has over 300 vessels on charter control, in a variety of formats, including owned/bareboat/time charter period and trips.

Since Noble Chartering was last featured in Shipping and Marine the company has seen significant growth and development. Raghu Raghunath took over as global head of chartering in early 2013, and as he explained, the changes since the last feature included the delivery of

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Raghu Raghunath

three new ships in 2012, two capesize and one panamax. “The Noble Group has invested in logistics by moving into a new port facility in Russia, where construction will start shortly,” he added. “Our new terminal in Mexico has also now commenced operations, and we have significantly expanded our office in Geneva and hired a few new members of staff there; this reflects the increase in our business volume, which continues to grow.”

In terms of the business, NCL’s performance over the past 25 years speaks for itself, and Raghu noted that the company continues to perform strongly moving forward: “2008 and 2009 were very good years for us and while the downturn in 2010 and 2011 meant we did not see the levels we were used to, we were still able to operate profitably,” he said. This success was built on several strong foundations, including a high level of staff retention, working across a range of market sectors and strong relationships built across industries, the last of which is very important to the company, as Raghu stated: “Most of our business is built on loyalty and the interactions we have with our key clients.”

NCL’s combination of formidable performance and dedication to working in partnership was also the key to the company’s alliance with one of the world’s leading ship owner/operator ‘K-Line’ of Japan. “This joint-venture is called K-Noble and its present activities include ship owning, cargo and ship fixtures. K-Noble has six ships in the pool and this number is growing,” said Raghu.

“This JV also gives Noble access to the entire dry cargo fleet of K Line, as well as access to the Japanese markets and promises to widen the

Profile: Noble Chartering

Ocean Topaz

Ocean Emerald

business scope in coming years.”

This joint venture also represents NCL’s expansion into new geographical areas. “We have diversified our footprint quite a bit in the last couple of years,” confirmed Raghu. “Over the last two decades our business model had been very China centric, but we are now seeing a fairly substantial volume growth in Japan, where we have worked hard to establish the same sort of relationships we have in China. We are one of the first companies outside of Japan that has been chosen by the Japanese power utilities for long-

term contracts, and we are also now one of the largest owners moving grain from the US gulf to Japan.”

While discussing NCL’s impressive performance record, Raghu did note that there still remains a challenge in the industry that the company is contending with – poor performance from counterparties. “We now have the situation where credit has become a critical factor, with several large players including Pan Ocean filing for bankruptcy protection from the courts. The

performance of our counterparties remains questionable, even what used to be regarded as first class names, so something that we have to work on going forward is to ensure that we continue our strong progress while our counterparties are performing poorly.”

Nevertheless, with challenges come opportunities: “There is a lot more business out there that we haven’t exploited yet, and our

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Profile: Noble Chartering

Ocean Emerald unique strength in terms of our performance is valuable at this time,” said Raghu. “I think that the Pan Ocean default is the tip of the iceberg and there will be many more companies that will have financial difficulties and that does create opportunities for firms like NCL that are strong. I think there are good prospects for us there.”

Even in stagnated markets, NCL’s vision is to be a leading ship operator over the next five years with a continued focus on profitability.

A major component of this strategy is the use of modern ships with safe, economic and eco friendly operations. Indeed, the environmental side is something NCL is very passionate about as a company and across the entire Noble Group. “We take that very seriously and actively participate in several different programmes, including the Clinton Initiative, the Carbon Disclosure Project and the World Ocean Council.

Every ship that we operate runs at the optimum speed of fuel consumption, and in reality the economics of the ship go hand in glove with minimising carbon emissions and environmental friendliness. Therefore, it serves two purposes to run our ships at eco speed – it brings our carbon emissions down so our carbon footprint remains within the parameters we set as a Group, and it’s the most cost efficient,” explained Raghu.

“NCL firmly believes in green ships and greener seas and is one of the first, if not the only, dry bulk chartering company to have actively pursued a carbon neutral policy across its fleet since December 2008.”

The environmental side of NCL’s business falls under its CSR activities, which also encompasses the Group’s various charitable actions. Raghu himself, who recently received the Seatrade Young Person of the Year Award, is also an ambassador for the Sailor’s Society and is active in lots of aspects of this charity.

“This is a key aspect for Noble Group’s senior management and poverty, human rights and environmental issues are serious concerns for us, particularly with the Group’s focus as a ‘hands-on’ supply chain manager. We are on the ground, our eyes are open and we do not shirk our responsibilities,” he concluded. v

Noble Chartering www.thisisnoble.com • A worldwide trading pattern, carrying a diverse spread of cargoes • Noble Chartering makes a strong contribution to Noble Group’s profitability • Impeccable safety record and certified to ISO 9001:2008

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Shipping &MARINE

The magazine for maritime management

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk Editor: Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales manager: Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

Schofield Publishing Schofield Publishing Limited Unit 10, Cringleford Business Centre, Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1603 274130 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 274131