Shipping and Marine Issue 110 Early Edition

ISSUE 110 early

The magazine for maritime management

On the

move Properly executed marine transfers do offer a safe and reasonable alternative to the more familiar helicopter

fuel for thought

Why ship owners and operators must be ready for the new bunker fuel regulations

Challenging maintenance Coatings technology is advancing in order to ensure protection from corrosion without compromise

a clear view

Developments in marine technology now provide vessels with the ultimate information systems

If you don’t have the time to read it all, read what you need

Health & 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 Request the latest issue free of charge Subscriptions: £195 for 12 issues Contact: Maxine Quinton t: 01603 274280 e: mquinton@schof ieldpublishing.co.uk w: www.healthandsafetymonitor.com

ISSUE 110 Early

Editor’s editor’s comment ThE magazInE for marITImE managEmEnT

On the

move Properly executed marine transfers do offer a safe and reasonable alternative to the more familiar helicopter

fuel for thought

why ship owners and operators must be ready for the new bunker fuel regulations

Challenging maintenanCe coatings technology is advancing in order to ensure protection from corrosion without compromise

a clear view

Developments in marine technology now provide vessels with the ultimate information systems

Chairman Andrew Schofield Group Managing Director Mike Tulloch Sales Director David Garner Editor Libbie Hammond Art Editor/Design David Howard Staff Writers Matthew High Jo Cooper Andrew Dann Steve Nash Editorial Administrator Emma Harris

Sail away As the new sulphur emissions regulations creep ever closer, the shipping industry really has to consider the significant economic and financial implications that these entail. The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) commitment to reduce the maximum sulphur emissions limit for all vessels travelling in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) by 2015, will force operators to shift to burning low sulphur fuels such as Marine Gas Oil (MGO) or alternatively exhaust gas scrubbing.

The companies that are profiled in Shipping & Marine are now frequently citing this legislation change as high on their agenda – some are

Production Manager Fleur Daniels

looking at LNG as a fuel alternative. However, there are doubts about

Production dhoward @ schofieldpublishing.co.uk studio @ schofieldpublishing.co.uk

considerable investments and are no relevant solution in their current

Office Manager Tracy Chynoweth

Do you agree?

some of the technology solutions available. ‘....scrubbers would require

form’, states Jan Hanses, CEO of Viking Line.

Head of Research Philip Monument Editorial Researchers Laura Thompson Gavin Watson Mark Cowles Vita Lukauskiene Tarj D’Silva Karl Riseborough Elizabeth Szabo Jeff Goldenburg Jeff Johnson Advertising Sales Tim Eakins Joe Woolsgrove Dave King Darren Jolliffe Finlay Johnson Nick Davies

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

If you would like a digital version of Shipping & Marine magazine please contact Iain Kidd: ikidd@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

Subscriptions ikidd @ schofieldpublishing.co.uk

Schofield Publishing Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. Tel: 044 (0)1603 274130 Fax: 044 (0)1603 274131

www.shippingandmarine.co.uk. ©2014 Schofield Publishing Ltd

Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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FEATURES 4 News 14 On the move

Updates and announcements from the shipping and maritime arena

Despite residual concerns about marine crew supply it does offer a very safe and reliable alternative to helicopter service

8 Fuel for thought Why ship owners and operators must be ready for the new bunker fuel regulations

16 Never too big to fail

10 Addressing the maintenance challenge

The increasing size of vessels is creating significant challenges for salvage operations if things go wrong

The development of surface and humidity tolerant epoxy technology is making a huge difference to those managing offshore projects

18 The nuclear option A study has shown that a small modular reactor could be an option for powering a CSR Suezmax tanker

12 A clear view Developments in marine technology now provide commercial and leisure vessels with the ultimate integrated systems

8

22 International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) A united voice The International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) is helping to maintain a thriving economic maritime community

24 A BP Hull & G oole 28 Freeport of Riga Authority 30 Westports Holdings Be rh ad

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22

contents 49

profiles 3 5 C ondor Ferr ies 3 9 Archtec h Helsinki Shipyard 41 E M L

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4 5 S e rc o Nort hLink Fer r ies 4 9 M i deast Ship Management 5 1 S h i pping C orporat ion of India 5 4 Peter Madsen Rederi 5 7 S e a King 6 0 He avyLif t @ Sea 6 3 Afai Southern Shipyard 6 6 N oble C ha r tering 6 9 D u blin Port C om pa ny

72 Data M odul 74 Palmer Johnson

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76 Port2Port 78 Vik ing Line 80 Gestion M aritime 82 A nytec 84 DIA NA Yacht Design 86 Port of M oerdijk 88 The Port of Pori 90 Port of Z eebrugge 92 Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft 94 W M arine

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Tide of success

The trade association representing the wind, wave and tidal energy industries, RenewableUK, is hailing the opening of a new marine energy test centre at the University of Edinburgh as another positive example of the progress being made by the sector.

The new £9.5m FloWave Ocean Energy Research facility will have the capability to recreate scale version equivalents of waves reaching 28 metres in height and fast-moving currents of up to 14 knots which are typical off coastlines around the UK and Europe.

The opening of this new state-of-the-art site, based at the University of Edinburgh’s science campus, marks another step towards the commercial development of wave and tidal energy at a potentially lower cost.

The centrepiece is a circular pool, 2m deep by 25m across. By allowing developers to test devices in a range of sea conditions, on demand, the time in which they can see demonstrable results in their work could be significantly shortened. Similar tests in open waters may take months or years, while the new site can achieve these in days or weeks.

It is expected that the facility will be used to test full-scale devices such as wave and tidal energy converters, but it can also be utilised to develop floating offshore wind platforms and refine vessels needed to install offshore wind projects.

Prestigious Thames barge contract A leading shipbuilder has won a major contract to design and build four barges.

McTays, the shipbuilding subsidiary of HS Ocean Group (HSOG), was awarded the contract by leading waste management company Cory Environmental. The barges designed by McTays will be lighter and offer greater flexibility in order to meet Cory’s requirements. The 12-month contract will underpin 60 jobs within the company’s shipyard for 12 months and will benefit the local supply chain.

McTays, which specialises in ship repairs, the design, build and delivery of ships and workboats as well as voyage repairs, will design and build the barges at its shipyard on the banks of the River Mersey. The firm has vast experience in the construction of complex vessels, with a six-acre site including a fully equipped build hall and engineering workshop opening directly onto a newly upgraded slipway capable of accommodating vessels up to 2000 tonnes.

Cory Environmental is the largest lighterage (barge cargo) operator on the River Thames and utilises its fleet of barges to transfer waste and Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA) across London. Cory exports more than 470,000 MWh of electricity to the National Grid annually – enough to power more than 100,000 homes.

Peter Breslin, managing director of McTays, said: “McTays has been building ships for 40 years and has been awarded this contract due to our proven track record in ship building and design. The containers and technology used to transport waste and ash are advancing all the time and our design team has demonstrated its ability to meet these changing requirements.”

‘Real time’ intelligence sharing CSO Alliance, a global digital network dedicated to serving Company Security Officers (CSOs), has been launched to provide a ‘real time’ co-ordinated approach to the increasingly multi-faceted fight against maritime crime.

The community is designed to utilise the latest online and interactive tools to enable maritime CSOs to meet, share market intelligence, and assess the mutual risks their crews and assets face on a daily basis in multiple regions.

Mark Sutcliffe, director of CSO Alliance, commented: “Security threats to the industry are no longer exclusive to East African piracy, although that is what the media has focused on in recent years. Ongoing attacks and robberies, some with extreme use of violence, in West Africa, the Malacca Straits and Central and South America, as well as the growing threat of smuggling, theft and corruption has become widespread and omnipresent across the industry has made it increasingly clear that effective

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intelligence has become the preserve of the wealthy ship owner.

“The uniqueness of the Alliance lies in its increasing number of users, leveraging the suite of tools that accompany geospatial mapping to share intelligence, ideas and comments in a ‘real time’ forum. While Captains rely on VHF to protect one another, CSOs now have their own web-based tool to instantly pick up on issues. Vitally, Captains relaying an incident via their CSO and the Alliance can inform an entire region in an instant. This communication feed is constantly qualified by the CSO peer group review and referenced with the relevant military sources.

There are numerous intuitive forums dedicated to specific topics to share and develop learning and innovations within groups.

This saves CSOs time, their companies’ money, and – potentially – lives. Combined, these elements form a global community of CSO professionals who can now achieve security through community.”

MARITIME NEWS Large repeat order DBR will supply emergency/harbour diesel generator sets for six new pipelaying vessels under construction at IHC Merwede in the Netherlands for Subsea 7 and SapuraKencana. The order for the custom engineered units, generating up to 1875 kVA, follows DBR’s successful delivery of three similar generator sets for IHC Merwede in 2013.

“We are very pleased that our work last year has resulted in this large new repeat order from our client IHC Merwede,” notes DBR managing director Herwin Roodenburg. “These are custom built units, completely engineered to client specifications and for operating safely and reliably in Brazilian waters.”

For each of the six new generator sets, DBR selected Mitsubishi diesel engines and either 800 kVA Leroy Somer or 1875 kVA AvK generators. The delivery includes cooler and control panels, and the units can operate in up to 50ºC air on temperature. DBR will engineer the equipment to Lloyd’s Register and IMO-2 specifications. The first of the six new generator sets was successfully FAT tested at DBR’s test bench and already delivered earlier in 2014. The delivery of the next custom built units will continue ongoing in 2014 and 2015.

Tanker acquisition Ardmore Shipping Corporation has acquired a 49,997 Dwt Eco-design product and chemical tanker built in July 2013 at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., South Korea, for a purchase price of $36 million.

Upon delivery, Ardmore’s fleet will stand at 22 vessels, with 12 in operation and ten Eco-design product and chemical tankers scheduled to be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2015, the next two of which are scheduled to deliver six months from now, in November 2014.

Anthony Gurnee, the company’s chief executive officer, commented: “With the addition of this inthe-water, Eco-design tanker, we have increased our fleet size and near-term earnings potential. We are furthermore very happy with the price, which compares favourably with other recently traded Eco-design MR’s. The success of this transaction is a result of our measured, disciplined growth strategy, and we will continue to seek out further acquisitions in order to maximise both our earnings potential and long-term shareholder value.”

Harness your mojo

Working together THE National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has established a two-year partnership with the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (IMarEST).

Engaging with the global marine industry topped NOC’s reasons for partnering the Institute – which counts 15,000 marine professionals from more than 100 countries among its members. The association will allow NOC to share its expertise and have input into the Institute’s highly regarded Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

Steve Hall, from NOC’s International & Strategic Partnerships, said: “NOC values being able to work with a highly regarded international Professional Body to jointly address the great challenges facing the ocean, to benefit from a closer working relationship with marine professionals in industry, and to encourage more people to consider a future in marine science, engineering and technology. IMarEST also provides an opportunity for our staff to seek accredited professional status, which will improve their career prospects and their understanding of the requirements of the broader marine sector.”

The partnership will build on NOC’s existing work with IMarEST which sees them consulting on both government and international bodies including the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO),” he added.

IMarEST’s Chief Executive, David Loosley, said: “We are pleased to be working closely with the National Oceanography Centre. A partnership such as this enables us to further enhance the IMarEST’s global technical voice by increasing relevant technical expertise for our Special Interest Groups for the benefit of all of our members and corporate marine partners around the world.”

Mojo Maritime, the Falmouth based marine renewable energy experts, has expanded into France, having incorporated a wholly owned French subsidiary in response to the growing French tidal energy market.

Mojo Maritime France S.A.S. is headquartered in Cherbourg, Normandy, and has operations in Nantes, Western France. The company started trading on 1st May 2014 and has already begun the recruitment process. Over the next five years, Mojo Maritime expects its French office to consist of five people, bringing its total number of employees to 35.

The first project for Mojo Maritime France S.A.S. is the development of an innovative seabed preparation system, which has applications for the tidal energy sector; a key area of development for the Cornish based company. This project is in conjunction with Cassis base company Geocean and is part funded by a grant administered by the French Government Agency ADEME. Richard Parkinson, managing director of Mojo Maritime, commented: “The expansion of Mojo Maritime into France is an exciting step forward for us, as a Cornish-based business. We see the French tidal energy market as a key area of development and have been lucky enough to receive lots of support for our venture from local stakeholders. We are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Mojo in both the UK and France.” www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 5

Multi-million pound funding Millions of pounds of funding has been announced for the development of a marine renewables business park (MRBP) in Hayle, which will provide 2500 sqm of industrial and office based accommodation that could create 120 new jobs by 2020. This development underlines Cornwall’s commitment to its diverse marine renewable ocean resource, world class supply chain, innovation and industry growth.

This additional funding for Hayle follows the development of North Quay and represents a total package of investment of £24m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Cornwall Council, Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) and Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) in the area. Hayle is already the home of Wave Hub, the world’s largest marine renewables test site connected to the grid, and the addition of the marine renewables park will further strengthen Cornwall’s capability to support this growing sector.

The new facility is designed to accommodate companies at the vanguard of future marine renewables energy production and will be a collaborative partnership between local and national government, the Local Enterprise Partnership, technology developers and industry. The bespoke business park development, which is project managed by Cornwall Development Company, will include more than 2500 square metres of managed workspace including flexible workshops and modern office accommodation. It will also be fibre enabled, ensuring superfast broadband capability for the businesses on site.

As the site was historically the location of a coal fired power station, this cutting edge development represents the next generation in energy production.

On track for launch Trident Alliance, the shipping industry initiative for robust enforcement of maritime sulphur regulations, is well on track for launch after its exploratory meeting in Copenhagen in May 2014, hosted by Maersk Maritime Technology and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) in Copenhagen.

At the meeting, the companies agreed that the Trident Alliance will be a coalition of shipping owners and operators who share a common interest in robust enforcement of maritime sulphur regulation and are willing to collaborate to help bring it about. The Alliance will partner with other groups who share its interest in robust enforcement, collaborating on initiatives that support this objective.

The company representatives agreed to the Trident Alliance Principles and Terms of Reference and to work towards the vision of a shipping industry with effective enforcement of sulphur regulations to ensure their intended effect is reached and eliminate the risk of distortion to the competitive landscape.

Investment in eco-ships VSL announced in May that its first two eco-newbuildings joined its fleet, with the delivery of the High Sun product tanker in Vietnam (in partnership with d’Amico International Shipping – DIS) and the Giulia I dry-bulk carrier in China.

Thanks to their unique design, the two vessels guarantee average fuel savings and resulting reduction in CO2 emissions of 20-25 per cent (with vessels fully loaded and at a constant speed of 14 knots).

VSL, which invests exclusively in the shipping and shipping logistics industries, confirms its confidence in the product tanker and dry-bulk markets, and in particular in the new ecovessels that offer significant benefits compared to conventional ones in terms of performance, and improved access to strong international clients. VSL expects its investments in eco-vessels

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will lead to attractive returns on capital for its investors.

The technical features of the two vessels will not only help confront the expected increase in fuel costs, arising from stricter regulations on sulphur emissions in ECA (Emission Controlled Areas), but also result in a greater commercial flexibility with access to contracts with first-class charterers, which are not always available for conventional vessels.

“Our partnership with the d’Amico Group,” stated Fabrizio Vettosi, general manager of VSL, “allows us to be at the forefront of the highly competitive international shipping market.

The investments made, at very interesting prices, will allow us to further develop our business and to create value for our investors in the medium and long-term, securing higher freight rates and likely capital gains.”

MARITIME NEWS Engineering expertise Power resistor manufacturer Cressall Resistors has taken advantage of the growing preference for electric propulsion in marine applications to increase its presence in the sector. More than ten per cent of the company’s turnover can now be traced to projects for the marine and offshore industries.

As a supplier with over 15 years of sector experience, Cressall has used its engineering knowledge to provide products including Dynamic Braking Resistors, Neutral Earthing Resistors and Neutral Earthing Transformers to almost every type of marine electric powered application, from propulsion systems, bow thrusters or driving winches, to cranes, lifts, cable laying and tensioning.

“Safety and reliability play a central role in everything we do,” explained David Atkins, projects director at Cressall Resistors. “We know that in harsh environments such as marine, offshore or oil and gas, these factors become paramount. Cressall’s engineering expertise and long experience of using the elements to our advantage helps us create the best designs, which not only ensure that the crew and the equipment is safe, but also that the product is durable, flexible and energy efficient.”

Scheme given consent Nautricity, the renewable energy company, has been given the go-ahead to develop one of the UK’s first ‘next generation’ tidal energy schemes in waters off the Mull of Kintyre.

Marine Scotland has given consent for the deployment of the first Contra Rotating Marine Turbine (CoRMaT) device, capable of generating enough electricity to supply 400 homes, to be deployed in the Irish Sea, south of Machrihanish, Argyll.

In addition, Argyll and Bute Council has approved the construction of an onshore sub-station that will connect the array to the National Grid. The Glasgow-based company is only the fourth to be granted full permission to deploy tidal devices in Scottish waters, having already received consent from the Crown Estate and SSE, the electrical network operator. Work on the onshore connection is expected to start later this year with the devices being deployed in the water in early 2015.

Nautricity was selected to develop the CoRMaT technology as part of the Government’s WATERS2 funding package, aimed at helping Scottish firms to secure an increased share of the international marine energy market.

“This will inform the most cost effective development route to be adopted for all technical and commercial aspects of the project,” said Cameron Johnstone, the next generation tidal energy company’s co-founder and CEO. “It is envisaged that a multi-megawatt array could be realised on the site post-2016.”

Customers and community

A key milestone arrived on 5th June, with the submission by Dover Harbour Board of a Harbour Revision Order (HRO) to Government in order to increase its powers and deliver on its firm commitment to play a major role in the regeneration of both port and town.

Tim Waggott, chief executive of the Port of Dover, said: “This is a great moment for the Port and for Dover. It represents a clear sign of our commitment to both deliver our flagship Dover Western Docks Revival project, currently being so positively received and supported, and crucially to be able to further support our community with charitable donations through a new community fund. It is a major step forward in delivering the shared vision that we are developing with our customers and community.”

Mr Waggott added: “I sincerely hope for a swift granting of the HRO so that the momentum to transform the port and town of Dover will allow us all to experience the great future in which we all wish to share just as soon as possible. In the meantime, I encourage the people of Dover and all of our stakeholders to come to our workshop in July and help us shape the community fund together. These are exciting times for all of us in Dover!” www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 7

Fuel for

thought

Grace Quinn illustrates why ship owners and operators must be ready for the new bunker fuel regulations

The shipping industry stands on the brink of new regulations that will affect marine fuel specifications and in turn the market for bunker fuels. The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) commitment to reduce the maximum sulphur emissions limit for all vessels travelling in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) by 2015, will force operators to shift to burning low sulphur fuels such as Marine Gas Oil (MGO) or alternatively exhaust gas scrubbing.

Both options will have significant economic and financial implications for the shipping industry. The European Union (EU) has committed to a 0.5 per cent limit as mandatory in its waters by 2020.

This has fuelled controversy in the shipping industry as it renders EU

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Table 1 Sulphur Emission Limits Timeline

Year

ECA

EU

Global

Prior to 2010

1.5%

4.5% 4.5%

2010 1.0% 2012 3.5% 3.5% 2015 2020 0.1%

0.5% 0.5%

2025

Potential Postponed

BUNKERING REGULATIONS

market participants at a competitive disadvantage to the rest of the world, should they not have to comply until 2025 (see Table 1).

What’s the bottom line for the shipping industry?

Whether you own and operate local passenger ferries, fishing trawlers or tankers in EU or ECA waters, you need to consider what your compliance options are: 1. Switching to burning MGO when in these areas 2. Investing in an Exhaust Gas Scrubbing System 3. Planning and development to accommodate utilising Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a bunker fuel 4. Changing trade routes and commercial operations to limit exposure in the near term 5. Choosing not to comply and be subject to hefty fines and operating constraints Some would argue that switching to MGO is the only viable option and for many vessels this is true. A scrubber may be too costly an investment, particularly if you do not spend enough time in ECA/EU waters to justify the payback period. Alternatively the vessel may not be physically large enough to operate a scrubbing system, or have enough commercial life left to warrant the investment. LNG is very much in infancy with considerable uncertainty around supply and the necessary investment required. Commercially you may operate heavily within ECA/EU regions, where alternative routes are not a feasible consideration. If this is the case then you reach the same conclusion as many others - MGO appears to be the only short-term solution, presuming vessels can be modified to switch fuels.

Ultimately all options affect the bottom line. Likewise all options will not be feasible for each vessel or fleet.

How are ship owners going to comply in 2015 while optimising their fleet’s commercial operations?

Deciding which compliance option is best for you as a ship owner is only the first step. The challenge today is making decisions that optimise operations in the short term but do not restrict the opportunity to sustain margin in the long term, regardless of the future landscape.

Start by analysing how today’s chosen compliance options and investment decisions fair if the following scenarios occur in the long term.

For example: I. LNG becomes a readily available bunker fuel within Europe and the price spread is more favourable between Fuel Oil (FO) and LNG than the FO to MGO spread II. As in ‘I’ but the price spread between FO and LNG is less favourable than FO to MGO III. Price of FO increases to the point it is at parity if not surpasses LNG and MGO IV. Globally the 2020 emissions cap is postponed indefinitely V. Regulations impacting other modes of transport force an intra if not full modal switch to shipping The impact of each of these scenarios will vary for every business and market player, depending on their unique commercial model.

With the uncertainty around the timing of global regulations, fuel supply balances and the price of MGO, how can ship owners mitigate their risk and exposure while remaining competitive?

What is certain is that the competitive landscape will change, as those exposed to the 2015 and 2020 regulatory constraints undertake internal reviews and impact assessments, in turn putting short to medium term strategies in place.

How shipping companies respond to the new requirements will have a direct impact on the demand quality of marine bunker fuels (LSFO, MGO, LNG, HSFO and scrubbing). Likewise the response of the refining industry to perceived customer requirements will affect the availability and pricing of these marine fuels.

It is clear that stakeholders in the shipping industry need to define what this sulphur regulation means for their current commercial operations both in 2015 and beyond. Owners must ensure scope includes not only investment decisions, but also analyse where commercial cost savings can be achieved. Decisions made today targeting optimisation of operations in 2015 will have an impact on the numerous scenarios that could play out in the future. Many companies may find that their in-house expertise and resources limit their ability to define and address these decisions. Have you started thinking about how you will address this?

After all you don’t want to miss the boat. n Grace Quinn is a consultant at Baringa Partners.

Baringa Partners LLP is an award-winning management consultancy that specialises in the energy, financial services and utilities markets in the UK and continental Europe. It partners with organisations when they are developing and delivering key elements of their business strategy, as well as working extensively with government and regulators providing policy and advisory services. For further information visit: www.baringa.com.

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Addressing the maintenance

challenge Joao Azevedo highlights the development of surface and humidity tolerant epoxy technology to meet and exceed increasing demands on offshore project schedules and the need for longer seasonal maintenance periods in harsh environments

The pressures on those managing offshore projects to meet tight time and quality schedules has never been higher, and with it comes the need to develop the coatings technology to ensure protection from corrosion without compromise.

For maintenance work, time is of the essence for contractors and asset owners, with the need to predict budgets and meet them a prerequisite of the industry to minimise downtime and cost.

The process of coating during typical offshore projects is a relatively small component but is often a disproportionate cost of the overall project due to weather delays, the disturbing effects of abrasive blasting during surface preparation stages and the need for re-blasting or repainting when the agreed coating standard has not been achieved.

Therefore, enabling year-round coating work where required has become increasingly important, particularly in Europe where plunging temperatures in harsh environments often prohibits or delays vital work on these projects.

The application, durability and performance of coatings for these offshore projects requires the very highest levels of quality to meet the challenges presented by the diverse types of environments and structures.

Driven by customer requirements worldwide, the coatings industry has developed many kinds of products for different needs whether they are intended for use in consistently warm climates or colder environments.

At Sherwin-Williams, we are meeting this challenge through our DuraPlate 301 line of products. To date, more than 15 million square metres of steel has undergone protection from the renowned suite of DuraPlate 301 worldwide, including offshore platforms, ships, steel bridges, refineries and tanks.

For years, this technology has enabled durable application over damp

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surfaces, flash rust, existing coatings and with the comfort of excellent adhesion sometimes reaching 25 MPa (3625 PSI), one of the results of a technology designed to provide 25-year service life for offshore conditions.

One of the most impressive impacts of the Dura-Plate 301 technology is the way it has transformed the perception about the use of Ultra High Pressure water jetting (UHP) as the preferred surface preparation method. This method has a number of advantages, namely reduced environmental impact and better surface cleanliness.

But it also poses three challenges: steel surface gets damp, flash rust quickly develops before coating application and no surface profile is generated. Conventional coatings struggle to cope with such challenges.

Dura-Plate 301 perfectly addresses each one of the three key challenges of UHP. It has become a symbol of the safe adoption of UHP for high durability projects like no other technology since starting its expanded global use more than a decade ago. UHP water jetting, offering reduced health and safety dangers compared to abrasive blasting and potentially reduced labour costs, is particularly relevant for the maintenance of offshore structures, refineries, storage tanks, marine vessels, ballast tanks and steel bridges.

This has included applications at onshore and offshore locations in Europe on storage tanks at the Sines Refinery - one of the largest refineries in the Iberian Peninsula - and the Setubal terminal in Portugal for Galp Energia as well as projects in America, Brazil and Singapore.

Now the Dura-Plate 301 product line has been extended further to meet the demands of the market.

Working with our key customers, our technical team in Bolton, Greater Manchester, has researched and developed a cold curing expansion of our surface and humidity tolerant epoxy technology, keeping the same broader field of application covering its use in immersion as well

Corrosion protection corrosion

as atmospheric service conditions in offshore, marine, industrial and construction applications.

We have sought to provide a balance of uses for the Dura-Plate 301 technology and add to the options for the asset owner and maintenance contractor worldwide and in Europe particularly.

The Dura-Plate 301W - the product version that reflects the recent expansion developments - is now offering cold curing down to 0OC and extended re-coatability of up to six months, two important extensions of this technology reach.

The cost of downtime on maintenance has long been an issue in many offshore European locations, with shortened seasons for coating depending on how low temperatures have fallen in winter. The DuraPlate 301W now offers a longer painting calendar and with it increased efficiencies and reduced overall project costs.

The low temperature trials conducted in the UK in the recent past have been successful, and we are proud to say that Dura-Plate 301W is meanwhile being used in South Brazil, China and Japan at low temperatures, its use expanding fast as it surpasses the hundreds of thousands of litres being successfully applied so far.

Petrobras, the Brazilian state-run energy company, is reporting positive advantages of using the 301 technology combined with UHP water jetting at the world’s largest offshore new building contract to date, for a total of eight FPSO hulls at the Ecovix shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul, south-east Brazil.

Here, the largest Goliath gantry crane in the world helps assemble the eight hulls. Four UHP chambers are being used, with efficiencies in time and costs being reported all round. Dura-Plate 301W has been used during the winter season, following its approval by Petrobras.

For shipbuilding, too, the 301 series has been used successfully, with the first application utilising the 301-UHP combination being applied at Atlantico Sul shipyard in Brazil on ten Suez Max oil tankers. Started in

2009, this project continues to prove the benefits and features of this combination with open-space UHP working alongside other operations such as welding, cutting and painting and strong adhesion data being returned over a low texture profile.

The advantages for new-build projects speak volumes, with comparative savings against abrasive blasting including reduced chamber operating costs, fewer weather constraints, a reduced environmental impact and reduced labour costs.

Approvals from all recognised international bodies have been granted for the suite of Dura-Plate 301 products including Norsok, Navsea/ US Navy and the IMO, including the world’s only IMO PSPC approval over UHP water jetting and a zinc-free shop primer. Full approvals are expected soon for Dura-Plate 301W. n Joao Azevedo is oil & gas market director (EMEA region) for SherwinWilliams Protective & Marine Coatings. The Sherwin-Williams Company was founded in 1866 in Cleveland, Ohio by Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams. Today, the company is a global leader in the development, manufacture and sale of coatings and industrial related products. In 2011, Sherwin-Williams acquired Leighs Paints, based in Bolton, UK. The company now trades as Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings and has sales and technical support centres in Germany and UAE. For further information please visit: http://protectiveemea.sherwin-williams.com.

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A clear

view

From GPS signals transmitted by satellites orbiting the world for precise navigation, to CHIRP technology that sees what’s below the water, developments in marine technology now provide commercial and leisure vessels with the ultimate in integrated on-board navigation, communication and visual information. By Nigel Craine Twenty-five years ago, a US-based company called Garmin was formed to manufacture marine and aviation-specific navigation products that used GPS, the Global Positioning System. Garmin’s ability to offer such a high level of navigational integrity, becoming the first company to receive crucial Federation Aviation Authority (FAA) approvals for its products, marked the start of the organisation which has now grown to become the global leader in satellite navigation products for the automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, OEM application and marine markets.

Today Garmin’s marine product range has developed from stand alone hand held GPS receivers to complete integrated solutions, providing fully networked systems for navigation, communication and visual information. Garmin’s strengths in non-marine sectors are still an advantage in developing marine technology. The company says many of its new technologies arise from requirements in sectors such as aviation.

One of the most exciting recent developments exclusive to the marine sector focuses around CHIRP sonar technology. An acronym for Compressed High-Intensity Radiated Pulse, CHIRP

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is a breakthrough in providing the ability to provide high clarity, highresolution images from directly underneath and to both sides of a vessel.

This technology is now enabling boats at sea in depths far greater than ever before possible, to attain clear images of moving and static objects below them, even when travelling at speed.

The reason CHIRP technology is so powerful derives from the way it works. Traditionally, standard sonar sends a single signal out at a time.

Since the only feedback is from this one single frequency, this limits the clarity and resolution of the image available with standard sonar.

CHIRP works by sending a continuous sweep of varying frequencies ranging from low to high, and CHIRP sonar technology then interprets frequencies individually upon their return. Since this continuous sweep of frequencies provides CHIRP with a much wider range of information, CHIRP sonar is able to create a much clearer, higher resolution image with much greater definition between individual targets.

However, the key to CHIRP sonar is in the interpretation of the data retrieved. The better the data interpretation, the better the screen image.

The capability differences between traditional sonar and CHIRP are distinct. When two target returns signals overlap for traditional sonar the receiver, that is the component of a transducer responsible for receiving a sonar return pulse, may not have the capability to separate the two signals which can generate a smeared target on the screen. The length of the transmit pulse defines the minimum target spacing.

IT

CHIRP provides a solution for this issue. CHIRP capability sweeps each sonar pulse through a range of frequencies, which provides enhanced detail, resolution, and target separation at all depths.

The CHIRP transmissions are encoded which allows for the sonar to determine the beginning, middle, and end of the pulse. The encoding provided by CHIRP allows for the receiver to detect a difference between two overlapping target returns and thus provide enhanced target separation that does not depend on the transmit pulse width.

The resulting picture from CHIRP does not depend on the transmit pulse width since the sonar can transmit a wider pulse which places more power into the water and thus generates a clearer picture. CHIRP allows the user to operate with lower transmit frequencies in order to achieve depth performance while not sacrificing target separation and resolution.

Garmin has taken CHIRP technology and combined it with powerful transducers that deliver Garmin’s HD-ID target tracking as well as both SideVu and DownVu technologies.

The advantages of high clarity, high-resolution sonar for fishing vessels is obvious. Using improved target resolution enables users to differentiate between big fish and tight clusters of bait fish. By increasing the sonar power using CHIRP, targets are more clearly identified, even enabling users to pick out images of fish hovering just above the sea bed.

One of the recent technological developments from Garmin using CHIRP sonar is in ultra deep water clarity. Using CHIRP technology, Garmin’s deep water sounders will now provide detailed analysis at depths of up to 17,000 feet.

Garmin’s latest ClearVu technology with both SideVu and DownVu CHIRP solutions provides easily interpreted clear images of underwater structures and features. This technological enhancement now brings high clarity underwater imaging to commercial and professional users such as workboats surveying underwater structures, or safety and

security vessels searching for underwater objects, commercial and leisure divers as well as historians.

This technology was recently demonstrated in Calabria, Italy when searching for the wreck of the ‘Lillois’, an Italian cargo ship which was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine ‘Torbay’ in March 1943, just a few miles from the coast at Scalea.

The screen images showing the wreck are displayed on Garmin’s GPSMAP 1020xs which is a Multi Function Display including chartplotter, radar, sonar and more. The images are produced by the Garmin GCV10 black box which provides both DownVu and SideVu images created by their own unique multi element scanning transducer which again utilises CHIRP technology.

The wreck was located at a depth of 63 metres and the structure of the vessel including its dual masts can clearly be seen on the screen.

Garmin’s ClearVu scanning sonar using CHIRP was launched at the beginning of 2014, and is already being installed on both leisure and commercial vessels. While the traditional non-scanning CHIRP sonar technology is excellent at identifying fish and bottom location, the CHIRP scanning sonar now available from Garmin through its DownVu and SideVu technology is providing images that can be likened to providing users with a 3D underwater photo-like image of structures.

For fishermen this means they can find underwater objects such as flooded bridges and trees that attract fish - this technology is particularly popular in the USA with the inland Bass fishermen. More critically, for commercial users such as divers, offshore workers, coastguards and rescue services, this technology can be used to locate and identify underwater structures such as sunken vessels or to locate key objects deep below the surface with extremely high clarity images. n Nigel Craine is European marine OEM sales manager at Garmin.

Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd., the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications – most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications.

For more information, visit www.garmin.com.

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On the

move

A perspective on the alternatives to helicopter transit. By Philip Strong

These are worrying times for many in the North Sea with question marks hanging over one of its most fundamental activities of crew changes for offshore installations. It is everyone’s understandable wish to be able to travel safely to and from their place of work and discussions around this issue can be emotive, sometimes driven by fear and confusion about the actual risks.

As a company involved globally in the transit of around one million passengers each year to and from offshore installation we have developed some unique perspectives on offshore crew logistics and we are keen to share some of what we have learned with the industry.

To make sense of this issue it’s helpful to take a historical perspective.

Some regions have embraced a multitude of crew transfer methods, while others are more dependent on a single mode of transport. For example, the industry within the UKCS is almost entirely reliant on the helicopters – a dependency that has led to problems with business continuity on several occasions in recent years.

Given the challenging weather conditions in the northern North Sea and the long distances to its offshore installations, it is understandable that marine transfer has not evolved as part of the culture and tradition in the UKCS. Also until the 1990s marine transfer was an activity that

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received virtually no focus or investment and antiquated equipment and practices reinforced the perspective that it had no relevance in the developing North Sea. This issue is compounded as responsibility for marine transfer often seems to fall between the stool of asset operators, vessel operators, safety, marine and production departments, with no one wholly owning the issue. Finally, unlike the aviation sector, the marine sector did no systematic collation and analysis of transfer data, fuelling misconceptions about the actual risks. In short opinion has tended to triumph over facts.

It doesn’t have to be like this. To gain another perspective, we only need to look to the far side of the Atlantic in Canada. A region with a very strong safety culture it also faces unique and challenging operating conditions. But interestingly, because Atlantic Canada is affected by persistent fog every year, a total reliance on aviation has never been an option for the region. Their response to this situation has been to review marine based crew supply options and the associated risks and take a vigorous approach to defining and implementing best practice. Following two decades of regular crane transfers in challenging conditions, Canadian operators have built up an impressive safety record and, unlike in the North Sea, they’ve gained the full confidence of their workforce!

Following the most recent disruption to helicopter services, North Sea operators are again reviewing crew transfer alternatives. We feel it’s

personnel transfer

‘‘ important to put this in the perspective of the millions of crane transfers performed each year, often in very challenging climates. The positive news is that there is a considerable (and growing) body of independent evidence to indicate that marine transfer offers the safest and one of the most reliable methods of offshore access and a viable alternative to helicopter transit.

North Sea demographics (or the distances to most installations) suggest that aviation will remain the method of choice. That said, over the past five years a new generation of advanced high speed, high comfort, crew supply vessels – such as Seacor’s CrewZer – has challenged even this assumption and some blue-chip operators and regions have moved away from helicopters. In the current situation, as aviation services may be disrupted for some time it makes sense to make contingency plans.

A good crew supply solution should provide high levels of safety, speed and reliability, as well as operational flexibility. Vessels such as the CrewZer access solution can deliver up to 30 per cent savings on logistical costs, whilst enhancing safety or passenger welfare.

Good alternatives exist and recently a joint industry group of lifting and transfer specialists and vessel operators developed Ten Golden Rules for Crane Transfer Safety to communicate best practice (download from various sites free of charge). Also modern transfer

devices ‘design out’ much of the risk by offering passengers very high levels of protection, they also reduce the reliance on human responses. Interestingly, much of the recent media coverage confused the argument by showing images of legacy operations with antiquated equipment not compliant to current legal norms.

So let’s try to summarise the situation. Despite residual concerns and misconceptions about marine crew supply it does offer a very safe and reliable alternative to helicopter services. The safety track record even in harsh weather areas such as Canada has been first class. Like all transport solutions it should be planned and performed with caution.

But operators planning marine based alternatives, and stranded crews, can feel confident that properly executed marine transfers offer a safe and reasonable alternative to the more familiar helicopter. n

Philip Strong is CEO at Reflex Marine. Reflex Marine is dedicated to the safe transfer of personnel to and from offshore installations and vessels.

It aims to set new standards and expectations for the industry, changing the perspective of crew transfer from being seen as an inherently high risk activity, to being accepted as a manageable activity that can be performed safely and cost effectively. For further information visit: www.reflexmarine.com.

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Never too big to

fail

In the age of the ‘mega ship’ the ever-increasing size of cruise ships, containers and tankers is creating significant challenges for salvage operations when things do go wrong at sea.

By Annika Schuenemann More than two years after the grounding of the Costa Concordia, which resulted in the death of 32 passengers and crew, the total loss figure is approaching $2bn – making it one of the largest marine casualties ever. As of the time of writing, the authorities have yet to figure out what will happen to the wreck of the vessel.

It is only natural that cruise ship disasters dominate the headlines, particularly when such a tragic loss of life is involved, but such incidents are not the only potential casualties that the maritime industry has to worry about.

According to the world shipping council about $4trn worth of goods is transported on the world’s oceans every year. This cargo is shipped by vessels such as container ships and tankers that are everincreasing in terms of size, as shipowners strive to reduce operating and shipping costs through greater economies of scale. An example of this is the introduction last year of the Maersk Triple E generation cargo ships – the Triple E refers to Economy of scale, Energy efficiency and Environmentally-improved – which are the largest container vessels in the world, measuring 400 metres in length and carrying more than

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18,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit). Four hundred metres in length is equivalent to the combined size of two basketball fields, two football fields and two ice hockey rinks.

Such vessels are so large that they exceed the capacity of the Panama Canal and the depth of many ports. For example, there are no ports in either North or South America which can handle the deeper drafts or they exceed the capacity of some of the traditional container cranes.

And should one of these supersized container vessels be unlucky enough to be involved in a significant incident at sea – as the Costa Concordia grounding has demonstrated – the salvage operation to remove the wreck can be increasingly complex and technically challenging.

Salvaging – a risky business The ever-increasing size of ships, containers and cruise ships, means that costs for any salvage operation increase exponentially due to the need for different, sometimes more customised equipment, more specialised personnel and expertise, as well as heightened environmental requirements.

VERY LARGE VESSELS

Above: The world biggest container ship , the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller and left: the Costa Concordia

Escalating costs around salvaging and wreck removal have an effect on rates and deductibles for both hull and cargo insurance.

Tim Donney, Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting, AGCS warns: “The claims arising out of maritime emergencies of these ‘mega ships’ can be huge. For example, just think of the business interruption of ports and terminals if an accident were to block a port entrance or even one of the canals.

“Depending on the specific circumstances of the situation, salvage might require unprecedented efforts and complex operations – in some cases it may take many months, or possibly a year or longer, to remove all the containers from such vessels, particularly if the accident were to happen in a remote location, where all salvage operations are only able to operate seasonally.”

An example of this would be the container ship, Rena which grounded off the coast of New Zealand in 2011.

But how should the maritime industry deal with the increasing risks and costs of salvage operations? According to Paul Warren, Senior Claims Expert in London at AGCS, it needs to come together in drafting more binding standards and having solutions more readily available when another incident involving a large container ship happens. “We

need a concerted effort to deal with this issue,” he tells Global Risk Dialogue.

An example for such an industry-wide initiative is the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) in the US, a not-for profit operation that works on behalf of the petroleum, transportation and energy industries.

MSRC was formed in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 to offer oil spill response services and mitigate damage to the environment. If the industry comes together in a similar vein for salvage operations this will enable the right kind of equipment to be more readily available in strategic locations, as well being much more cost-effective.

As Donney explains: “Usually this kind of heavy salvaging equipment, cranes and derrick barges are owned by marine contractors. They use it primarily for construction purposes, so the issue is often availability – it’s crucial for us to keep maritime salvage requirements in mind.” n This article appears courtesy of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.

Visit: http://www.agcs.allianz.com/insights/expert-riskarticles/mega-ships/# or http://www.agcs.allianz.com.

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The nuclear option International agreements on the need to combat climate change, the fluctuating but generally rising costs of marine fuels which account for a large proportion of the running costs of a ship backed up by technology advances have led many in the industry to question whether the present methods of ship propulsion are sustainable. Amongst the number of traditional or alternative propulsion options currently researched by the maritime industry modern nuclear technology could perhaps offer a useful alternative in terms of efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.

Recent research from UK based Lloyd’s Register Group Ltd. and BMT Nigel Gee ship designers in association with Gen4Energy SMR technology producers from USA and Enterprises Shipping and Trading S.A. of Greece explores the feasibility of developing a commercially viable concept for an oil tanker vessel of conventional hull form but with alternative arrangements for accommodating a 70MW Small Modular Reactor (SMR) propulsion plant.

Over the years the limited application of nuclear technology in the ocean going merchant marine sector has been influenced by fears over the inevitably strong social and environmental impact of a potential disaster.

Political and regulatory issues, business risks, lack of understanding of the influence of modern nuclear technology on maritime applications also hindered the development and expansion of a nuclear fleet of ocean going vessels. Whereas many of these issues remain on the forefront, more recently, the influence of the global decarbonisation agenda, the advances in nuclear technology and the potential modernisation of the regulatory framework implied that exploring the potential and benefits of applying modern nuclear propulsion solutions in the merchant marine sector could be revisited provided that risks are well realised and understood. This article attempts to shed some light to obvious issues based on output from a groundbreaking research published by the RINA International Journal of Maritime Engineering.

The nuclear option According to the IMO, today international shipping contributes between 2.7 per cent and 3.3 per cent of the global CO2 emissions annually. This number, on its own, places the industry, in absolute terms, as the 6th in line between countries that are the largest producers of GHG. It is estimated that without action these emissions could grow significantly until 2050. Nuclear marine propulsion has advantages against renewable (e.g. wind and solar) and alternative (e.g. LNG) resources in terms of reduced CO2 emissions. For example, lifecycle CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are by far higher than their corresponding nuclear indirect emissions. Also, in contrast to hydrocarbon driven combustion, nuclear fission entails no chemical reactions. Yet, it is important to realise that the overall nuclear fuel cycle has some potentially hazardous emissions associated with the released energy of fission and the energy of neutrons. Also GHG and other contaminants may be released into the atmosphere during plant construction, uranium mining or milling, reactor fuel manufacture and transportation, auxiliary power generation and plant decommissioning. These are risks that would significantly influence operational costs as well as human centred decisions throughout the lifecycle of a nuclear maritime asset and should not be underestimated.

The Small Modular Reactor (SMR) option SMRs with an equivalent electric power of less than 300 MW are today a reality. Whereas application of the technology for maritime applications is yet to be engineered and proved some SMRs approved by the International

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By Dr Spyros Hirdaris

Atomic Energy Agency are used by the land based industries. In principle, SMR technology offers simpler, standardised and safer modular design by being factory built, cheaper and easier to manufacture. From a nuclear engineering perspective the technology marks a more radical departure from current designs including reactors cooled by lead, sodium, molten salt, supercritical water and helium. These advanced reactors use various nuclear fuel types including oxide, nitride, carbide and metal, and can be based on uranium, plutonium, and thorium. Fast Neutron Reactor (FNR) designs such as the Gen4Energy SMR use liquid metals as coolants and allow for fast neutrons of higher energy to create fission.

The biggest difference of an SMR in comparison to a modern Light Water Reactor (LWR) is that it operates at near atmospheric pressure. So, there is no pressure to be released in a postulated accident. Also, the use of LBE implies very high vaporization temp of 1700 0C so it cannot flash to vapour like water.

The rather simple architecture of engineering systems imply that risks may arise from engineering complexity could be minimal. Yet, the system’s detailed engineering concepts and application on maritime assets remains to be developed and proved.

Rules and Regulations Advances in nuclear technology raise questions on the current status and evolution of land based and maritime Rules and Regulations. Nuclear technology and regulation has evolved since the introduction of the IMO code of safety for nuclear merchant ships. However, most of the maritime safety principles are pertinent today. There are also a number of areas where ship safety assessment requirements have changed due to the advances in technology and detailed methods underpinning regulatory requirements.

As a first step toward bridging some of the challenges ahead, the consortium worked along the lines of the Lloyd’s Register goal based Guidance Notes for the design of nuclear propelled vessels. On the assumption that prescriptive requirements may not be thorough enough for integrating a nuclear plant into a ship these guidance notes attempt to satisfy land based nuclear regulators and give sufficient confidence to Class a vessel.

Design goals are underpinned by design principles and corresponding detailed design requirements. The latter provide an illustration of either the only way or one way in which the required design performance can be achieved. The goals identified relate to engineering and safety systems, the ship structure and radiological protection. The overall rationale of the Rule making process assumes that in contrast to the current marine industry practice where the designer/builder typically demonstrates compliance with regulatory requirements, in the future the nuclear regulators will wish to ensure that it is the operator of the nuclear plant that demonstrates safety in operation, in addition to the safety through design and construction.

Risk based ship design The reference vessel studied was a 159,000 DWT conventional hull form CSR Suezmax Tanker, with a typical operational life of 25 years. Whereas this is not the only possible asset where the application of SMR technology may be worthwhile to explore, this case study helped to set issues against a realistic technical background. Working on the basis of the design goals implied by the Lloyd’s Register Guidance Notes assisted with identifying risks that may relate to engineering and safety systems, the ship structure and radiological protection. The concept ship design process lead to the development of a design that promises an ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) potential of environmental damage or loss of life due to nuclear radiation or oil spills. Top

propulsion

Right: Table 3. SMR power train options Keys Better / No Issue

Neutral / Some Issue

Poorer / More Issues

Qualitative vulnerability realisations

Option SMR Location Collision Damage Cargo Tanks

& Fire/Explosion

Motions & vibrations

A

Aft end – Under Funnel

High

Low

Medium

B

Aft of Cargo Tanks

Low

Medium

Medium

C

Amidships

Medium

High

Low

D

Forward of Cargo Tanks

High

Medium

High

Table 2. SMR location options

Option 4 Single Screw

Electric Drive Option 3 Twin Screw

Option Single Screw

Steam Drive Option 1 Twin Screw

level equipment failures considered: (a) minimisation of the potential of radiation leakage due to human or environmental factors; (b) elimination of small, medium or large amount of oil spills as a result of accidental failures; (c) zero fatality and injury rate for tanker operations.

On the basis of openly available data describing the risk profile of tanker ships and nuclear propelled vessels it was concluded that placing the SMR aft the cargo tanks, below the forward end of the accommodation may be subject to low or medium risk levels (see Figures 3 and Table 2,3).

This part of the assessment also revealed that a well designed nuclear mechanical option would take up less space, weigh less and provide better propulsive efficiencies in comparison to electrical propulsion. It was therefore decided to consider in greater detail risks associated with twin and single screw nuclear mechanical propulsion train arrangements in a Hazard Identification Study (HAZID).

HAZID scenarios and recommendations considered that the SMR module may be affected by combined failures of turbines, propulsion systems and redundant power sources (see Table 4). A key driver in terms of design for propulsion has been the need for the vessel to be able to ‘’return to a safe haven’’ in the event of a casualty due to accidental loads (e.g. collision, flooding etc.). In this respect the consortium decided that the propulsive redundancy must be achieved assuming the worst case MARPOL Annex I damage scenario. This requirement is in excess of the Lloyd’s Register

Item

Comments

Technology

Marine steam turbine reduction gears are commercially available but may need to be updated for SMR steam conditions.

Efficiency

Single screw would lead to low powering requirements. Steam drive & reverse reduction gear would allow for better underway efficiencies.

Redundancy

Arrangements can be configured to comply with safe return to port and have redundant power.

GA Impact

Twin screw installations may prove more challenging. Electric installations are likely to require greater machinery space volumes than direct steam drive installations.

Figure 3

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propulsion Item Key issues Considerations 1 Accessibility to high radiation areas Practical control of 3rd party accessibility 2 Space for a 2nd SMR SMR positioning

SMR cooling, access, containment

Operational requirements

Regulations; Vessel could be considered to be carrying

spent radioactive waste

Methods for reactor removal 3 Operation of emergency cooling Capacity/design of the reactor passive cooling systems

systems accounting for cooling duration

Consider grounding conditions where the vessel could tilt 4 Protection of the reactor from Design SMR cooling system to prevent meltdown in the

accidental loading event of ship sinking

Define operational guidelines on grounding to maintain

reactor integrity

Define fire fighting system requirements and boundary

cooling for SMR compartments in case of onboard fires/

explosions

Design for back-up power source setup and positioning to

account for reactor shut down due to loss of propulsion 5 Reactor protection against terrorist Physical protection of the reactor against impact from

attacks missiles

Considerations under Section 4 a,b,c,d apply 6 Reactor/propulsion system Define transient operating conditions for the reactor, steam

emergency stop system, turbine and heat removal

Table 4. Summary of key HAZID considerations

Propulsion and Steering Machinery Redundancy requirements with separate machinery spaces enhancement (PSMR*) which does cover separation of machinery but considers the loss of one compartment only.

The HAZID process concluded that a suitably configured single screw configuration (with redundancy) could be treated as similarly reliable to a twin screw installation. As a single screw installation would result in a better hydrodynamic hull form this formed the basis of further studies.

Concept design for a single screw mechanical power train system would require maintaining propulsive capability with two flooded compartments and raising power spread across three ship subdivisions.

Single screw redundancy could be achieved in one of two ways: (a) A Contra Rotating Propeller (CRP) installation, with a main screw shaft and an Azipod providing propulsion and steerage; (b) A Single screw shaft installation with a shaft motor two compartments away from the main steam turbine reduction gear.

In order to separate the shaft motor from the main steam turbine reduction gear the vessel would have to grow by an uneconomical 40-50 m. On the other hand a single screw propulsion solution with a CRP configuration is preferable since the propulsion could be placed safely in way of two subdivisions and away from the main power generation source without leading to any increase to the vessel draft. This solution would require a 30 m increase of the overall vessel’s length once the design is adjusted to the reference ship hydrostatic trim whilst maintaining the same cargo carrying capacity. More specifically a 20m length extension aft of the cargo zone would help to accommodate for the new propulsion system and redundancy after damage (see Figure 3). Current Azipod designs in the power range required for this ship are of electric drive configuration. Hence, the choice eventually led to a combined steam and electric system with the added advantage that the redundant source of power generation (a low cost high speed diesel engine) could easily be located remotely from the main machinery space. A fringe benefit of this configuration was the propulsive efficiency improvement associated with a CRP installation.

The final hull form and power demand is estimated to be almost sufficient to match the current 25 year design life of a Suezmax Tanker.

This raises the possibility that one SMR could be used for the entire life of the vessel and would only be removed on de-commissioning of the vessel.

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Looking ahead The risk assessment process and engineering solutions developed in this study are feasible. However, considering that the current style of regulation within the maritime industry is prescriptive and the operational framework of national nuclear administrations is highly segmented, readdressing the needs of the technology, regulators and organisations involved within the context of harmonised performance based standards will be necessary.

Design and operation of modern nuclear ships might lead to a new era of operation for assurance organisations. Classification Societies would be responsible for facilitating the assurance for the successful integration of reactor modules in the ship within the context of risk based Life Cycle Assessment. They would also have to ensure that hazards from and to the ship reactor are managed. On the other hand, land based nuclear regulators would have to be involved in classifying and assuring the reactor as well as facilitating an open dialogue with manufacturers and nuclear engineers. Considering that this approach is also consistent with the regulation adopted by most land-based nuclear industries today it may be conceivable that the marine industry could base any future regulatory approach on instruments similar to the Irradiated Nuclear Fuel code. The Lloyd’s Register Guidance Notes for marine nuclear propulsion could support these efforts as they introduce the concept of a design authority, which represents the organisations involved in design, construction and operation of the ship. Harmonisation of nuclear and marine regulations and introduction of new licensing procedures for SMR technologies would be equally important.

Future technology initiatives may focus on researching or developing the knowledge required for assurance. From a maritime perspective further development of a formal systems engineering approach within the context of Life Cycle Analysis may be necessary. Modernisation of the nuclear specific maritime regulations may also require the development of a database and methodology of marine accident investigation for risk based design according to the IMO FSA guidelines. Further development of naval architecture or marine engineering concepts using holistic multi criteria objectives applicable to alternative arrangements and operational scenarios, techno-economics, direct analysis design procedures for the assessment of extreme and accidental loads would be essential for risk mitigation and design approval.

Understanding of the effects of SMR implementation on human factors (e.g. manning and training) and ship ergonomics will also be important. A number of safeguards were identified by the team to mitigate the likelihood and/or consequences of human hazards that may affect the reactor or vessel. Broad technical and institutional challenges involve the broader deployment, testing and validation of technological innovations in components, systems and engineering (especially testing and fabrication of fuel), fear of first-of-kind reactor designs, economy-ofscale, perceived risk factors for nuclear power plants, and regulatory and licensing issues. Other issues to be addressed are the cost of reactor decommissioning, spent nuclear fuel and supply chain management.

For example, the necessity to provide an effective emergency response capability supported by external agencies is anticipated to put additional requirements on competence development for all stakeholders. Ship specific competence development and assurance for shore and ship personnel is almost certainly required for the reliable operation of nuclear powered vessels. This may require a new model for resourcing that is significantly different to that traditionally employed in the maritime industry in order to deliver continuity of expertise. n Dr Spyros Hirdaris is lead specialist at Lloyd’s Register Asia.

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Expanding

connections Serving as a consultary hub for the world’s ports, harbours and associated businesses, the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) is the cornerstone of maintaining a thriving economic maritime community in the face of a challenging market

The International Association of Ports and Harbours was founded in 1955 to provide a united global voice for the ports and harbours community. Today the organisation is a global alliance of ports that represents some 200 ports in 85 countries.

Together the authorities’ member ports handle well over 60 per cent of the world’s sea-borne trade and nearly 80 per cent of maritime container traffic. Furthermore, as many as 150 shipping, stevedoring and warehousing businesses, national and regional port associations, port research and training institutes as well as manufacturers of port-related products are represented as associated members.

The member ports and associated members span the globe and represent a wide range of interests as Grant Gilfillan, IAPH President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Sydney Ports Corporation elaborates: “The association’s member ports are very diverse and

have all developed in alignment with their nation’s cultures and politics, however we all have globalised trade in common and ultimately we all have a need to exchange views and experiences over a range of issues and challenges.

“This is one of the key benefits of IAPH membership for our clients,” he adds. “They have an organisation they can turn to when they need support or information on any issue relevant to port operations, shipping, supply chain, environment and safety.”

The IAPH operates as a consultative non-government organisation incorporating five specialised UN agencies namely the UN Economic and Social Council, the International Maritime Organisation, the UN Conference on Trade Development, the International Labour Office and the World Customs Organisation. Additionally the IAPH is closely aligned with the European Sea Ports Organisation, meaning that its member ports are represented at the highest levels of decision making on policy in areas of safety, environment, and operational areas that affect the interests of the entire port industry.

The Executive body of the IAPH, the Secretariat, is based in Tokyo and is headed by the Secretary General.

The organisation’s Board of Directors is elected by members in accordance with the IAPH Constitution and By-Laws, and acts as the policy making body of the association, meeting every year at the IAPH world ports conference in oddly-numbered years and the mid-term conference and board meeting in even numbered years to consider policy related matters. The board is responsible for nominating Presidents and Vice Presidents and for the appointment of the Secretary General. All appointments and significant policies are taken before the Plenary Session for approval of members at the World Port Conference, every two years.

Grant Gilfillan, IAPH President & Chief Executive Officer and Director of Sydney Ports Corporation

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IAPH

Port Botany, Sydney, Australia

On an operational level technical committees Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia form the backbone of IAPH activity in monitoring, collecting, analysing and disseminating information on the latest trends of port management and operations for the entire membership. In all there are nine technical committees grouped under three subject areas comprised of communications and training, port safety security and environment and development operations and facilitation.

The organisation’s focus as a unified source of competence and support is best exemplified by its 37th IAPH Mid-Term Conference and Board Meeting, which was held between the sixth and the tenth of April 2014. Significantly it was the first IAPH to be held in Australia in 20 years and was officially opened by the Australian Deputy Prime Minster and Minister for Infrastructure, who also delivered a keynote speech on the current Australian port situation from a country-wide and macro-economic perspective. More than 200 delegates attended the event from 35 nations – a record-breaking number in the organisation’s history for a mid-term conference. Commenting on the success of attending these conferences, and more to the point it is not easy the event Grant says: “We believe that what made this a must attend to justify membership fees if there is any doubt about the overall conference was the high emphasis on port automation, supply chain effectiveness of the IAPH as a peak body. To ensure continued support and shipping efficiencies, port planning, the trend to bigger box ships, from existing members, whilst making the IAPH more attractive to new LNG bunkering as well as a key note address from the Panama Canal members we need to make the organisation more relevant to today’s Authority on its $6-billion expansion that will change global trade when economy and today’s very fluid trade environment. it opens next year.

“To do this we need to become a stronger advocacy group and to “These are all highly relevant to our membership as in the years become as well known in the global trade community as the leading following the global financial crisis the focus has turned to greater International Maritime Organisation. This can only be done by reducing operational and fiscal efficiency and the subject speakers were all the red tape hindering the IAPH decision-making processes and experts in their fields,” he continues. “To have them all in the one room through empowering the organisation to respond quickly and decisively provided our members and delegates with a rare opportunity to hear, to current trends and issues.” learn from and actually meet with fellow associates socially.”

The IAPH has proven to be an effective voice for the port and In recent years the shipping and marine industry has endured the harbour community for many years and will continue to be so well volatile conditions created by the global financial crisis and as such into the future. Although the global economic crisis has resulted in far Grant has suggested changes to the association’s structure and reaching consequences for many industry sectors, the IAPH remains a decision-making process to allow it to represent its members as steadfast partner to its members that is able to adapt to the challenges effectively as possibly during a difficult period. “The global financial crisis of a volatile market to guide its current and future members. “The IAPH not only impacted world trade but also domestic economies,” he says. has always been collaborative in its approach to issues management,” “IAPH membership was also affected by the global ‘belt-tightening’ that Grant concludes. “But there is always room to streamline the decisionresulted and that continues to some extent in the aftermath of the crisis. making process and expand our connections globally and that will The IAPH is a global organisation and its effectiveness hinges greatly on always be a key agenda item.” n member involvement especially at the Conferences, which are hosted in a different city and country every year.

International Association of Ports and Harbours “It is not easy in this tight fiscal environment to justify the cost of For further information visit: http://www.iaphworldports.org

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Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal courtesy of David Lee Photography

A vital

link

Simon Brett, head of projects

W

ith roots dating back as a far as 1962 when it was founded as the British Transport Docks Board (BTDB), Associated British Ports (ABP) has grown to manage 21 ports across the United Kingdom, including four ports within the Humber region. Grimsby, Immingham, Hull and Goole together process around 70 million tonnes of cargo per year meaning the ports managed within the Humber are an increasingly vital link between the UK economy, Europe and the rest of the world.

As the UK's most inland port, Goole is ideally situated for access to the country's transport infrastructure. Located on the River Ouse, some 50 miles from the North Sea and less than two

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miles from the M62, Goole is only 30 minutes' drive from the industrial areas of West and South Yorkshire. The North Midlands and the Northwest are no more than an hour's drive away. The port also has rail connections to many berths and well-used canal connections to West and South Yorkshire. The 310-acre Capitol Park distribution centre is conveniently located close by.

Green Port Hull In a prime location on the north bank of the River Humber, the Port of Hull is one of the UK’s leading foreign-trading ports.

It is currently at the centre of what is possibly the UK's largest transformational port project, called Green Port Hull. This

Profile: Associated British Ports Image of the Hull Rail Load-Out facility, built as part of £100 million Humber-wide agreement with Drax Power Ltd. Image courtesy of David Lee Photography

is anchored by Siemens, which has chosen Hull, specifically Alexandra Dock, as its preferred location to develop its new offshore wind turbine assembly and export facility. It is forecast that Siemens’ plans will help create around 1000 jobs.

Further to its announcement in 2011 that Hull was its first choice for the location of a wind turbine facility, in March 2014 Siemens stated its decision to invest £160 million in wind turbine production and installation facilities across two sites in Yorkshire - Green Port Hull and a new rotor blade manufacturing facility in nearby Paull, in East Riding. Siemens is investing £160 million across the two locations and ABP is investing a further £150 million specifically in the Green Port Hull development.

This is one of the biggest inward investments the city of Hull has ever seen. It promises regeneration and the creation of many hundreds of new jobs and new skills. It is a welcome boost to the economy and to Hull, which will be City of Culture in 2017 when the factory will be up and running. In fact, such is the importance of the project that at the time of Siemens announcement, Prime Minister David Cameron stated: “This is a massive vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan. This investment is going to create lots of new jobs and opportunities, meaning more financial security and peace of mind for families and a more resilient economy for our country.”

James Cooper, ABP chief executive added: “The announcement

by Siemens underlines the critical role the Humber region plays in servicing the UK’s energy needs, both today and in the future.

Our investment in Green Port Hull will ensure the supply chain supporting this exciting new industry can be centred on the Humber. We are delighted that Siemens has chosen to partner with us to realise this exciting project.”

Although a lot of focus is currently on Green Port Hull it is important to remember that the Port already offers many outstanding service offerings to clients. It has the distinction of operating as the only passenger port on the east coast of England, which allows it provide a vital service to the manufacturing industry in the north of England. “The fact that the port has a passenger port with a daily service to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge that is operated by P&O gives it an advantage over other ports on the east coast because it can take traffic that no other port can,” says head of projects, Simon Brett. “The services that P&O operate out of Hull are timed to provide maximum benefit to factories in the north of England that are able to manufacture goods up until 17:00 for example, for them to arrive at the port terminal at 21:00 to arrive in Europort the following morning at 7:30 for delivery to Germany by midday. This is a logistics chain that no other port can www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 25

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Profile: Associated British Ports Image of turbine mould representative of activities that will be undertaken

by Siemens at Paull. Image courtesy of Siemens

Optimum Industrial

Optimum Industrial specialise in the supply of lubricants & lubrication services to the UK Off Highway sector, including Ports & Harbours. The team are all former engineers with major oil companies and have extensive experience in the lubrication of industrial equipment and plant, also the support required. Optimum set high standards and believe their attention to detail places them amongst the best suppliers in the business. Optimum have worked with ABP on key objectives resulting in reduced costs and improved efficiency.

A Torn Construction

A Torn Construction Ltd have worked for ABP for many years, having gained an excellent reputation for quality, superb health and safety records, and friendly teams who deliver projects on time and to budget. We are proud to be involved in the exciting changes at Hull docks.

Projects completed for ABP include bulk stores, a wide range of fender, quay and lock gate repairs, we carry out reactive maintenance, minor works through to multi-million pound projects.

We are a main contractor that works with clients to ensure a project runs smoothly from start to finish.

manage, not even the south east ports for the north of England.”

While the ports of Hull and Goole continue to grow in importance to the overall success of ABP, its other locations are not being neglected. The port of Immingham has received considerable investment with a £7 million fertiliser terminal developed with Yara UK, which opened during March 2014. Another ongoing development for Immingham is the construction of a £75 million renewable fuels terminal (IRFT). “IRFT is a new facility that will handle imports of biomass, which are effectively a wood pellet for power generation at Drax power station near Selby,” explains Simon. This successful partnership between ABP and Drax is also being reflected back at the port of Hull where ABP and Drax have invested in port facilities as Simon explains: “ABP and Drax have invested £25 million in a new biomass terminal for Hull. Drax built the rail facility and we supplied new hoppers, new cranes and the conversion of transit sheds for the storage of biomass,” he noted.

ABP’s Humber ports will continue to focus on completing the infrastructure developments that are currently underway, while looking for further opportunities down the line. With the current activity in renewable energy and the resurgence of the UK economy ABP is confident of strong performance over the coming years as Simon concludes: “As the economy continues to grow the amount of traffic through our ports will continue to grow, ports are a good barometer of the UK economy in general. If the economy does well then the ports will do well and the financial forecast of the CBI and the Chambers of Commerce are such that we anticipate the next three to five years to be very strong.” l

Associated British Ports

www.abports.co.uk • Manages four ports in the Humber region • £310 million Green Port Hull project underway • Key transport link

Humber Work Boats

Marine and Dredging Contractors Humber Work Boats Ltd based at their 3.5 acre facility on the south bank of the River Humber are proud of their long standing trading relationship with Associated British Ports. Over many years Humber Work Boats Ltd have provided marine solutions to the ABP ports of Hull and Goole by way of jetty and fender repairs, jetty dismantling, pile driving, and the provision of heavy lift crane barges and workboats.

Anchor Safety

Anchor Safety are a nationally recognised supplier of PPE and Workwear to the marine industry and have been supplying Associated British Ports (ABP) with personal protective equipment (PPE) and workwear for over 20 years, building an enviable reputation for its industry knowledge, product range and excellent levels of customer service.

In early 2013, Anchor Safety were awarded the national ABP contract and are now responsible for delivering the Equip supply management programme across 21 UK ports using our bespoke website ordering facility. Anchor Safety are currently undertaking a strategic Workwear Review, with the Humber region, to ensure all ABP employees are using the safest and most effective workwear for their specific job.

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Attractive

opportunities

W

ith an impressive history that spans as far back as the 12th century, the Port of Riga has been an integral base for trade in Europe for nine centuries; today a significant part of global and regional cargo supply chains as well as passenger traffic networks in the Baltic Sea region, the multifunctional Freeport of Riga continues to make a strong contribution to Latvia’s economic growth. The port is managed by the Freeport of Riga Authority, a team of experts who strive to cement the ongoing success of the port through high performance standards, continuous improvement in quality and services and diversity of cargo types.

Structured into divisions, the Freeport of Riga Authority’s main decision-making body is the Board; comprised of eight board members, four officials from the local government, and four Cabinet nominated officials, the board meets regularly to discuss plans to improve, maintain and develop the port. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Board’s resolutions is carried out by staff of the Freeport of Riga Authority, who in turn are managed by CEO Leonids Loginovs. All committed to the same mission and vision, the members of the authority work together to ensure the ongoing success of the freeport; functions include determining port fees and tariff ceiling, enforcing Freeport regulations, landlord functions, ensuring navigation safety, issuing free zone licenses as well as formulating a draft programme for the development of the port.

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Following the implementation of the ISO 9002 standard within its management system in July 2000, the port has taken on new responsibilities and worked on the creation of a longterm development strategy. Indeed, the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 certified organisation has established attractive investment opportunities to companies looking for long-term lease of land. With 445 hectares of land available, the Freeport Authority offers assistance in the development of private terminal infrastructure and also allow direct and some indirect tax relief for companies fulfilling certain requirements of the free zone regime.

Benefits of investing in Latvia include business without borders, the development of experience and competence in working with Russia and the CIS, operating in the closest EU port to Moscow and excellent rail connections with the standard Russian 1520 mm rail gauge. In addition, the Freeport of Riga Authority is further strengthening the capabilities of the port with development projects such as deepening the fairway to between 15.5 and 17 metres and establishing 260 hectares of land for new terminals; these include a multifunctional dry bulk terminal on Krievu Sala and a fertiliser terminal, container terminal, grain terminal, and logistics park on Kundzinsala. Moreover, the freeport’s railway network will be modernised and a new railway bridge will be constructed to increase annual handling capacity by 25 million tonnes.

Profile: Freeport of Riga Authority

One new terminal to be recently developed is the state-of-theart Riga Bulk Terminal; officially launched in February 2014, is one of the most modern agriculture bulk handling terminals in the Baltic Sea region. Based in Kundzinsala, Latvia, the cargo terminal allows for a diverse range of bulk handling, which includes grains, aluminous and sugar, with bulk handling sales anticipated to reach one million tonnes annually.

Another is the Riga Fertiliser Terminal, which was launched in December 2013; carried out by Russian firm Uralchem Freight Limited, with a 51 per cent share, and Riga Commercial Port Company, with 49 per cent, the ultra-modern facility is one of the most safe fertiliser handling terminals in the Baltic Sea region.

Following a total investment of more than 60 million euros, the terminal was constructed using the most modern, environmentally friendly materials and technologies, which ensure it meets stringent EU requirements for environmental impact and safety. As one of the few terminals within the freeport to provide manufacturer owned cargo transhipment, the facility can significantly accelerate cargo delivery to the end customer.

While new terminals are being developed, privately owned Baltic Container Terminal, the largest and only specialised terminal at the Freeport of Riga, has made investments into the refurbishment of its infrastructure to continue its trend for growth. These include the acquisition of new terminal software and security systems, the construction of a new insulated and heated general cargo warehouse in 2012, the development of online tracking of cargo

and the expansion of rail infrastructure. Furthermore, a new container crane is due to be received in the summer of 2014.

This optimisation of cargo handling has led to impressive growth at the Freeport of Riga, with 13.4 million tonnes of various cargo being handled at the port over the first four months of 2014, an incredible 21 per cent more than during the same period in 2013. While the highest increase of 35.9 per cent still stems from the liquid cargo segment, general cargo transhipment via the port has seen continued growth, with an increase of 10.3 per cent. Due to the increased amount in the major types of cargo, with coal shipment most notably on the rise, the overall dry bulk segment witnessed 18 per cent growth, which totalled 7.2 million tonnes of dry bulk handled.

Now reaping the benefits of its hard work and major investments, the freeport enjoyed its most successful first quarter ever in 2014; a trend that looks set to continue as the Freeport of Riga Authority continues to work closely with the Latvian government, the city of Riga and locals to develop a high quality, integrated transport infrastructure. l

Freeport of Riga Authority

www.rop.lv • Leading port in the Baltics • Significant role in regional cargo supply chains • Makes strong contribution to Latvia’s economy

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Port pit stop S

trategically located along the Straits of Malacca, Westports Holdings Berhad (Westports) is one of the world’s leading ports, supported by superior productivity and water depths of 15-17.5 metres. The preferred hub port for the shipping lines in this region, Westports’ container volume has grown exponentially over the years and today it is the leading terminal operator in Port Klang (the largest port in Malaysia). In addition, Port Klang is the gateway for origin and destinations for the primary and secondary hinterland of Klang Valley. Klang Valley is the heartland of Malaysia’s commerce activities with approximately one-third of the total population.

Westports’ offers a holistic range of value-added services to complement its service offerings to its valued partners. Alongside the handling of inventory and facilitating the delivery of consumer goods and other raw materials from its ‘Distripark’, Westports also provides value-added services through storage space and warehousing facilities, as well as bunkering and other ship related facilities. It offers handling of special requirement containers such as reefer containers, and supported by a one-stop business centre, which is designed to consolidate all the relevant government agencies, enforcement bodies, shipping lines and other logistics service providers under one-roof to facilitate the clearance of importation and exportation of goods.

It also offers a container freight station, allowing the port to play the intermediate role in the global distribution of cargos by providing facilities for ship owners and operators to consolidate

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and break bulk within the Free Commercial Zone (FCZ).

To streamline its operations, the organisation has harnessed the benefits of the most modern technology, including a container terminal operating system that controls the entire scope of container terminal operations, as well as the New Generation Conventional Cargo System (NGCCS) - the first major system developed in-house by Westports in 2003. Overall, IT plays an integral and ubiquitous role in handling Westports' operations, helping to improve productivity, efficiency and capacity, while simultaneously increasing safety and security, and enhancing customer service.

But it is Westports’ container handling capability that remains perhaps its most impressive characteristic. In 2013 Westports handled 7.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) container throughput and 10.7 million metric tonnes of bulk cargo. The productivity in terms of container moves per hour (mph) in Westports is among the highest in the world, averaging 30-35 mph per crane compared to the industry standard of 27 mph. This translates into faster turnarounds for the vessels that choose to stop at the location.

A perfect illustration of the hard work that goes into Westports’ container operations occurred in June 2014 when the container operations team set a new world record for container terminal productivity, notching an impressive 793 moves in one hour by deploying nine quay cranes. This feat was achieved over the China Shipping container vessel, CSCL Le Havre (9572 TEU vessel),

Profile: Westports Holdings Berhad

which operated on the AEX7 East service in the network linking Asia and Europe.

A spokesperson from Westports said: “The management team ensured meticulous planning went into the preparation to achieve this remarkable feat looking into all areas of concern.

Though equipment reliability was vital, it was the effort of a fully committed and motivated workforce together with its vendor partners that were the driving force towards this achievement.”

Maintaining such high levels of productivity and short turnaround times are vital elements in the port industry and to ensure its workforce delivers these standards Westports’ operations team has adopted what it calls a ‘Formula 1 spirit’ to consistently keep its container moves above 35 gross mph. Just as a team of engineers turn around an F1 racing car at the pit-stop in less than eight seconds, Westports’ Formula 1 spirit reminds each member of the operations staff to always keep in pursuit of pole position to consistently achieve above 35 gross mph.

The team of staff that maintain this F1 spirit, and the rest of the employees at Westports comprise a total Malaysian workforce in excess of 4000. Many are from the island where Westports is situated, Pulau Indah, and as a result of its employment record, the hardcore poverty on the Island has been reduced drastically. Since it was established, Westports has nurtured its highly motivated employees who are always striving to improve productivity and services rendered to customers.

Having already established itself as a very impressive and busy

port, Westports has no intention to rest on its laurels and has an ambitious growth plan going forward. Its current format is capable of handling 9.5 million TEUs of containers with the current 4000 metres of quay length and 45 ship-to-shore cranes. Furthermore, its CT7 wharf expansion project will be fully operational by the end of 2014 and this is expected to boost its handling capacity by an additional 1.5 million TEUs to 11.0 million TEUs per annum.

In addition, there are further projects on the horizon with the proposed creation of quays CT8 and CT9 (a total quay length of 1200 metres). Westports has also ordered another seven quay cranes to add to its fleet, which are due to be delivered on a progressive basis 2014 to bring the total quay cranes fleet to 52.

These new cranes will be able to cater for the next generation of container vessels of 19,000 TEUs . This will further cement Westports Malaysia position as a global mega hub port.

Thanks to years of hard work and dedication, Westports has today positioned itself as the ‘pit stop’ for container vessels plying the world's busiest shipping lane. Consistently rated as one of the world's most productive ports, Westports surpasses its productivity records by raising its own performance bar year on year. l

Westports Holdings Berhad

www.westportsmalaysia.com • Inspired by Formula 1 pit stop techniques • A leading port in South East Asia • World-leading port in terms of productivity

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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.

Condor Ferries Archtech Helsinki Shipyard EML Serco NorthLink Ferries Mideast Ship Management Shipping Corporation of India Peter Madsen REDERI SeaKing HeavyLift@sea Afai Southern Shipyard Noble Chartering Dublin Port COMPANY Data Modul Palmer Johnson Port2Port Viking Line Gestion MARITIME Anytec DIANA Yacht Design Port of MoERdijk THE Port of Pori Port of Zeebrugge Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft W Marine

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Profile: Condor Ferries

Ferry

good T

his year Condor Ferries celebrates its 50th anniversary, and much has changed at the business, which started life in 1964 operating a guest service between France and the Channel Islands. Today the business operates five vessels, ranging from high-speed fast car ferries to conventional ferries for year-round service, between ports in the UK, the Channel Island and France. Each year the business carries more than one million passengers and 200,000 passenger vehicles, priding itself on its service levels and considering its passengers as guests to enjoy the entire journey experience.

The 50th anniversary of Condor is a chance to highlight and to celebrate the continued growth and ongoing success that the business has achieved. Since its first sailing on 1st May 1964 the company developed its services, introducing the first service linking the Channel Islands with the UK in 1987 and since then

GS Engineering

We have had the opportunity of working with Condor Ferries over the last four years and our most recent contract undertaken was a major 30,000 hour overhaul during an annual dry dock period in March 2014 at A&P Shipyard, Falmouth.

As our specialist team of engineers have comprehensive product knowledge, this enables us to provide our customers with total service support including all aspects of diesel engine maintenance, scheduled servicing and breakdown support.

operating a year-round operation connecting the UK through Poole, Weymouth and Portsmouth, the Channel Islands through Guernsey and Jersey, and the ports of St Malo and Cherbourg in France.

To mark the first trip between the Channel Islands and St Malo the company organised a series of free open days in each region, which culminated in a day of celebration in Guernsey, where local residents and past crew members were invited on board the Condor Express vessel. As well as a chance to explore the vessel, the open days provided guests and crew new and old the opportunity to learn about the history of Condor in the Channel Islands and the foundations of the company’s success. With competitions, raffles and an anniversary quiz, the open days also raised funds for local good causes.

This success is driven by the company’s dedication to continuous

Southern Maritime Services (SMS)

Southern Maritime Services (SMS) have been providing customers with professional solutions to their international Port Agency and Logistical needs since 2005 within the Port of Portsmouth.

We can offer a complete package of skills and services that are custom made to satisfy the requirements of every customer and business partner across the passenger, freight ferry and cruise industries. We are proud to be associated with and to support Condor Ferries.

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Profile: Condor Ferries

CG Hibbert

Established 1767, CG Hibbert supplies major branded spirits and tax-free products to airports, airlines, military diplomatic services, cruise ships and ferry operators throughout UK and Europe. As long term supply partners for Condor Ferries, CGH supply the world’s best known beer and tobacco brands including Heineken, Guinness and Marlboro.

CG Hibbert strongly believe that success is achieved by working together to ensure that the quality of our products are combined with excellent service performance, matched by the high quality standards demonstrated by our customers.

CG Hibbert would once again like to wish the Condor Ferries team, success and continued prosperity for 2014 and beyond

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improvement of its service. For example it regularly develops its fleet, having spent around ÂŁ9 million in recent years continually upgrading and improving the vessels it operates. Each fast ferry is refitted over the winter period, and the conventional ferries are refitted every two years. Currently, the Condor Ferries fleet consists of five vessels, the Condor Express, Condor Vitesse and Condor Rapide, which are high speed fast car ferries, and the Commodore Clipper and Commodore Goodwill, purpose-built conventional ferries that are optimally designed for full year round life-line service.

Condor Express and Condor Vitesse operate a high-speed fast car ferry service between the UK and the Channel Islands and both can accommodate over 700 guests and around 175 cars. Condor Ferries’ dedication to customer satisfaction and comfort means that both vessels are equipped with a computerised ride-control system that provides the smoothest possible journey, spacious air-conditioned guest lounges, club class lounges and a wide range of other features and facilities. The Condor Rapide, a similar highspeed fast car ferry, currently operates the between the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey and St Malo in France.

Despite operating routes that regularly suffer from periods of unsettled weather conditions, where its vessels can experience winds gusting up to 70 mph and wave heights that are outside of permitted safe limits, Condor Ferries prides itself on its punctual and safe service. In the first quarter of 2014 this trend continued

– the company operated a total of 608 sailings between the UK, Channel Islands and France, with 82 per cent of the Northern route high speed ferries and 88 per cent of the Southern route arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. It is worth noting that those that arrived not on time were as a result of inclement weather.

Furthermore, the reliability of the conventional ro pax ferry, which transports freight and passengers, was just under 100 per cent, and across the entire Condor fleet total reliability (including weather and technical issues) exceeded 96 per cent. Over this same quarter, of the 607 scheduled sailings only 22 were cancelled, nearly all of which were as a result of severe weather conditions.

Condor Ferries has experienced 50 years of success in providing safe, reliable and punctual ferry transport services. In its anniversary year the business continues to develop and innovate, and if this trend continues as expected there is little doubt that Condor Ferries will continue to be a highly valued and reputed ferry operator for many years to come. l

Condor Ferries

www.condorferries.co.uk • Celebrating 50th anniversary • Operates routes between the UK, Channel Islands and France

Mechanical Services

Mechanical Services supply to Condor and other shipping companies a very reactive and responsive service. Our workshops are supported by our comprehensively equipped vehicles including specialist on site hydraulic hose repairing. We also undertake welding and fabrication to clients’ designs or utilising our CAD design services. Our engineers are fully experienced working on ships engines and gearboxes along with general maintenance. One area of expertise more clients are utilising is working with us on development of longer term strategies to improve efficiency and reliability. www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 37

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Profile: Arctech Helsinki Shipyard

seas

Sailing the frozen

A

rctech Helsinki Shipyard Inc. specialises in arctic shipbuilding technology, building icebreakers and other arctic offshore and special vessels. The shipyard is a forerunner in developing and applying technological innovations and has almost 150 years’ experience in shipbuilding.

A joint venture, which is 50/50 owned by STX Finland Oy and United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Arctech is located in Helsinki and employs approximately 400 shipbuilders.

When last featured in Shipping and Marine, managing director Esko Mustamäki noted that it was clients from Russia that had placed all of Arctech Helsinki’s orders. “When the company was formed, it was expected that the Russian market would be a very important part of our future work. When looking at an atlas, and especially one that highlights oil and gas resources, it will show that the Russian Arctic covers half the arctic oil and gas fields. The country is of course very interested in exploiting this and will need a huge number of vessels to do so over the next ten to 20 years.

Therefore we see many more opportunities in the near and longterm future with Russian clients,” he said.

As recently as April 2014 Arctech Helsinki Shipyard was awarded another contract with a Russian customer – Russia’s largest shipping company Sovcomflot ordered a new icebreaking supply vessel. The vessel will be built for the North East Sakhalin Offshore region oil and gas field where it will be used as a platform supply vessel for Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (SEIC). The total value of the order is about EUR 100 million.

The project started immediately and the vessel will be delivered to the client in June 2016. The vessel brings together the very latest innovations in arctic shipbuilding science and technology and is a further developed version of the two multifunctional icebreaking

supply vessels Vitus Bering and Aleksey Chirikov delivered for Sovcomflot in 2012 and 2013.

“This order is an excellent continuation for the series of icebreaking multipurpose vessels that Arctech has built in past few years. With this order Arctech confirms its position as leading builder of arctic offshore vessels,” noted Esko.

The vessel is designed for extreme environmental conditions in the Sakhalin area. The main duty of the vessel is to supply between land bases and the offshore drilling and production sites. It will be able to safely convey and transfer cargo on deck and bulk cargo underdeck in all seasons and will also be operating in thick drifting ice for ice management and icebreaking duties in temperatures as cold as minus 35°C. The icebreaking capability of the vessel is extremely high, as it is able to proceed independently in 1.5 metre thick ice. It will also be outfitted for emergency evacuation, rescue and fire fighting operations, oil spill response and platform overboard working and helicopter operations, as well as being able to act as diving support vessel including a moon pool feature.

In 2013’s interview, Esko also noted that the company was looking for new customers outside of the Russian market. “We are of course looking at the complete Arctic market and not just the Russian sector to achieve [more business],” he said. “It is our hope to find non-Russian clients in the near future in order to expand our client portfolio.”

This ambition came to fruition in January 2014, when Arctech was contracted to build a new icebreaker for the Finnish Transport Agency, in order to renew the aging fleet of state-owned icebreakers, to improve the level of icebreaker services and to ensure the competitiveness of Finnish exports. The procurement is worth 123 MEU and the final contract was signed at the end of www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 39

Profile: Arctech Helsinki Shipyard February, with the vessel due for delivery by winter 2016.

“It is great that the new icebreaker of the Finnish government will be built at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard,” said Esko. “We have the best know-how and experienced builders for such projects, and it is important to highlight that winning this tender was only possible with USC's support,” he added.

Esko also had another reason to celebrate in 2014 when the sea trials of Baltika were completed. This unique icebreaking multipurpose emergency and rescue vessel was constructed for the Russian Federal Agency of Sea and River Transport, and is to be operated by the FGI Gosmorspassluzhba (Russian Marine Emergency Rescue Service).

Baltika represents a completely new type of innovative technology, as it features an asymmetric hull, patented oblique design and three 360 degrees rotating propulsors, which allow the vessel to operate efficiently sideways, astern and ahead.

In oblique mode the vessel will be able to generate 50-metre

wide channel in 0.6 metre thick ice.

Esko was delighted with the vessel’s development – he noted the design is based on ARC 100 concept, which has been developed by Aker Arctic Technology. “The icebreaking multipurpose emergency and rescue vessel is technically advanced and building it has required a special knowledge,” he concluded. “It has been great to build the first-ever sideways operating ice going vessel and I believe [it] will be the benchmark when developing and building innovative Arctic vessels.” l

Arctech Helsinki Shipyard

www.arctech.fi • Leading shipyard in Finland specialising in Arctic shipbuilding • Recently completed sea trials of ‘Baltika’ • Looking for skilled engineers to join the organisation

davit-international d-i to Support Innovative Offshore Wind Farm Project Baltic II davit-international is going to support the innovative substation for the Baltic II-Project by providing the next two offshore cranes. One crane will be used for store handling and the second one to lift life-saving equipment. The store crane has been designed for a SWL of 15 tons and an outreach/ working radius of 15 m. Both cranes meet the highest demands of today’s quality standards and include special equipment.

“Participation in such projects shows the innovative design and high quality demand for our offshore cranes,” said Ulrich Stabenow, managing director of davit-international.

Both cranes have been developed and finally designed in accordance with the special requirements in the Baltic Sea. They are being assembled in Sulingen/Germany and will be delivered by davitinternational to a subcontractor of EnBW, the leader of the consortium of this project.

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Three years after planning and constructing had been completed in August, 2013 the installation of the offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 2 commenced to take shape. Foundations for 80 wind energy units had to be installed for the project spreading over an area of 27 square kilometres which is more than four times of the EnBW Baltic 1 area, and generating six times of its energy.

Depending on the water depth the foundations will be set either as so called mono piles or as three pod jackets. During phase one foundation piles have to be installed by the installation platform ‘Goliath’ ramming the piles up to 55 metres into the soil. During phase two the jackets are being fixed on the piles and joined together by means of a special type of cement.

It is contemplated the offshore wind farm will be put into service gradually during 2014 after the wind energy units will have been installed from the port of Sassnitz on Rügen.

Profile: Euro Marine Logistics (EML)

Bulbous

beginnings

E

uro Marine Logistics (EML) is a joint venture project between Mitsui OSK Lines and Hoegh Autoliners AS. The joint short-sea company, with its headquarters in Belgium, integrates the existing short sea activities of both businesses, first going into operation in March 2011.

By consolidating the activities and know-how of the mother companies into a new entity, EML is focused on achieving success as a profitable European short-sea company, delivering the best possible services to customers of the group.

With Mitsui OSK Lines & Hoegh Autoliners AS providing

a global service for Ro/Ro vehicle transportation services, the venture is borne from a business with a strong worldwide presence and large customer base. The combination of expertise provided by Mitsui OSK Lines & Hoegh Autoliners AS renowned as world’s most powerful shipping companies hold the relatively young joint venture in great stead as it moves forwards.

EML has a leading role in the European short-sea transport of finished vehicles and other Ro/Ro project cargo. Supported closely by its owners, who themselves are key-players in the market of global ocean pure car carriers (PCC) and pure car truck www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 41

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Profile: Euro Marine Logistics (EML)

SMR

There is a long history of partnership between EML and SMR, which started 12 years ago in 2002. It began first with EMC (Euro Marine Carrier) and in 2011 with EML, when HOEGH & MOL decided to create EML. To serve its clients, EML is a demanding company in term of quality. As a result when working for EML, SMR is pushed to always perform at its highest standards.

On the NMT (Mediterranean, North Europe Trade) route, Le Havre is called upon weekly by the large vessels of EML’s fleet, to discharge Renault cars from Turkey and Dacia cars from Tangier.

The volume planned for 2014 is 26,000 Dacia and 33,000 Renault.

carriers (PCTC) transport, the business chooses to persistently challenge itself to provide a service with the highest quality both to serve the needs of its customers and to take up environmental responsibility by continuously seeking to improve the ecological footprint. The company has a special team appointed to take charge of maintaining its ecological footprint, in line with the upcoming International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulphur emission regulations, set to come into effect in 2015. The responsibility of the team is to ensure that it goes above and beyond the requirements, demonstrating the value it holds as a business to the environment.

The primary task of the venture is to provide the EU short-sea market with an efficient and competitive network well connected with the deep-sea network. “Our customers are mainly the major European automotive industries, but leading from our contracts in Europe, we have a customer base that expands through the transshipment cargo, which is often destined for numerous locations throughout Europe, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean,” says Marc Pauwels, managing director. In June 2014, the business was granted the award for performance from Alliance

Logistics Europe (ALE) at the Technocenter Renault. “This proves that our company is a reliable one, offering an excellent network with high frequency. It is a great honour to be awarded this by Renault Nissan,” he adds.

The business also serves the high and heavy, construction machine and project segment, as a result of its dedicated fleet operating in the short sea. Currently, the business carries around 800,000 car equivalent units (CEU) each year, with grand ambitions to increase this to over one million over the next five years. Working towards this target, Marc explains the reason behind the drive to achieving this: “Some of the market in Europe is slowly recovering and the sales are picking up, consequently we as a business foresee a natural growth of the annual volume in line with the better economy. We also have customers who are coming in with new models, which will have a positive impact on our growth perspective in the coming years.”

EML NV works with a variety of different trades, all of which add to the very busy schedule. With routes that run between Newcastle, Zeebrugge, Amsterdam, Barcelona, St Petersburg and Santander, to name but a few, the business continues to expand its route coverage. In April 2014, EML NV commenced a new weekly service from Zeebrugge to the Nordic countries; having earlier in the year implemented a trade service connecting Zeebrugge with Tyne in the UK. The North Continent Med Service (NMT) runs between Amsterdam, Bristol, Tangier Med,

Matrix Logistics

Matrix Logistics is one of the leading companies in the ‘Int. Vehicle Logistics’ sector, based in Istanbul/Turkey. Matrix is offering a door to door service for H&H vehicles in a multimodal logistics solution, by combining inland, shipping & customs services. Thanks to its strategic location, Matrix is able to serve as a bridge between West & East.

Having EML services in such an important chain, represents the high quality and reliability of Matrix Logistics.

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Profile: Euro Marine Logistics (EML)

Barcelona, Livorno, Piraeus, Derince, Borusan providing a regular direct service dedicated to the automotive and high and heavy segments. The business is also considering its operational choices to connect with other ports in North Africa, the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean for transshipment.

Its fleet of 15 specialised vehicles has a capacity that ranges from its smaller vessel type with a 750 CEU capacity and a maximum ramp capacity of 15 tonnes to 4000 CEU with ramp capacity of 120 tonnes. “We offer a frequently running Ro/Ro service with two small vessels equipped to receive all kinds of rolling cargo such as passenger car, SUV, LCV, vans and other heavy cargo on demand. Having launched a new trade route running between Zeebrugge across ports of Scandinavia to Newcastle, we will also operate two vessels as PCC’s,” says an EML spokesperson. This service will further supplement EML’s network and strengthen the position of the company in line with demand from the market to find alternative sea-transport solution to serve the Nordic countries.

Through continued expansion, EML NV is looking at optimising its current routes and complying with demands of its direct customers and owners and as such looks to provide reliable and regular services on routes covering Turkey, up to the Baltic to Russia and in the regions of North Africa such as Tangier in Morocco and Djen Djen in Algeria. With relatively strong market conditions, the company foresees an increase in demand from

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some European countries, and as such is working in close cooperation with its customers to obtain the most accurate forecast from them in order to position the capacity in the short sea and match the demand. As partners in the logistic market, both the company and its customers are keen to develop a good system to align volume with capacity. “The new challenge for the industry is the Russian market and the latest political events in the region have not helped in driving forward the export market. Currently, sales for imported cars in the Russian market is lower than the same period in 2013,” points out the spokesperson from EML. As the business looks ahead, it recognises that to remain a strong player in the market involves regular investment, and as such it made the investments running between the Nordic countries, as well as between the UK and Amsterdam.

Concluding, EML NV’s spokesperson says: “Our goal is to keep our service level in line with demand and with the needs and requirements of our customers.” l Euro Marine Logistics (EML) www.euro-marine.eu • Joint venture operating since 2011 • Operating in Europe, Baltic and Mediterranean • Maintains an ecological conscience

Profile: Serco NorthLink Ferries

A lifeline

service

S

erco began the operations of NorthLink Ferries on 5th July 2012, taking over from the previous operator, with a pledge to ‘overhaul catering, seating and onboard entertainment’ on the vessels it inherited.

The business operates three passenger vessels on the Orkney & Shetland routes: the M.V Hjaltland, M.V Hrossey and M.V Hamnavoe, as well as two freight vessels: the M.V Hildasay and the M.V Helliar.

The improvement programme that the company embarked on just two years ago is ongoing. In 2013, M.V Hjaltland and M.V Hrossey began a £1 million makeover, which, among a raft of changes and enhancements, included a new sleeping pod concept – Serco NorthLink Ferries is the first ferry operator in the world to offer these sleeping pods. The seats recline back to allow passengers to lie and sleep without intruding on the space of the person behind. The fee charged includes a pack with a blanket, pillow and eye mask as well as a token for a free shower in the facilities next door exclusively for those purchasing a sleeping pod.

This is a means of offering passengers a comfortable alternative to a cabin.

The refurbishments also included the creation of Magnus’ Lounge, open to passengers with premium cabin tickets or anyone who buys a ticket to use it. Inside there are free newspapers, magazines, snacks and drinks, including tea and coffee.

Food for all passengers can be ordered from a new single ship’s menu, which has been likened to the kind of ‘gastro-pub’ fare on

offer in contemporary chain restaurants. Meanwhile, the wi-fi service is being improved to a standard that would allow videos to be streamed to passengers on demand.

Several other changes have also been carried out, including new livery – a striking logo of a Viking now adorns the side of the passengers boats.

When the M.V Hamnavoe was returned to service following the

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Profile: Serco NorthLink Ferries

rebrand, Stuart Garrett, Managing Director, noted the importance of this exercise: “[This vessel] has truly been transformed,” he said. “A key element to the new livery is to excite potential tourists about the history and culture of the Northern Isles. The huge Viking image on the Hamnavoe is designed to make an impact so that people choose the Northern Isles and NorthLink Ferries for their next holiday.”

The M.V Hjaltland was the second vessel to be rebranded, and this ship returned to its duties in February. Said Stuart: “Following the extremely positive reception that the Hamnavoe came home to, we are looking forward to unveiling the remainder of the fleet. We are confident that the new livery will excite potential tourists about the history and culture of the Northern Isles, with the hope that they will be prompted to experience it for themselves.”

Alongside these specific vessel changes, Serco NorthLink Ferries has also introduced a new facility to make travelling with the company easier by way of its brand new online booking system, with added features and increased user-friendliness.

Customers are now able to book a number of services which were previously unavailable online, including meals, cots and kennels. The new system also recognises concessionary rates for senior citizens (aged 60 years and over), those in full-time education and disabled passengers. Once a booking is made, customers are then able to view forthcoming journey details and make amendments to bookings.

Stuart added: “Continuous improvement is what we strive for and our newly improved booking system is a key part of this.

Having reviewed the previous booking system, we recognised that the online customer experience could be enhanced. The aim is to ensure customers have a stress-free journey, right from the moment they make a reservation to when they step off our ship, and we feel that these online improvements contribute significantly to ensuring this happens.”

The tourists that Stuart is keen to encourage to the Northern Isles can sail on ferries daily from Aberdeen to Lerwick with frequent calls at Kirkwall, and from Scrabster on the north coast of Scotland to Stromness in Orkney. Serco NorthLink Ferries operates 363 days per year, providing the lifeline service to the Northern Isles with islanders, goods and supplies all being transported by its vessels alongside the visitors.

Having already improved two of its vessels and its online booking system, Serco NorthLink Ferries has made good progress since taking over the contract. Going forward, the company intends to listen closely to the needs of freight customers, including the critical livestock and seafood sectors, as well introducing a more customer focused fares system.

By building on the strengths of the existing NorthLink Ferries operation, as well as introducing a variety of improvements to the services, the company is looking forward to transporting an increased number of passengers from all areas on a voyage of discovery around the Northern Isles. l

Serco NorthLink Ferries

www.northlinkferries.co.uk • Focusing in rebranding and improvements to vessels • Two ships already relaunched with new Viking logo • Keen to offer local produce to passengers on board

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine supplies competitive technologies and services to maritime customers worldwide. It is proud of the long-standing relationship with Serco NorthLink Ferries in providing safe passage, performance, reliability and through-life service to the fleet, crew and passengers. As supplier of the Integrated Bridge System to Serco NorthLink Ferries, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine is committed to first-class customer service and world-class navigational efficiency.

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Profile: Mideast Ship Management Ltd

Strong

leadership M

ideast Ship Management was formed in 1995 in Dubai as a joint venture between the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) and Accomarit Ship Management, based in Glasgow, Scotland. With Bahri having purchased its first very large crude carrier’s (VLCC), it recognised that it required a higher level of technical management. Bahri gradually took over control of Mideast, and in 2005, it became the sole shareholder in the business. Following the complete acquisition, Mideast has witnessed a spike in growth over the last nine years.

“The key strength of our business comes principally from the people who work for the company, both on board the ships and ashore in our office as well as the support and leadership of Bahri senior management and board of directors. The combination of these two factors is crucial to the success of the organisation. The senior officers on board the ships are the most important asset within the company,” says company president, Robert Houston.

As a subsidiary of Bahri, Mideast benefits from the financial strength and support that its parent company is able to offer. With ship management operating as a fully integrated business unit

it supports the group through the provision of the management services required. Where capital expenditure is necessitated, Bahri is able to provide the support and finances. As one of the largest shipping firms in the world, Bahri is well known among industry peers at a regional, national and international level in all sectors of its diverse business and invests huge sums of money into ensuring all its vessels comply with the very latest international regulations and standards with regards to marine pollution.

Continuing on the path of development the business faces a new future with the recent merger of Bahri and Vela International Marine. Commenting on the move Robert says: “The merger of the two companies is a major step in the evolution of Bahri, both internationally and within Saudi Arabia. The merger will result in Bahri becoming the exclusive shipping provider of Saudi Aramco crude oil exports to its dedicated customers sold on a delivered

Drydocks World

Drydocks World, with facilities in the Middle East and Southeast (as part of DDW-PaxOcean Asia Pte Limited) is one of the most prolific shipyards. The company is the leader in the Middle East completing 300 repair and maintenance projects annually. The company maintains excellent business relations with customers from all over the world. As a result, all major vessel owners, management companies and operators utilise the facility regularly. Mideast Shipmanagement, one of the major vessel management companies in the region, has been among the company’s most valued customers for over 17 years. www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 49

Profile: Mideast Ship Management Ltd

basis. The agreement will result in the world’s fourth largest marine transportation firm. Once the merger is completed, Mideast will assume responsibility for the technical management of the Vela vessels, which are being purchased by Bahri. A total of 15 VLCC’s and five Product Tankers will be purchased by Bahri and will be taken over by Mideast within the next six months.

This will increase the Bahri/Mideast fleet from 52/49 to 72/69 vessels, of which 32 will be VLCC’s. The remainder of the fleet will be 21 Chemical Tankers, five Product Tankers, six Ro-Ro vessels and five Kamsarmax Bulk Carriers. Bahri also owns three Stainless Steel Chemical Tankers, which are bareboat chartered to another company.”

In order to ensure a smooth transition from Vela to Mideast, the Vela staff both onboard the vessels and ashore in the Vela office will transfer to Mideast. The merger will create a platform for ongoing economic growth and development in Saudi Arabia, while also providing both companies an enhanced ability to compete in the world maritime transport markets. Offering an incredible growth opportunity for Bahri and Vela, the creation of a global leader in the shipping industry will triple Bahri’s cargo volumes and enable the company to operate with a world-class fleet that is fully capable of meeting the future maritime demands of major clients.

Focused on becoming one of the top ten leading global owners of VLCC’s, as well as one of the top five owners of chemical carriers, Bahri has focused on fleet expansion over recent years. In 2011 the company made an agreement with Hyundai MIPO in South Korea for a total of six general cargo vessels. In April 2014 the final general cargo of six was delivered to Bahri from Hyundai MIPO. The six new Ro-Ro vessels were purchased to replace the existing fleet of Ro-Ro’s, which Bahri has been operating for many years.

The original four large, Swedish built, Ro-Ro’s had reached the end of their operating lives after 30 years of what Robert explained was tremendous service to the company. Describing the new vessels, he says: “Although smaller in physical size, the vessels have more cargo carrying capacity by volume, due to the efficient design of the cargo areas, with an increased number of cargo decks and hanging car decks. The world famous naval architects, Knud E. Hansen were consultants in the design of the vessel to ensure the most efficient use of the cargo spaces available.”

From a technical perspective, the vessels are extremely fuel efficient, employing electronically controlled main engines, giving very low fuel consumptions throughout the operating speed ranges of the vessels. Shaft alternators, different sizes of diesel generators and power management systems ensure that fuel consumptions are at optimum levels at all times. Increased environmental standards have also been incorporated in the vessels, through the installation of such systems as ballast water treatment technology.

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Although legislation does not determine the requirement of these systems at this time, it indicates the commitment of the company to its environmental policy. Operating with these core values, Bahri and its subsidiaries have established an excellent reputation for providing a high standard of services to clients in all sectors through a range of measures. These include providing Bahri employees with medical insurance and a healthy work atmosphere, regular safety training sessions and equipping office buildings with safety tools to handle all situations.

“Our vessels are operating in a liner service between Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Italy and USA on a service that has been in operation for 30 years,” says Robert. As the company looks forward to the rest of 2014, he concludes: “Our main focus will be taking the Vela fleet into management, safely and with minimum disruption to the vessels schedules. This will be a real test of how strong our management systems are. A fleet of 20 ships, all tankers, being taken over within six months is a challenge for any company.

However we have planned extensively for this and I am sure it will be carried out safely and successfully. We plan to grow and expand in line with our vision; to operate safely, with no accidents or incidents, and with minimum effect on the environment.” l

Mideast Ship Management Ltd

www.bahri.sa/ship-management • Rapidly expanding fleet • Merger with Vela International Marine • Committed to the environment

Profile: The Shipping Corporation of India

Passage to

T

he history of The Shipping Corporation (SCI) of India dates back to October 1961, when the company was founded through the amalgamation of Eastern Shipping Corporation and Western Shipping Corporation.

Starting out as a marginal liner company with a fleet of just 19 ships, the SIC today boasts as many as 80 vessels representing around 38 per cent of India’s national tonnage. The company has evolved to include interests in various segments of the shipping industry with a fleet comprised of bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, product tankers, container vessels, passenger-cum-cargo vessels, phosphoric acid/chemical carriers, LPG/Ammonia carriers and offshore supply vessels. Furthermore SCI mans and manages a number of vessels on behalf of various government departments, organisations and joint ventures.

As the shipping sector continues to evolve in the face of the 2008 global economic down turn and India’s increasing demand for liquid natural gas (LNG) as a vital fuel for the country’s power plants and chemical/petrochemical industries, SCI has diversified to aid India’s entry into the specialised field of LNG transportation.

India As such SCI is the only Indian shipping company currently engaged in the transportation of LNG, which it facilitates through three joint ventures with one vessel on each.

Presently SCI is responsible for the technical and operational management of the S.S. Disha and S.S. Raahi LNG carriers associated with the India LNG Transport Company No.1 and 2 Ltd joint venture companies (JVC). These were established in collaboration with SCI consortium partners M/s. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Limited (MOL), M/s K-Line, M/s. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha Limited (NYK Lines) of Japan and M/s. Qatar Shipping Company (Q Ships), Qatar. The SCI stake in each JVC is 29.08 per cent. The S.S. Disha and S.S. Raahi were delivered on 9th January 2004 and 16th December 2004 respectfully and are each engaged on a long-term 25-year time charter with the Petronet LNG project (PLL), which was established as joint venture by the Indian government to import LNG into the country. The combined volume of cargo carried by with the India LNG Transport Company No.1 and 2 between their inception and 20th August 2010 was around 30.28 MMT. www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 51

Profile: The Shipping Corporation of India

The India LNG Transport Company No.3 represents the third joint venture company established by SCI to facilitate the import of LNG product into India.

The JVC is made up of the same Japanese and Qatar partners as the India LNG Transport Company No.1 and 2 and was formed in Malta for the construction, ownership and operation of a single LNG tanker for the PLL Dahej Expansion Project. The MT Aseem is owned by the JV, where SCI controls a 26 per cent stake in the venture. The vessel was delivered on 16th November 2009 and is time chartered for 25 years.

In all, it will carry 2.5 million metric tons of LNG per year to the Dahej Terminal of M/s Petronet LNG Limited until 2034.

Furthermore, during October 2013 it was announced that SCI and Japanese firms Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line and K Line had won a global tender to lease a further LNG tanker to Petronet for hauling fuel from Gorgon in Australia to Kochi in Kerala where Petronet has built a five million tonnes per annum LNG import and re-gassification terminal.

As India’s largest shipping company, SCI’s expansion is heavily in line with the focus of the Indian government meaning that the country’s energy needs are an important factor in what drives the business forward. When SCI was last featured in Shipping and Marine magazine during April 2013, Captain Sunil Thapar, Director (Bulk Carriers & Tankers) at SCI elaborated on this saying: “At present LNG makes up about 10-15 per cent of India’s energy resources and in the next five years we are expecting that to grow up to 40 per cent. Therefore with more and more LNG to be imported into the country we have diversified into the LNG terminal business. We are also working together with the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) in helping them achieve this.

We’re also a member of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) which keeps us up to date with what is happening in the LNG sector as a whole.”

SHM SHIPCARE SHM Shipcare was established in 2001 with a vision to protect lives, environment and property. With humble beginning from supplying products to offering engineered solutions and manufacture of high speed FRP boats, SHM has come a long way since its inception and we feel that the journey has just begun.

With its Head Quarters in Mumbai, SHM today as a network spanning over 11 cities along the Indian coast. SHM provides a one-stop solution for both sales and services. SHM ensures quality solutions & timely delivery of their products and services through a comprehensive infrastructure of manufacturing, supplying, servicing & repairing and a dedicated team of qualified and trained personnel.

SHM Shipcare takes pride in a customer centric, solution based approach driven by incorporating the latest technologies and decades of experience.

Led by Mr. Saifuddin H Hajee and a strong management team of 400 professionals and industry experts, SHM Shipcare aims to build on its experience and expertise to provide top quality solutions through its current service offering and future growth plans in India and overseas.

“Working towards Safe Seas and Safe Shores”

While it continues to grow its stake and activity in the specialised LNG transportation market SCI will continue to focus on its other areas of business and seek to achieve best practice wherever it is active. Since its inception the company has grown with the support of the Indian government to become a highly regarded partner in a number of sectors, including key players within the oil and gas sector as Captain Thapar explains: “Having the support of the government enabled SCI to gain the trust of the public sector oil companies that we today work with as a carrier of crude oil and petroleum products. We are now a major tanker operator with nearly 40 vessels ranging from VLCCs, Suezmax and other size segments for the crude and product transportation.

From this point we were able to move into the other shipping sectors and become the highly diversified business we are today.”

In addition to providing world-class cargo transportation solutions, SCI offers dedicated chartering, lighterage, shipbuilding consultancy and coastal and passenger services. Furthermore, it is presently the only Indian shipping company to provide a breakbulk service & International Container Services. As the company transitions into the future it will continue to work closely with the Indian government to increase its LNG capability and consider new markets in which to grow as Captain Thapar concludes: “We are looking closely though at the LNG sector, and the offshore segment, which doesn’t seem to be as exposed to the ups and downs of shipping market in general. It is a very niche sector and one where SCI has been working since 1985. During this time we had acquired offshore supply vessels and recently acquired some platform supply vessels, as well as manning and managing multipurpose vessels. Once the market recovers we have plans to move into the higher segment of the offshore sector, and this will likely require us to supplement our current vessels with bigger and better assets like rigs/FPSOs and so forth.” l

The Shipping Corporation of India

www.shipindia.com • India’s national shipping company • Diverse fleet • Focus on LNG

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Bolder and

bolder

E

stablished in 1954 by founder Peter Madsen, the company began operations with one vessel to aid in the recovery of lead batteries from German submarines that had sunk in Danish waters during World War II. With

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Denmark developing its harbours in the 1960s and 1970s, Peter Madsen Rederi used its vessel, with its wire crane, to progress into ‘stone fishing’ – the collection of glacial deposited boulders from the sea bed. As demand for services continued, Peter Madsen Rederi acquired more vessels and became a limited company in 1964; this trend for expansion has continued over the years, with the purchase of purpose-built vessels with wire cranes as well as vessels equipped with hydraulic backhoe excavators. “The company owns and operates a fleet of multi-purpose dredging and marine civil engineering support vessels. These are equipped with robust grab cranes or large hydraulic excavators. Working in coastal and offshore waters, the vessels fill a niche between small local dredging and multicat operators and the big international dredging operations,” says John Madsen, managing director of Peter Madsen Rederi.

“Initially intended for stone fishing and dredging small to medium ports and harbours, the vessels have been utilised for stone placement, rock armouring, pipe handling, diver support, seabed clearance, wreck recovery, scour protection for offshore wind projects, cable landfalls, trenching and much more.”

Involved in the burgeoning renewable energy sector since its

Profile: Peter Madsen Rederi

Farm in the German sector of the North Sea. Initially tasked with establishing a land-based production facility that could deliver high volumes of quality controlled filled bags, Peter Madsen Rederi successfully designed, constructed and operated an automated weight batch filing facility at Romo, southern Denmark.

Following this, 40,000 Naue Secutex Soft Rock nonwoven sand containers were delivered to the facility, while sand was imported via dredger; once filled, the bags were stored under cover over winter in preparation for transportation in Spring 2013. With a

inception in Denmark over ten years ago, Peter Madsen Rederi today is one of the most experienced medium size organisations to compete against, as well as supply, international giants. “Specialist work carried out by the company in the Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) sector includes placing stone bases and ballasting gravity bases, laying stone around monopiles for scour protection and excavation for installations of cables,” says John. “Another specialisation is in the removal of glacial drop stones and other seabed boulders from the pile locations and cable routes.”

With long-term experience in individually picking up boulders from the Danish sea bed, the company was awarded a major contract with energy giant E.ON in 2012 to install scour protection on the 258 MW Amrumbank West Offshore Wind www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 55

Profile: Peter Madsen Rederi

300 m2/20,000 tonne barge in place 40 kilometres offshore to use as a floating office, accommodation base and loading facility for the Peter Madsen vessels, the company placed the filled bags in the turbine locations in a water depth of 20 metres.

More recently, following the successful clearing of some 7000 glacial drop stones from the Baltic Sea’s bed in 2012 for the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm, Peter Madsen Rederi was awarded a second major contract from energy giant DONG in October 2013, seabed clearance at Westermost Rough in the UK. Utilising the latest bathymetric survey information, Peter Madsen deployed two vessels to pick up and re-locate the boulders. “Accurate on-board GPS and positioning systems, coupled with skilled operators, means that there is no need for expensive DP2 vessels or underwater location equipment. Working in a systematic manner the vessels collected well over 30 boulders each per day. In all some 3500 boulders were relocated in the summer of 2013 to ready the way for the various installation vessels to complete their works,” highlights John.

With six robust and flexible vessels currently under its helm, Peter Madsen Rederi uses sophisticated equipment and highly experienced technical operators, data managers, CAD operators and hydrographic surveyors to ensure optimum accuracy and productivity. “Our vessels are of intermediate size but carry on board the technical equipment expected in much larger vessels. For example the vessels have accurate Real Time Kinetic positioning systems that are compatible with land based survey accuracy,” says John. “In addition all of the vessels operate with a marine ‘digmaster’ system‘, the Teledyne Reson PDS2000. This gives the skipper and crane operator a real time overview of the dredger

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in top and profile views displaying the bucket, vessel the design depths and a colour coded digital terrain model.”

He continues: “On large vessels the expert technical personnel are based on board, but they add significantly to the vessels operational costs. Peter Madsen’s solution to this dilemma is to base its technical expertise together in its head office in Denmark, but give these staff remote access to the ships’ computers. In this way its crew and vessel costs can be minimised and yet it can carry the sophisticated guidance and 3D modelling software with fully flexible technical operation and support.”

Celebrating 50 years of trading in 2014, the family run business has developed its high quality operations in line with market developments to create a highly successful company with a turnover that exceeds 15 million euros. Discussing his future plans for Peter Madsen Rederi, John concludes: “In 2014 we shall be looking to consolidate our expanding customer base in the UK, as well as looking to new markets in Northern Europe. We are one of the most experienced medium sized contractors operating in the offshore windfarm sector and whilst major international players are endeavouring to take bigger and bigger slices of this market we believe that there will be an increasing need for experience, attention to detail and cost efficiencies which will enable Peter Madsen to flourish here.” l

Peter Madsen Rederi AS

www.peter-madsen.dk • Marine construction, works and support specialist • Celebrated 50 year anniversary in 2014 • Turnover of more than 15 million euros

Profile: SeaKing

Reputation for S

quality

eaKing designs and supplies complete catering systems for cruise ships, having first entered the market nearly 30 years ago. In that time it has served its customers with initial basic design, consultancy and delivery of ongoing training, maintenance and upgrading of catering systems and is renowned for supporting efficient and profitable operations throughout the ship’s lifecycle. Growing alongside the booming market, the company has supplied catering systems to over 100 cruise ships.

With a long experience and deep knowledge of the cruise ship catering operations the company is heavily focused on functionality, space usage, energy consumption, safety and life cycle costs, which maximise efficiency in catering operations.

Recognised as a competitive and reliable partner, the business is located close to the owners and yards with operations in Finland, Germany, France, Italy and the US. SeaKing supplies a complete range of the highest quality equipment and solutions for galleys, bars, pantries and other catering areas. Based on its own modular line and custom-made refrigerated, heated and neutral furniture, hoods and canopies are combined with hot equipment, dishwashers and other equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers.

With 2015 marking the 30th anniversary for the business, senior vice president Sakari Krouvila explains: “We have always worked in line with our strategy, dedicated to producing superior products. We aim for quality from the start of the www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 57

Alto Shaam

Alto-Shaam, the cruise line industry’s leading provider of foodservice equipment, is a proud partner of SeaKing. Together, Alto-Shaam and SeaKing have helped cruise lines around the world create environments and meals that result in very happy guests and employees.

Specifically, Alto-Shaam provides SeaKing with the tools its customers require. From full banquet systems that feed thousands of guests, to the smallest combi oven that accommodates à la carte menus in bistro-style kitchens, Alto-Shaam has flexible solutions for any size foodservice operation. And the new CT PROformance series Combitherm ovens provide faster production, more precision and better performance than ever before!

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project through to the end and maintaining that philosophy has led to market success over a sustained period and has built up our reputation.” Having worked globally with the cruise ship industry throughout its history, the most notable change, as he points out has been the evolution of the vessels: “As the size of the ships continue to grow, the projects are becoming bigger, more demanding and more complicated. The main challenge this brings is from an engineering perspective. The layout and specification can be quite extensive and often we are in a situation where we may modify some of the drawings up to 40 times before everyone is happy. To meet this growing demand of work and to continue addressing the needs of the market, we have employed more engineering staff so that we can continue to address the needs of the market.”

Increasing demands on dining and service options combined with the continual drive for improvements in energy and operational efficiency impose complex requirements on the catering system. A successful cruise ship galley project starts with a conceptual and functional layout design. The needs of the catering operations and ship construction details have to be implemented to a proper layout and specification, which are the basis for the ship's specification. The business works closely with cruise liners offering the flexibility that gives it a competitive edge in the market. “We are working with the owners to specify and make arrangements to deliver to the clients what they want.

Profile: SeaKing

Flexibility is important to be able to adapt to the needs of the customer.

“Over the years we have been manufacturing tailor-made items for customers and their ships. It was a natural development that began in Poland with standard production but throughout this period it has been necessary to expand the factory and develop that degree of flexibility. Being able to adapt to the demands from the industry has been a key aspect of maintaining, and indeed growing our position in the market,” says Sakari. Over the past two years SeaKing has been actively developing its energy saving catering management system (CMS). CMS is a powerful tool for owners to reduce energy and maintenance costs and to improve labour efficiency and food safety management in catering operations. It also provides a functional and straightforward solution for demand based ventilation control. All equipment and solutions comply with requirements of the cruise industry and USPHS, IMO and other relevant rules and guidelines.

The completely new system supports the market through addressing the concerns that surround energy saving. The first installation was recently completed on the Dewey Mineshift 3, and providing details on the project, Sakari says: “The installation has been successful and we are beginning to collate information. Equipment usage and diagnostics data provides a tool for cost efficient maintenance and it has already been assisting the owner providing an overview of the electrical consumption used on the vessel. We are currently installing a similar system on a project in Germany. There is a different scope on each project, but this really promotes the flexibility of the system to owners and clients for potential future projects.”

As an integrated monitoring, control and advisory system for catering operations it enables owners to save on fuel costs by monitoring and managing the energy consumption

and equipment’s status, and by guiding operations with real time status screens and KPI dashboards. It also provides load calculations for the control of demand based ventilation and, if required, can limit electrical loads to available levels. The optional food control management functions help to improve labour and operational efficiency, and HACCP data logging and analysis are the basis for better food safety management.

For a number of years the business has been looking towards the refit market. “We see that this is an increasing market, driven mainly by ship owners looking to upgrade the offering onboard the ships. We are very proud of our latest project delivery and the next installation is on a vessel that is set to be the biggest ship in the world and is currently under construction with SPX in France,” says Sakari. The challenge for the business as it looks to the future is to be able to work in a more challenging environment with larger and more demanding projects on the horizon as he concludes: “We need to ensure that we are ready to meet this whilst maintaining a cost structure that is sustainable on the market. The focus is to be able to deliver the type of quality that satisfies the customers, that is fundamentally our main goal, but equally our strategy must stay the same. It is our strategy that delivers the strength in our organisation. To be able to take this higher challenge and cost we must adhere to the strengths of the business that have attributed to our successes in the past.” l

SeaKing

www.seaking.net • Complete range of marine catering • Business operations worldwide • Planning, installation and maintenance

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Master

builders H

eavyLift@Sea is a company created by a group of highly qualified professionals with over 85 accumulated years of experience and knowledge in the international shipping arena. Together the team has designed and managed world-leading heavylift ships and its specialists were the first to manage the development and production of the first heavylift jackup vessels designed and built in Germany during their time at Sietas Shipyard, Germany.

Hendrik Gröne, managing director at the company, gave more details on the foundation of such an innovative organisation: “HeavyLift@Sea is a relatively young company founded middle of 2012, with the vision to preserve the many years of shipyard practice that could have been lost when the Sietas yard went into insolvency at the end of 2011.

“So we started with an experienced team that has accumulated

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many years of knowledge in designing and building specialised ships, and this team is one of our major strengths. We can work as a group of specialists or as one complete team complementing each other.”

Hendrik continued: “We are active on three markets traditional shipping and shipbuilding, offshore wind, and offshore oil and gas. On the one hand we design new vessels, either tailor-made or standardised designs and planning conversions (e.g. DP-upgrades), and on the other hand we are an external technical engineering department for ships in operation.

For example we calculate heavy-lift jobs, sea fastening, intact and damage stability, DP-capabilities and design lifting tools.”

Taking advantage of these services are shipping companies, operators of specialised ships and less specialised engineering offices. “We see ourselves as a kind of technical department with

Profile: HeavyLift@Sea

We see ourselves as a kind of technical department with highly qualified and experienced engineers and the necessary tools for nearly all maritime engineering services. Our customers and their challenges are our main motivation

highly qualified and experienced engineers and the necessary tools for nearly all maritime engineering services. Our customers and their challenges are our main motivation. We also always consider the big picture and see every job in its entirety.”

Part of this approach is Heavylift@Sea’s bespoke process that it refers to as ‘chief engineering’. “This phrase means that we have to see and treat everything in its entirety, always bearing in mind the specialised environment within which each challenge exists.

We are increasingly seeing our work split into small packages with all the advantages but no one holding everything together and seeing a ship as one system. For most designers a ship is a collection of subsystems, but for us it is one ship consisting of subsystems where each small component is there to improve the complete overall performance of the vessel.”

This approach has been applied to a variety of vessels, and most recently Heavylift@Sea has designed a heavylift multipurpose dry cargo vessel, which has two models – MPV 500 and MPV 1600. Hendrik described the notable features of this family of vessels: “This is based on a one cargo-hold design with two heavylift cranes. Each of the vessels is able to take the full tandem load of both cranes in ballast condition. Additionally the damage stability is calculated very accurately, because today this limits new ships with just one cargo hold. These ships are designed to be good multi-purpose vessels and also optimised for project cargo. Therefore we put the deckhouse to the front and made the vessels able to sail with an open hatch.”

He added: “Every optimised vessel design comes with www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 61

Profile: HeavyLift@Sea

challenges. We always design a vessel so that it reaches all limits at the same time. For such a modern heavylift ship the stability, deadweight, speed and fuel consumption has to be optimal to be successful on the new market.”

The company’s attention to detail on this vessel has already generated a lot of attention in the market.

“We are in contact with different companies for different sizes of this vessel-type,” confirmed Hendrik.

He went onto highlight that creating vessels such as the new heavylift family, was enabled by the organisation’s close relationship to the market and its customers: “With the projects we have underway for ships in operation, we are part of the solution to the challenges that our customers face every day. This gives us the ability to understand exactly the needs in the market and also the direction in which the market is moving. Additionally we are part of a three-

year research project together with the Technical University of Hamburg and the consultancy company Mareval, which gives us a lot of insights.”

Heavylift@Sea also works closely with universities when recruiting, and encourages students to undertake research: “We give students the opportunity to write exams, Bachelors or Masters theses in our company for projects we are interested in being more developed and seeing detailed studies. Additionally we have young professionals working for us,” said Hendrik.

“I would like to see the team slowly grow and over a few years double the number of staff we have today, but we have to see the demand in the market first, to ensure we will see growth.”

As demand for the new vessels from Heavylift@Sea continues to increase, and existing projects continue successfully Hendrik and his team have a firm foundation on which to build further success. “For 2014 we are actually working hard on selling different design packages for tailor-made vessels and also for some of our standard designs,” said Hendrik. “We have a number of products/services available to customers and demand continues for our combination of everyday work for ships in service and more strategic work of designing specialised ships.” l

HeavyLift@Sea

www.heavyliftatsea.de • Fast growing maritime engineering company • Recently designed new heavylift vessel • Sells to charterers and ship owners

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Profile: Afai Southern Shipyard

Building on its

A

success

s Wu Mingyi, general manager of Afai Southern Shipyard explained when the company was last featured in Shipping & Marine in July 2013, the yard was founded in 1992, and its main business is researching, designing and building high performance aluminium alloy ships, of not longer than 120m. “We hold a leading position in the domestic market of aluminium alloy fast ferries, public vessels and professional rescue vessels,” he said. “The Afai Southern Shipyard brand is held in high repute throughout the world, and it is the sole brand for aluminium alloy high speed vessels built and exported in China.”

Working with a variety of clients, the main customers who return time and again to use Afai Southern Shipyard’s services are the Damen Shipyards Group, the Rescue & Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport and Shenzhen clients.

In recent years, the company has constructed over 40 full aluminium alloy catamaran ships, including coastal fast rescue vessels, 85m ro-pax ferries, 32m city sightseeing vessels, 35m inland river luxury public vessels, coastal 34m/188 pax fast ferries, coastal 35m/198 pax fast ferries, 42m/312 pax fast ferries and 42m/448 pax fast ferries. These vessels have been exported to Singapore, Turkey, Dubai, Canada and South Korea.

Following a successful 2012 and 2013, when last featured Afai Southern Shipyard was focusing on completing the vessels that were underway and maintaining its exemplary service record.

At the time Wu noted that having weathered a few tough years during the economic crisis, the yard had a full order book and saw opportunities ahead. “We are now more well known in the aluminium shipbuilding field, so a lot of ship owners want to build vessels in our yard,” he said. “The challenge is to improve quality, www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 63

Profile: Afai Southern Shipyard

efficiency and delivery in order to create the best products in the shortest time for clients.”

Now half way through 2014, Afai Southern Shipyard has remained on its steady course, and completed several ships. For example, on May 27th, the ‘PENGXING16’ built by Afai for Shenzhen Pengxing Shipping Co.,Ltd. completed its sailing tests in the waters of the Pearl River.

These successful sea trials came just a month after the delivery of its sister vessel PENGXING 15 in April, and the speed and performance of each vessel reached or exceeded the design requirements, and were approved by the ship owner.

The PENGXING 15, a 40m-aluminum high-speed catamaran ferry, is a new ship type for Afai Southern that has been jointly designed and developed by CoCo Yachts B.V. and Afai working in partnership. Equipped with twin engines of 1080kW@2250rmp, the PENGXING 15 adopts twin water jet propulsion, and its average speed can reach 32.8 knots at full power. It is the fastest ferry in its class in China at present, and also the most energy efficient vessel. The ship owner is very satisfied with the performance of the vessel and highly praised Afai shipyard’s design and shipbuilding quality levels.

Although the launch of new vessels such as this is of paramount importance to Afai, the company is also very focused on the development of its staff – in order to ensure its vessels are produced to the highest quality standard, they must be manufactured by experienced and knowledgeable craftsmen.

These staff must then be supported by a team of efficient employees who are in charge of administration, accounts, warehousing and so on, and it was the warehouse staff who were most recently trained, when in May the Material Management Department organised post skills training and learning of Microsoft Office software. During the learning process, discussions with management highlighted issues to address and everyone became familiar with the functions and practical skills of Microsoft Office software, both through theory and operation.

Another significant human resources exercise was also undertaken in May, when the company successively recruited a total of 32 trainees from different technical schools. In order to help the trainees get to know the company, adapt to their roles, and be integrated into the company as quickly as possible, the administration department organised an orientation event for them. During the training process, besides learning corporate culture, regulations and rules, the trainees also needed to study and be trained on work content, working environment as well as

occupational health and safety.

Afai always attaches great importance to the input of new recruits, and this orientation event offered important guidance for the trainees on how to adapt to their new environment gradually, accurately position their roles, and use their talents to the best advantage of themselves and the company.

These new staff will be added to Afai’s existing team, which already includes one professor level senior engineer, five senior engineers, over 40 professionals of middle and junior level and 180 middle and high-level skilled workers. They are a key part of the company’s corporate development policy, which states the ambition to not only ‘cultivate top-rate talent’, but also ‘construct a top-rate shipyard’, ‘build top-rate ships, and ‘set up a top-rate brand.’

Over the past 12 months Afai Southern Shipyard has continued on a path of development. It is being guided on this journey through the assistance of the Vice President of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) and the Vice President of China Shipping Group, who visited the yard in April.

During the meeting, the visitors confirmed the friendly cooperation between CSIC, China Shipping and Afai. At the same time, they made important suggestions about the development of Afai, including maintaining a highly visible marketing programme, creating a detailed execution plan for the company’s long-term development (especially paying attention to the lack of production space and manpower) and the further promotion of research and development into high-speed aluminium vessels, focusing on high performance, energy efficiency and suitability for market demand.

It was also suggested that Afai should continually innovate and utilise advanced equipment and management methods to improve productivity and quality, as well as strengthen its pool of talent and retain a large number of high-quality labour resources. Finally, Afai should continuously develop an enterprise culture, and build its brand up to a new level.

Building on this knowledge and advice Afai Southern Shipyard enters the second half of 2014 with a strong idea of its direction and a plan for the future. The next six months should see the company enjoy even higher levels of success. l

Afai Southern Shipyard

www.afaisouth.com • Specialises in constructing fast ferries and rescue vessels • Expects new contracts in summer 2014 • Recent launch of the PENGXING 16

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Potential for

growth N

oble Chartering is a wholly owned subsidiary of Noble Group, a global supply chain manager specialising in agricultural and energy products, metal and minerals. Noble Chartering has become recognised for the quality and reliability of its vessel chartering services, offering clients across the world award-winning dry bulk logistical solutions. The business itself was founded in 1988 in Asia establishing itself throughout Europe, North and South America and Australia whilst retaining its headquarters in Hong Kong.

“Running a business as diversified as our chartering operations brings with it numerous challenges. It is a fairly complex system working across a broad range of commodities and geographical locations, but it is also extremely interesting.

“As well as supporting the various transactions that our parent is involved with, the business continues to grow organically with trading activities and our third party businesses also growing. For example, over the last 25 years we have had a focus on India and today the region has become a key growth area. Following the change of government we see tremendous potential for growth

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and building on the numerous relationships we have built up in the area so that we are now well positioned to take up the opportunities that are put forward,” says Raghu Raghunath, global head of chartering.

To the east, Japan is also a key area, with markets in South East Asia countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia growing through investments and partnerships.

To the west, the business continues to grow its interests in Europe and has also developed a very strategic partnership in Brazil. Discussing its progress Raghu adds: “We are very proud of our track record in performance and we are also very diligent in terms of using our time and believe in remaining true to values around how our business works. The research capabilities in the business are highly beneficial acting as a driver across all platforms. Utilising our role as a trader we can obtain important market information.” This is further supported through the diversity of the global team with experts in all services operating in all time zones including the US, Geneva, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Profile: Noble Chartering

Over and above organic growth, “there have been two major events over the past couple of months,” says Raghu continuing: “First was the announcement of our initial funding of X2 Resources, a new mid tier mining group formed by the original management of Xstrata, whom we will assist with marketing its production and logistics.”

The second major deal was announced in May 2014 with the Chinese food giant , COFCO, acquiring a 51 per cent share in Noble Agri.

“This deal adds tremendous value for Noble Group shareholders. We have one of the biggest soft commodity end users in the world as our joint venture partner,” points out Raghu. “With COFCO, the state owned grain trading entity of the Chinese government as a shareholder we are in an exciting position as we move forward. Both of these deals have had a direct impact on chartering.

“As a result we have started a recruitment process, bringing new talent into the company. We have been expanding the shipping aspect of the business with a view to gearing up to meet the challenges that come from these expansions,” he adds. The company has already recruited renowned figures in the industry employing ten senior chartering personnel in the last ten months.

In 2013 the business increased its fleet through the addition of

five vessels, a trend which was mirrored in 2014, picking up a further four vessels, and continues for the future with another two orders placed for 2016 delivery.

Commenting on the vessels, Raghu says: “These are brand new vessels with the latest eco-friendly design, each being built to the latest specifications with stringent controls on emissions. Not only

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Profile: Noble Chartering

do they meet the requirements of today, but also for the years ahead. As a group we ensure reduced impact to the environment and constantly monitor our carbon footprint.”

The strategy for the business remains planned and focused growth, particularly targeting Japan, India and Brazil. Having spent the last year expanding the business, Raghu explained it is now set to consolidate its interests in those areas as he concludes: “Through organic growth and future trading we expect to double the freight business within three years. We are scheduled for tremendous growth and set to be not only a significant player in shipping, but potentially one of the most significant players in the world over the next five years.” l

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Noble Chartering

www.thisisnoble.com • Growing and powerful business • Environmentally friendly focus • Employing for the future

Clarksons Asia

Clarksons are the world’s leading provider of integrated shipping services. Founded in 1852 we service our international clients through a global network of 42 offices across 18 countries.

Representing the world’s largest shipowning companies and charterers in the transportation of the world’s commodities by sea, our shipbroking services are unrivalled in terms of the number and calibre of our brokers, breadth of market coverage, geographical spread and depth of market intelligence. Market-leading research provides authoritative information on all aspects of shipping and the offshore industry.

Profile: Dublin Port Company

Ireland’s premier

port

L

ocated in the heart of Dublin City, at the hub of the national road and rail network, Dublin Port is a key strategic access point for Ireland and in particular the Dublin area.

The port is managed by Dublin Port Company (DPC), a selffinancing, private limited company wholly-owned by the State.

Established as a corporate entity in 1997, Dublin Port Company is responsible for the management, control, operation and development of the port. It provides world-class facilities, services, accommodation and lands in the harbour for ships, goods and passengers.

Dublin Port handles almost 50 per cent of the Republic’s trade, two thirds of all containerised trade and is the largest of the three base ports on the island of Ireland, the others being Belfast and Cork. Base ports offer multi-modal services with connections to transhipment ports such as Rotterdam and are important strategic

trading hubs. Dublin Port also handles over 1.76 million tourists through the ferry companies operating at the port and through the cruise vessels calling to its quays.

Not only does DPC compete with other ports in Ireland but perhaps more importantly, it also operates a competitive business model within the Port itself where eight terminals compete for business in the unitised sector. Unitised trade is comprised of Lo-Lo and Ro-Ro and accounts for over 80 per cent of Dublin Port's trade.

For the past two years, DPC has been in the initial phase of a development project called MasterPlan 2012 – 2040. This was prepared to guide the development of Dublin Port over the next 26 years, and presents a vision for future operations at the Port. It also critically examines how the existing land use at Dublin Port can be optimised for merchandise trade purposes.

The Masterplan, which has been prepared following extensive

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Profile: Dublin Port Company

engagement with stakeholders, also outlines how Dublin Port Company will work to better integrate the Port with the City and its people.

The Masterplan has been prepared by Dublin Port Company in order to: • Plan for future sustainable growth and changes in facilitating seaborne trade in goods and passenger movements to and from Ireland and the Dublin Region in particular • Provide an overall context for future investment decisions • Reflect and provide for current national and regional guidelines and initiatives • Ensure there is harmony and synergy between the plans for the Port and those for the Dublin Docklands Area, Dublin City and neighbouring counties within the Dublin Region • Give some certainty to customers about how the Port will develop in the future to meet their requirements The Masterplan addresses the key issues around the future development of the Port by reference to developments in merchandise trade and key sectors of the economy. It also examines the existing land utilisation at Dublin Port and suggests some options for future development at the Port, which will facilitate the Port handling 60m tonnes by 2040.

Dublin Port Company has invested a significant amount of time into the Masterplan (a PDF document with many more details is available at http://www.dublinport.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/ documents/Dublin_Port_Masterplan.pdf). It comprises a very detailed analysis of the factors that Dublin Port Company has to consider in order to continue to build on its growth trajectory, and share its success with the wider community and Ireland as a whole.

The Masterplan is a very impressive roadmap to the future, but DPC is no stranger to new developments, as it has continuously embraced innovation and change since it was established.

For example, it undertook to retain and maintain its own rail infrastructure over the years in order to facilitate the movement of goods to market by rail. While this mode of transporting goods has been in rapid decline for a decade or more, it has seen something of a resurgence at Dublin Port, thanks to the foresight and investments of DPC. It also invested in new tugs in 2010, as part of a fleet upgrade programme of €16m. Built at the Astilleros Zamakona shipyard in

Bilbao, Spain, the tugs have a distinctly Irish feel with their green and white colouring and being named after two remarkable Irish explorers, Ernest Shackleton and Sir Francis Beaufort.

Alongside its dedication to support customers and staff, DPC is also very keen to embrace its wider community and get the people of Dublin involved in activities. Even before the emergence of what has more recently become known as Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) DPC supported a range of social, environmental, sporting and educational initiatives, which benefit the community that has such close links with the port. The most recent activity occurred in June 2014, when the world’s thirdlargest tall ship, the 370 foot long, four-masted ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ visited Dublin.

Led by Captain Enrique Torres Piñeyro, the ‘Elcano’ is used primarily as a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy, preparing its officers for long periods at sea. The ship, on its 85th training voyage, had been sailing for 23 days across the Atlantic from the Port of New York en route to Dublin Port.

Eamonn O’Reilly, chief executive of Dublin Port Company, said: “Dublin Port Company is delighted to welcome the Juan Sebastián de Elcano and her crew to Dublin Port. As a port city, it’s an honour for Dublin Port to host the world’s third-largest tall ship in full view of the city, where she is certain to receive a very warm welcome. I would strongly encourage Dubliners and visitors to the city to take this unique opportunity to visit this spectacular naval ship, and share in Spain’s maritime history and culture over the coming days.”

The port of Dublin has a long and remarkable history, dating back 300 years. There have been many famous moments and famous visitors in that time and the Port has left a lasting legacy for both mariners and maritime history. Today, with trade levels beginning to show signs of recovery, Dublin Port will remain a hugely positive force driving competitiveness, facilitating trade and generating economic growth for Dublin and Ireland well into the future. l

Dublin Port Company

www.dublinport.ie • Handles 47 per cent of the total trade and GDP of Ireland • Plans for €200 million development underway • Facilities to handle cargo and passengers

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Profile: Data Modul

Displayed to

perfection T

he history of Data Modul begins in 1972 when it was founded as a distributor and manufacturer for flat panel displays and subsystems, today holding the position as a leader in display technology. In 1998 the business acquired Conrac GmbH, a manufacturer of flat panel monitors in LCD technology for the marine and other very specialised industries. “The marriage of both these companies has proved a perfect combination, both for the business and for providing the best solutions to the marine industry,” says Joern Wittig, Head of Product Marketing for industrial solutions.

With state-of-the-art electronics, a long experience in the market and a large modern production facility in Germany, the company has a fundamental understanding of all aspects of the market. “The marine market is one of our core businesses, and has been for many years. We know how to handle the marine market, and recognise early the trends and demands. As such we have been able to bring many industry firsts to the market, such as the introduction of the first high-resolution CRT monitor, and also the first widescreen monitor,” explains Joern. Recognised for launching such products, the business continues to grow on its position as an industry leader, renowned for its innovative style.

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As a result of its strong presence in the market and the rapid advancement of display technology, the business focuses its efforts in the development of new products, from the earliest stages through to the final construction. “Our approach to the marine market is different to our competitors’ in that we are only working as a distributor and original equipment manufacturer (DOEM), so we do not provide products under our own brand to the end user. Our customers include marine equipment suppliers and with our knowledge and access to the latest technology, we can really support and advise those clients effectively,” points out Joern. As such, the global reach of its products is large, albeit understated.

The introduction of the wide screen displays in 2006 was one of the significant milestones for the business, grounding its position in the marine field. The strategic expansion of its business is

carried out through targeted activities in both Germany and abroad, adhering to its goal of holding its position as the market leader in display technology, delivering the right product at the right time, in both quality and at a competitive price. Driving its sales forward, a team will be attending the SMM fair in Hamburg in September 2014, where it will introduce the next generation of ship monitors, which includes LED backlit displays, multi-touch functionality and automated optical bonding capabilities amongst other innovative technologies and possibilities.

“A growing feature of integration is our embedded boards, of course, designed and developed by Data Modul’s designated design team. The demand for panel computers within the marine sector is very high at the moment. Customers are attracted to the service we provide, because we really focus on what they require.

The modular concept on which our systems are based provides a platform that keeps cost down, and eliminates any features that are not required by the client,” says Joern.

As the company looks to develop new working relationships, Joern explains that long-term production contracts are of key interest, hugely benefiting the customer in the service it provides: “Clients today are looking to receive a long-term solution and, despite the shorter life-cycle trend of the individual components, we are able to offer stability of the final product for a long time. We are also able to operate on a project basis as required, supporting our partners in this field.” From its modern production site, with a total area of more than 18,000 square metres the business is able to process several hundred units each day, meeting the highest quality and traceability standards. With a high degree of flexibility it is able to cope with all requirements from the market by accommodating a varying production volume and a growing product range.

Holding its strong position in a very stable market, the company’s market share continues to grow based on its innovative concepts. Commenting on the success over the past years Joern explains: “The merger of the two businesses brought two very strong sales forces together, a wealth of important contacts in the marine field, and a talented design team. The result is that we are able to offer complete solutions to the market, and ultimately this has led to the continued growth of our market share.”

Looking towards the future, Joern highlights the technologies that will ultimately lead the way: “Over the next 12 months we see embedded solutions, low power and green technology as the main features which are already being demanded from the market. Our own products and solutions provide quality and reliability, and we are driven to offer long-term solutions to our customers, an aspect of our service we believe is very much appreciated. Further ahead we expect to grow within navigation systems, as well as focusing on new applications such as PCAP technology, multi touch functionality, and the development of embedded boards into OEM products. The goal and focus in the marine industry is to have a vertical integration of application in the marine market.” l

Data Modul

www.data-modul.com • Display technology manufacturer • Leader in innovative design • Attending SMM Hamburg 2014

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Quality through innovation

T

he Palmer Johnson name has been synonymous with innovation in boat design and building for nearly a century. The company, which has developed around the three pillars of vision, evolution and innovation, is today the premier designer and builder of market-leading superyachts.

The business was formed in 1918, with humble beginnings that saw it building and repairing wooden boats, rowing skiffs and commercial fishing vessels before going on to build its first yacht in 1926. Since these early days however the company has been dedicated to providing groundbreaking and revolutionary innovations in the field of yacht design rooted around the core values of the company – design, performance and emotional appeal – all of which are manifested in its stunning designs.

From the world famous Palmer Johnson yachts that won every major championship race during the golden period of sailing yachts, through the company’s revolutionary sports yachts, and to its latest SuperSport series of vessels, innovation has been at the core of Palmer Johnson’s growth. For example, the company is a pioneer in aluminium construction in yachts, building the first aluminium boat, the Isanti, in 1962 followed by the launch of the largest aluminium sailing yacht at the time, the 84ft ketch Firebird in 1966. This trend continued when in 1979 the business launched the Fortuna. Built for the then King of Spain, she was

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the most advanced 100-foot aluminium boat in the world at the time and remained the fastest yacht in the world for more than a decade. More recently in 1998, the company built and launched the La Baronessa, the largest aluminium yacht built in the US and completed in time to celebrate Palmer Johnson’s 80th anniversary.

For Palmer Johnson this spirit of innovation is truly embedded in the foundations of the business, and is an attitude that rests in its employees. Dedicated to people, the company is built of a team of third and fourth generation families who live and breathe the Palmer Johnson ethos and who have worked with some of the greatest yacht designers and naval architects in the world.

Today the Palmer Johnson brand is based around two key series of yachts, the Sport Yachts, which have been a leading name in the recent era of sports yachting, and the next generation SuperSport Yachts, a new class of superyacht that is fast, efficient and offers a state-of-the-art yachting experience.

The Sport Yachts series was introduced in 2004 starting with the PJ 120 Coverdrive. In developing these vessels Palmer Johnson had one key aim in mind – to create the ultimate Sportyacht. The result was an iconic, stunning vessel that featured cutting edge styling and a distinctive sleek profile that soon became a market leader.

Ranging from 120ft to 210ft the yachts are capable of reaching speeds of 28-32 knots and feature some key Palmer Johnson design features such as elegant curves, sleek window shapes and

Profile: Palmer Johnson

an aft deck that allows easy access to the sea. Furthermore, a newly designed slimline bow gives the yachts superior sea keeping capabilities, while onboard customers will find the interior of the vessel both beautifully designed and highly practical.

Alongside the Sport Yachts in Palmer Johnson’s portfolio is the new SuperSport series of vessels, an entirely new design of vessel completely re-imagined from the hull upwards. This is the company’s next generation of vessels, and in designing the series Palmer Johnson took bold decisions to leave the status quo behind, setting out to redefine the future of yachting through a blend of design, technology and performance. A true expression of what a yacht design can achieve, the SuperSport series are designed in carbon fibre, without a single flat surface to ensure they are faster, more efficient and more stable than any yacht on the market.

The hull of the SuperSport is considered a ‘unibody’ design, which starts as a single block that is carved and shaped to get continuous flowing lines, a sculpted waistline, muscular haunches and a crisp, sleek profile. The employment of high performance materials combined with the slender hull increases efficiency with sponsons that have a positive effect on stability, roll dampening, speed and power. The SuperSport yachts are the most power efficient on the market being capable of achieving 30+ knots, but with 50 per cent less fuel and a Transatlantic range.

The ‘unibody’ hull also gives great comfort to those on board, and is estimated to be three times more stable than a monohull.

Also, its wave piercing bow that has an ultra-fine bow entry reduces pitching, meaning that the yacht effortlessly travels through the waves, not over them. Of course, using carbon fibre also means that less maintenance is required due to no corrosion and very high fatigue limits.

Ultimately, whichever yacht a client picks from the extensive Palmer Johnson range they can rest assured that they would be receiving the best in design, performance and comfort. Essentially, Palmer Johnson means quality when it comes to yacht design – tellingly every one of the more than 200 yachts that the company has built in its history is still afloat today. With this testament to the pride and passion of those working within the business it will remain the leader in yacht design for many years to come. l

Palmer Johnson

www.palmerjohnson.com • Nearly a century of experience • Focused on innovation and design • Market leading business

ARITEX

ARITEX, the manufacturer in Asia which co-operates with many top-class shipyards in the world. They are well recognised due to their quality and technology on customised stainless steel works. In the long-term relationship with Palmer Johnson, ARITEX are honoured to achieve every wonderful design of their projects and are always committed to meet the requirements and give the best service.

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Protecting

assets

P

ort2Port (P2P) is a leading provider of marine and maritime security and risk services. The group head office is based in the UK but comprises of five subsidiaries operating internationally. P2P Maritime Security Ltd delivers its services to the shipping industry in the Indian Ocean, and in 2013 was the first to be certified with ISO PAS 28007.

Having pioneered the introduction of the ISO through a pilot programme, it has ultimately led the way for the development and implementation of the first iteration. “For me, it is about the client and how the implementation of a standard assists in selecting the right maritime security provider, enabling them to have a continuous surveillance process where that standard is maintained,” says Andrew Varney, managing director.

P2P West Africa Ltd is a Nigerian incorporated, registered and licensed business providing unarmed maritime security advisory capability in conjunction with armed Government Security Forces to protect shipping and offshore marine assets. “As the name

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suggests, this delivers all of our operations in West Africa and in the Gulf of Guinea. Providing a significant proportion of our core business, Africa and Asia are the most rapidly expanding regions while we continue to gain and hold market share in the standard eastern high-risk area counter piracy market. Although we have been actively diversifying for just a relatively short period, it is already looking very positive,” points out Andrew.

As the business expands geographically it also addresses areas such as advisory, training and mentoring, and unarmed security solutions including port facilities, pipelines and other littoral facilities and infrastructure pan Gulf of Guinea. Andrew says: “For example, we have been engaged in Ghana for two years now working closely with the Ghanaian authorities through our registered office in Accra to provide a strategic level partner and assist in the evolution of organic capability. Also within the group is P2P Asia, based out of Singapore and responsible for the entire region from Hong Kong to Japan and the wider Pacific basin.

From its inception the company was founded upon, and has evolved with, sound business principles. Andrew highlights: “We are driven by an unwavering commitment to excellence in service market leading products and accreditation. We are industry recognised for our unrelenting attention to detail, placing the customer at the forefront of our risk management planning. This is delivered by a highly capable and formidably strong team, which I trust implicitly and are empowered to deliver our world class service.

“There is an emotional and personal investment in the business and the team is very cohesive. Continuous improvement to quality management systems is a philosophy and a state of

Profile: Port2Port mind, not just words on a certificate in the lobby. We constantly strive for improvement, analysing procedures and operations, delivering mitigation and deterrent capability with the aim of avoiding becoming decisively engaged in a security crisis situation.

Our highly experienced and professional team understands the nature of a deterrent psyche and reactionary but proportionate capability.”

In January 2014 the company successfully deterred an attack from a pirate action group (PAG) on the Nave Atropos, and previously on a product carrier in the Southern Somalia Basin in November 2013. In both situations the PAGs were disrupted by the armed security team and as a result of the report submitted by the security team on board, the PAGs were both consequently apprehended by naval forces and today are facing trial in the Piracy Court in the Seychelles. “This is the first time ever that the private sector has completed the circle from deterrent to conviction and is unprecedented to date. Piracy has a universally destabilising effect and should be countered robustly, but nevertheless national and international rules of law and conduct protocols apply, and there is no excuse to meet aggression with an excessive response, rather, we adopt a measured, considered and proportionate response, and we are rightly proud that both of these examples were almost case perfect with correct escalation engaged.

“I believe that the market and the industry will consolidate this year in a very big way, resulting in a major reduction in the number of service providers and hopefully the final disappearance of the ‘cowboys’ that still tarnish the reputation of the entire industry. However, in order to reach that welcome point, the shipping community must uphold the key objectives of the ISO

PAS and not dilute it as a means of redressing the balance of quality and cost, ultimately in an environment that is 99 per cent cost driven. Low cost tends to favour the substandard and companies without the right infrastructure, such as those leasing weapons when required. Although it may seem like a cheaper alternative for the industry, it ultimately highlights that a legitimate armed security business must own its own assets and that costs money. As the ISO PAS evolves I believe it needs to be led in this direction. Many shipping companies are unable to calculate or mitigate the risk, partly because of some bad behaviour on part of a few private security companies who have set a low bar and fail to achieve it. I am keen for people to understand parameters in black and white. If you are not licensed, you should not be trading,” Andrew explains.

Current trends in the Indian Ocean suggest eventually a steady reverse evolution of armed security, however, the Gulf of Aden is a very dangerous place and the threat remains enough to warrant armed security for the next couple of years. Concluding, Andrew says: “Concurrent to that we are focused on West Africa. As a strategic level advisor to the government in Nigeria and Ghana we aim to be the pre-eminent provider of marine security services across the Gulf of Guinea. Ultimately, there is no market for security in ‘benign’ environments!” l

Port2Port

www.port2portuk.com • Maritime security business • Pioneering new standards • Expanding into the oil and gas industry

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King of the

E

stablished in 1959 to meet the particular needs of customers within the many islands of the Baltic Sea, Viking Line has utilised its 55 years of experience to evolve into the leading ferry provider in Northern Europe. With a history for excellence, more than 50 vessels have sailed in the fleets of the Viking Line group of companies and almost 200 million passengers have travelled on its ships since its inception. Today, the company continues to play an essential role in the transport of people and products through the combination of different types of cruises and conferences with service and freight traffic. With seven vessels currently operating on routes between Estonia, Finland and Sweden, Viking Line handled 6.5 million passengers, 600,000 cars and 120,000 cargo units in 2013.

Noting that Viking Line has five vessels in the Finnish ship register, one in Estonia and one in the Swedish register, CEO of Viking Line Jan Hanses has witnessed stable demand on the company’s routes between Finland and Sweden since the company last featured in Shipping & Marine magazine in July 2011.

Having also noticed steady growth in demand from travellers heading from Finland to Estonia, the company has reacted to market demand accordingly. “Viking Line is adding extra sailings on its popular Helsinki (Finland) − Tallinn (Estonia) route during the summer of 2014. The travel alternatives are more diverse when the M/S Gabriella and the M/S Mariella, which provide service on the route between Helsinki and Stockholm (Sweden), also offer daytime sailings from Helsinki to Tallinn from June 12 to August 31, 2014,” he explains.

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waves Over the last three years Viking Line has also dramatically increased its attentions on enhancing its fleet to improve profitability and operational efficiency in line with the sulphur regulations coming into effect in 2015. The most notable development has been the arrival Viking Grace, the first passenger vessel in the world to be driven by LNG. Discussing the company’s strategic developments, Jan states: “In December 2010 we made an order for a new vessel from the STX Shipyard in Turku Finland.

Already in early in the planning process, we decided that Viking Grace should be driven by LNG. Viking Grace was delivered in January 2013; she has since gone on to surpass our expectations and generate major media attention. During her first year in traffic she had 1.3 million passengers!”

Designed to deliver the best possible environmental solutions on the market, Viking Grace’s utilisation of LNG has resulted in 85 per cent lower nitrogen exhausts and particles as well as a 15 per cent decrease in greenhouse gases and a sulphur exhaust level of virtually zero per cent. In addition, the ship’s hydrodynamic hull protects the vulnerable archipelago sea through minimal wave formation and lower fuel consumption, while the motor cooling water is used to heat domestic water and produce clean water from the sea. Other environmental benefits include high insulation capacity window glass, an energy efficient ventilation system and a 20 per cent lower energy consumption level in the kitchen thanks to the GEM system onboard.

Not only built for environmental efficiency, the groundbreaking vessel provides exceptional entertainment and dining facilities for passengers, such as the stunning Club Vogue complex, the

Profile: Viking Line

classically designed restaurant Oscar A La Carte and the Seamore Champagne Lounge. “In many ways the design on board is exceptional, we have excellent green values on board, a high cabin standard, a night club with the biggest LED screen in northern Europe and a Spa-department with two Jacuzzis,” enthuses Jan. More recently, the company transformed the Viking Cinderella (built in 1989, in service on the Stockholm – Åland island route since 2003), with two new restaurants, additional bars, a wine bar, wholly renewed nightclub and Russian spa treatment before her relaunch in 2014. Discussing the remodelling and enhancement of onboard entertainment areas, Jan highlights: “On January 25, after three weeks at a shipyard in Sweden, the doors to the vessel opened and among new features was the first Bottega Prosecco Bar restaurant in the Nordic region, the gilded Golden Bar wine bar and the Ocean Grill restaurant. Furthermore, the vessel can now also offer twice as many double-bedded cabins.”

Despite the incredible success of the Viking Grace and the transformation of Viking Cinderella, it has not been mere plain sailing for Viking Line as the company has faced increased pressure to improve profitability in preparation of the upcoming 2015 EU sulphur directive. With six of the group’s vessels affected by the regulations, the company is looking into problematic areas such as bunker consumption, repairs and maintenance and organisational structure to help cement the company’s future as a leader in the ferry market. “Initially we will run with MGO (Marine Gas Oil)

as scrubbers would require considerable investments and are no relevant solution in their current form,” says Jan. Although environmental regulations will continue to challenge the company, the future looks positive for Viking Line as it focuses on increasing passenger volumes, being cost efficient and maintaining/enhancing good service standards. “We are the leading brand in our area of operation and should be the preferred choice for anyone seeking transportation and cruise experiences. For us it is critical that we maintain and further develop our position as a profitable and successful company,” concludes Jan. l

Viking Line

www.vikingline.fi • Leading ferry provider in Northern Europe • LNG driven vessel added to fleet in January 2013 • Preparing for the EU’s sulphur directive

Turku Repair Yard

Working with Viking Line has continued for decades with strong mutual trust. Sharing common language and cultural background helps, and at Turku Repair Yard we always look forward the new ideas and opportunities Viking Line’s professional team comes across with. We also appreciate the openness to our ideas. Making business together is filled with friendly laughs and mutually we create excellent solutions for all parties.

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Launch into

liquid G

estion Maritime SAM is a ship management company, which was created in 1976. For almost four decades it has been managing dry cargo bulk carrier deep-sea vessels and now offers a comprehensive range of high quality shipping services and tonnages for worldwide seaborne transportation of cargoes, such as iron ore, coal and grains as well as bauxite, fertilizers and steel products.

Featured in Shipping & Marine magazine in September 2013, Gestion Maritime has spent the ensuing eight months focusing on its launch into the liquid bulk sector, as CEO Danilo Fumarola highlighted: “Within this scheme we will take two new build medium range (MRs) tankers under our direct management, and these are expected to be delivered in 2015. We are all very excited to handle the diversified business of both dry bulk and liquid, and we are upgrading our management system to a level where

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our clients will be able to consider investments in many shipping sectors (if not all).

“The new MRs tankers will be the most competitive and cutting edge technology available in the market, and they have already been fixed for four years to top market European operators (one optional year is also included in the deal). These two vessels will hopefully be our first flight into a new sector, which will see us more and more involved.”

He added: “The management of these tankers has required a decisive upgrade of the whole team with new entries coming from the tanker market. Also the management system has undergone a deep review in order to fully match our clients’ expectations, which are quite demanding.”

Although adding a liquid bulk capability to its services is a priority, the dry bulk sector remains Gestion’s core business, as Danilo explained: “Our last deal came after the tankers

Profile: Gestion Maritime transaction, when we looked after the purchase of a Kamsarmax, built in 2009 in Japan at Oshima. This itself gives a clear idea of our on-going commitment to the dry sector. The latest acquisition is also meeting all our best expectations as the vessel secured a healthy charter rate from delivery and for a year. We retrofitted a series of fuel saving devices/equipment, which have given the vessel very competitive slow steaming speed/cons ratios. Needless to say, charterers are demanding more speed/cons ratios in order to optimise their voyages and maximise their margins in all different circumstances. We comply with their requirements.”

Clients that utilise Gestion’s services also benefit from the company’s one-stop-shop management concept. “This has turned out to be quite important since the latest regulations and international conventions are demanding systems that are more and more integrated,” said Danilo. “A holistic approach to ship management is unavoidable today and our code of best management practices are now interchangeable and can be flexibly deployed on different type of vessels. Our solutions will be capable of delivering extra quality and significant added value.”

He added: “We try to go beyond the normal concept of managing vessels and focusing on volumes to generate profits. So instead we work to make our clients’ vessels different from those of their peers. We want to make it possible for our customers to be able to employ their vessels more easily at a premium, as well as work on the competitiveness of their ships so they can create strategies on asset differentiation rather than discounting prices.”

Danilo referred to slow steaming and indeed, fuel efficiency and environmental considerations are major areas of attention for all of the ship management industry. Since last featuring in Shipping & Marine Gestion Maritime has successfully obtained ISO 50001 certification for energy management on board, and as Danilo explained this confirms the company’s dedication to reduce bunker consumption. “More generally we are extensively engaged in upgrading the green footprint of all the vessels under our management,” he added. “We have been actively working on reduction of CO2, NOx and SOx emissions and more is yet to come. Our website, currently under renovation, already identifies our vessels’ green footprint and the new version will cover this issue in more detail, together with the indication of our new certification.

“As a project, we are also working to get ISO 30001 certification to set the standards for vessel dismantling. These standards are designed to think about demolition in a different way. We want be at the vanguard of future demand for ship recycling rather than simply ship scrapping and, above all, strongly demand better standards for labour engaged in demolition processes.”

Another environmental issue close to the heart of ship owners is the convention on water ballast treatment. “This will be an industry change driver; especially for the older segment of the fleet,” said Danilo. “However, it’s still too early to understand what will happen. There is still significant reluctance between ship owners to take definite decisions in a contest where a lot of pieces are still missing from the big picture.”

He continued: “On the dry bulk sector, we are of the view that there is plenty of modern tonnage, which can easily be retrofitted and is perfectly capable of competing with the so called super-eco designs; particularly as long as the industry will slow steam the fleet as a consequence of high bunker prices and moderate freight rates.”

As the shipping industry faces a future filled with change and development, Danilo agreed that it’s essential to have a forwardthinking strategy in place: “Frankly, it’s difficult now to have a clear idea of what will happen in the near future, but what we know is that each single shipping company must sooner or later double check its own strategy and make it squared with the capital markets and with what their presence means in the game of the global competition. We know that shipping is changing and any company needs to address these changes properly if it does not want to be overwhelmed by events. At the same time we do not think that the traditional business model of the independent and family driven ship owners will disappear.

Maybe it will be back in fashion one day, but for sure it will need substantial servicing.”

He concluded: “2014 for us will be a year whereby we will reap the benefits of our work in the last six years. At the same time, we will try developing more business and to understand how we could open our company to a changing world; by preserving our DNA and adapting it to modern times.” l

Gestion Maritime

www.gestionmaritime.com • Entering the liquid bulk sector • Working towards ISO 30001 standard • Modern management strategies in place

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Tradition of

excellence

B

eginning its operations in the 1960s, Anytec made the strategic decision to become a renowned builder of the best quality aluminium boats for private use during the mid 1990s. During these formative years, the company focused on constructing ships that could perform well throughout all seasons of the year and even the most demanding of customer requirements. Indeed, by providing the best materials, components and construction skills over the last 20 years, Anytec has grown into a global leader of aluminium vessel construction.

Speaking to Shipping & Marine magazine in 2011, CEO and general manager Mats Melbin highlighted the benefits of using aluminium: “Aluminium is an excellent boat-making material that is a far better choice than others like plastic. It allows Anytec to make strong, lightweight vessels at a competitive price and it comes with the added benefit of not requiring as much long-term maintenance. It is the perfect type of boat material for owners who like to get a lot of use out of their unit, but maybe don’t have as much time to service it.”

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Based in Sweden, Anytec’s uncompromising dedication to using high quality materials and providing the best possible construction services has resulted in customer satisfaction from firms such as Alnmaritec, Dockstavarvet, Swede Ship Marine, and Fiskers Boats Finland. Furthermore, this commitment motivates the innovative firm to continue developing exceptional vessels that meet the increasing challenges of the sea. This focus on the improvement and modernisation of its products not only provides customers with the best aluminium vessels to meet their unique demands, it also continues to cement Anytec’s reputation as a market leader.

Split into two different divisions, one part of Anytec’s operations focuses on the manufacture of boats ranging from 5.5 metres to 8.5 metres in length, while the other business segment works on boats from 8.5 metres to 15 metres long. Involved in all aspects of boat construction, the company designs from the ground up to ensure clients meet all potential challenges at sea while also focusing on retaining extremely high standards that enable it to achieve its goal of creating the best experience machines in aluminium. However, it is not only during the production process that Anytec focuses on high standards, the company also cooperates with the most reputable suppliers and remains aware of the changing demands of its customers.

“Anytec makes its boats in a unique way, a way which may be a bit more expensive, but guarantees a good looking finish, higher versatility and greater attention to detail. The boats are developed together with the customer or the dealer and are constructed to provide solutions that meet their needs. As Anytec is a relatively small organisation it is better equipped to meet customer demands quickly and efficiently,” said Mats.

Characterised by sharp bows that ensure high stability even at high speeds, Anytec’s aluminium boats are welded

Profile: Anytec

to provide clients with a boat that lasts wherever it is driven.

Although the utilisation of marine aluminium means the company requires only the very best of welders, it also provides customers with faster boats with greater manoeuvrability. Keen to provide the utmost safety to clients, Anytec’s boats are equipped with ultra fast navigation systems from Simrad; these high quality touch screens are not only easy to use, they also offer several extras such as broadband radar and GoFree Wireless.

Meanwhile, a wholly new and patented surface treatment is used on all boats; strengthening the qualities of the boats further, the M-400 gives a stunning shine and prevents oxidation. Applied in Anytec’s own production facilities by trained and certified staff, M-400 is chemically bonded to the aluminium after application; this results in a glass-like finish that takes care of the vast amount of free ions in the aluminium and protects the boat from salt water and UV rays. Creating a shield, the chemical bond also makes it difficult for dirt and corrosives to take hold, prevents flaking or removal of the finish and enables easy cleaning.

Not a company to sit back and enjoy the fruits of its labour, Anytec has continued its tradition of striving for improvement with the upgrading of products; these enhancements include a new door for all SPD-Models and 747 CAB, which has further improved the lines of all Anytec boats, as well as a new interior environment for the 622 series, 750 series, 747 CAB and 860 series.

Although the economic crisis caused the market to become challenging for Anytec over recent years, the company’s sales and order figures were back to their pre-2008 levels in 2011, a trend that has continued and led to plans for further growth. Currently building an average of 200 boats annually, Anytec is not only looking to develop new vessels, it will also expand its two sites to meet the positive market demand for larger and more sophisticated ships. With Anytec’s expertise, commitment to quality and innovation all proven, its customers can be confidently prepared for the worst when riding the waves with the very best. l

Kimtech

Kimtech is a leading international manufacturer of waterjet machines. Waterjet cutting is very suitable for the demands of the shipbuilding industry, where thin aluminium, stainless steel, plastics and rubber need to be machined with speed and great accuracy. Kimtech builds standard as well as customer-specific machines, such as Anytec’s, to match the customers plates and needs. Kimtech machines are built costeffective even at lengths up to 20 metres.

Anytec

www.anytec.eu • Respected builder of world-class aluminium boats • More than 30 years experience • Builds 200 vessels a year

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Motor yacht, Apostrophe

Endless range T

he yachts that originate from DIANA are designed to strike a perfect balance between aesthetics and technology, between comfort and efficiency. During the four decades of its existence, DIANA has conceptualised and designed many acclaimed classics, and these designs can be considered ahead of their time, as many of the ideas behind them are still reflected in today’s contemporary superyachts. In the years since they were unveiled, DIANA’s yachts still hold true to their winning combination of state-ofthe-art technology and timeless design.

The company DIANA Yacht Design is an independent naval architect, which specialises in providing a one-stop yacht design service. The company believes that its way of working leads to a more effective solution, better tailored to its clients’ ambitious desires. To ensure that each of its client’s expectations are met or exceeded, DIANA has assembled the experience needed to offer assured quality management, the right yard for the best deal and synergy with distinguished partners. Alongside naval architecture, its services comprise styling and design, buildings supervision and refit projects.

Designing a luxury yacht requires all the relevant disciplines to merge seamlessly into one final product. This demands intense teamwork. At any time DIANA maintains clear and

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direct lines of communication between in-house specialists and project partners. In the end, consistent high quality throughout the entire yacht is what matters most. DIANA always delivers a masterpiece, from the allure of her appearance to the immaculate details of her architecture.

Although anyone who appreciates beautiful objects would recognise the aesthetics of a DIANA yacht, the company’s designs have also been recognised by those at the top of the industry, proving that working with renowned stylists is a successful approach. In February 2014 motor yacht Apostrophe won the Exterior Design and Styling Award – Displacement Motor Yachts 30m-59.99m at the Showboats Design Awards. DIANA Yacht Design was the naval architect on the vessel, with exterior styling and interior design carried out by Reymond Langton Design, and construction undertaken by Hakvoort Shipyard.

Apostrophe features a full-beam master stateroom and owner’s study on the main deck. Eight guests enjoy first class accommodation in four cabins, with dedicated quarters for the captain and four crewmembers. There is a special garage for the tender in the lazarette, which is located just aft of the engine room. A folding out swimming platform is integrated into the stern and the yacht has four underwater lights.

Alongside the award for Apostrophe, DIANA also received a

Motor yacht, Heliad II

Profile: DIANA Yacht Design translated in this design. Sinot Yacht Design will draw the complete interior and Diana Yacht Design is in charge of the naval architecture, while Hakvoort Shipyard will build the vessel.

Alongside orders already taken, DIANA also proposes new designs to the market. One of the most interesting of these is the Diana Navitas 63 metre green power yacht, which is designed to meet the continuously changing needs of the user in a sustainable way. This yacht has all the facilities and looks you may expect from a luxury modern super yacht; multiple large sundecks, a beach club including pool, extendable swimming platforms and a large luxury owner's suite with private sundeck, Jacuzzi and 180º view over sea. However these are combined with green hybrid technology such as lightweight hull, touch screens for guests so they can be aware of their energy consumption, solar panels, insulation, LED lighting and smart energy management, in order to create one of the most sustainable and comfortable yachts in its class.

What all of these yachts have in common are the distinct, intrinsic DIANA qualities that are made to stand the test of time.

They are instantly recognisable as supremely high quality vessels, which proudly embody the company’s philosophy of ‘Endless Range’. l

DIANA Yacht Design

www.dianayachtdesign.com • Motor yacht Apostrophe won award in 2014 • Works with world’s best yacht builders and stylists • Proposed design for 63m green power yacht

nomination for motor yacht Heliad II, which was designed as a classic DIANA Yacht. Her flared bow and round stern are very recognisable and give the yacht an elegant and timeless look. The designers challenged themselves to create a layout with four fully equipped decks, which isn’t often seen on a vessel only 34 metres long. The eight metre beam is quite large for a vessel her size, but greatly improves her seaworthiness and optimises interior space.

Despite the relatively large beam the design still looks sleek and well proportioned. A lot of thought also went into the ship’s engineering and construction. The engineers put in great effort to make the construction easier for the craftsmen to build and for the crew to maintain after completion. Heliad II is a complete, easy to use, spacious super yacht with features normally only seen on larger vessels.

The vessels that DIANA has completed since the company was established create a fleet that embodies the very beauty and elegance of what comprises a true yacht. This dedication to innovation continues with each new project, and in 2014 DIANA has several new contracts underway – some of which are discussed on its website. For example, currently under construction is the 63.3-metre motor yacht with project name Zeus. Planned for completion in 2017, the owner had some very specific requirements, which René van der Velden has beautifully www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 85

Safety and

service T

he Moerdijk port and its associated business-tobusiness complex contains 400 companies is an accessible port and a platform for European business contacts and relations. The port and its industrial complex are situated in the Municipality of Moerdijk, which is the largest municipality in terms of area of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. It is easily accessible from all corners of the globe via shipping, rail, road network and pipeline and prides itself on providing a warm, collaborative climate in which entrepreneurs and visitors receive an excellent welcome.

The Moerdijk port can be reached in approximately 3.5 hours sailing time from the North Sea via the Nieuwe Waterweg, Oude Maas, Dordtse Kil and Hollandsch Diep, and from the inland waterway from Rotterdam. Furthermore, using the European network of waterways Moerdijk is accessible for inland vessels from areas such as the Rhine, the Meuse, the Scheldt, the Volkerak, the Haringvliet, Markiezaatsmeer, and other canals. The port is also part of the Trans-European network of waterways, making it an ideal base for businesses and shipping companies.

The port, with its surrounding business complex has a varied operational life as a multi-purpose port. Generally speaking, typical activities at the port include transhipment of general cargoes such as bulk and containers, materials including glass, timber, construction materials like sand and gravel, steel, and demolition waste among others.

To handle this range of operations the port is well equipped,

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giving it the capacity to handle a range of vessels and cargoes. For example, it has a number of quays, with a total length of 5km that can receive vessels with a draught up to 8.9 metres in the central harbour basin and 8.4 metres in the other basins. Further facilities include a liquid proof loading/unloading pit, mobile loading bridges, mobile container with overflow device, general cargo cranes up to 42mt, floating, bridge and container cranes, and associated equipment. For passenger/vehicle traffic the port also features a 32 metres wide ro-ro ramp and 48 metre wide ro-ro runway.

The Moerdijk port and industrial complex is at the centre of operations at Moerdijk. There are around 400 companies established in the industrial complex, forming an active, versatile and vibrant economic cluster that consists of industrial companies, trading companies, commercial service operators and logistics providers. Established companies at the port work together, ensuring a strong community spirit at the port. Together they make up the Moerdijk Industrial Complex Business Group (BIM), which is a member’s association consisting of more than 90 per cent of the established companies at Moerdijk. The BIM is dedicated to protecting the interests of its member companies and through annual meetings it presides over important decisions at the port that may affect business moving forwards.

In order to maintain operational efficiency the Moerdijk port and industrial complex has been divided into six sub-parks: • Seaport

Profile: Port of Moerdijk

companies operating at the port and the industrial complex to work together to reduce emissions.

This will only be achieved by strong collaboration between all companies involved, and this collaborative spirit is being driven and encouraged by the Moerdijk Management and Co-ordination Group for Safety and the Environment. The concept being suggested is the exchange of CO2 and residual heat, so that effectively the waste products of one company are used in the production process of another, thus reducing overall waste products and costs for all parties involved. It is also encouraging the use of industrial water (B-grade water) instead of fully purified water to ensure that the environment is one of the main concerns of the port moving forwards.

Collaboration and continuous improvement is at the centre of the port of Moerdijk’s ongoing success. The port is situated in an ideal location to capitalise on market growth, and its strong business cluster means that it will remain busy serving a wide range of industries over the coming years. Its drive towards environmental responsibility will make the port of Moerdijk a leading factor in European shipping operations for the foreseeable future. l

Port of Moerdijk

www.havenschapmoerdijk.nl • Multi-purpose port • Easily accessible from all regions • Driving towards sustainability

• EcoPark • IndustrialPark • TradePark • Distriboulevard • ServicePoint This clustering of operations has allowed companies to benefit from each other’s products and services, and has ensured optimum use of the entire port site. Seaport Moerdijk, for example, provides access for seagoing vessels and has a daily shuttle link by water to the Port of Rotterdam. It is frequented by many leading companies such as Shell, Tetrapak, Basell, CNC, Rexam Glass, Ritchie Bros., and Bridgestone Firestone.

All activities at the port are overseen by the Moerdijk Port Authority, a compact and effective organisation that performs advisory, service provision and executive activities to encourage the development, construction and ongoing management of the port and its industrial cluster. The Port Authority is responsible for an administrative area covering some 2345 gross hectares where around 8000 people work on the port and the industrial complex.

One important area of focus for the Moerdijk Port Authority is the drive towards sustainable and environmentally friendly operations. The overall aim is for the Port of Moerdijk to become a fully sustainable port and industrial zone, and as such the Authority’s sustainability initiative aims to encourage all the www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 87

Left: Tahkoluoto, right: Mäntyluoto

Ready for 2015 T

he Port of Pori is a commercial sea port on the western coast of Finland that handles a diverse range of cargoes, including dry and liquid bulk goods, chemicals and oil products, shipping containers; large and heavy project cargo and sawn goods. Furthermore, the Port is now very popular with wind farm contractors.

Consisting of two different harbours, Mäntyluoto and Tahkoluoto, Port of Pori is one of the few Finnish ports with

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the possibility of flexible expansion. It is located more than 20 kilometres from the city of Pori, and there are more than 200 hectares of land surrounding the two harbours that are available for further development as and when demand requires it. This will be essential in the years to come as space-intensive sectors such as oil, gas, chemicals, mining and metal clusters increase their presence. There already is an ongoing major investment project underway to upgrade, expand and extend the Port facilities. A new quay, new port entrance and better fairways have already been installed.

One element of these improvements occurred in 2011 when the Port completed a dredging project to deepen the fairway outside of Mäntyluoto from ten to 12 metres. In Tahkoluoto there is 15.3 metres fairway, which is the deepest in the Gulf of Bothnia area. When last interviewed in Shipping & Marine Jaakko Nirhamo, port director was confident the project will bring benefits: “We are very sure that in the future there will be demand for this infrastructure,” he said. “One reason is the 0.1 per cent sulphur in fuel directive being introduced in 2015 by the European Union based on the regulation of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) – it will bring new, bigger and ships into our harbour. More energy-efficient methods are needed in sea transports to tackle the side effects that all new environmental regulations will entail in the near future.” The new low sulphur emission limits are a topic where the Port of Pori is focusing a lot of attention, and it is ready to support its clients in being ready for the 2015 deadline.

“A further advantage Port of Pori possesses is that there is no archipelago near the harbours,” added Jaakko. “During winter time this gives is very beneficial because archipelagos collect ice.

Because Pori does not have one, we are one of the very best winter ports in Finland and don’t require much icebreaking. Furthermore we have excellent hinterland connections, with well-maintained roads and a rail network extending across the country and all the way to Russia. The biggest cities and industrial areas in Finland are all within three hours travel.”

In the years following being featured in the magazine, the Port of Pori has reaped further benefits from its dredging project, and its clients have been keen to utilise its new crane (a Liebherr mobile

Profile: The Port of Pori The investment decision has not yet been made on the construction of the Pori import terminal, but Gasum has submitted an application to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy for investment funds. It has also begun initial earthworks at the site of Tahkoluoto oil and chemical harbour, and the terminal is scheduled to be completed in fall 2016.

This significant contract represents the reputation for quality that the Port of Pori has built up since it was established.

This is supported by world renowned, certified standards ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management and OHSAS 18001 for occupational health and safety management.

As a result of its dedication and investment the Port of Pori is today one of the leading Finnish ports as far as the quality of operations and services and environmental protection are concerned. This will serve the company well, as in 2015 new EU regulations are due that will result in all Finnish ports becoming limited companies as they now are municipally owned enterprises.

This will mean that decisions can be made quicker and more business-orientated way. It is a step that Port of Pori and its customers are very much looking forward to celebrating. l

The Port of Pori

www.portofpori.fi • Very popular with larger vessels • New LNG Terminal to be built at Tahkoluoto • 2015 is a crucial year for the port and ship operators

crane with a maximum lifting capacity of 144 tonnes, the most powerful new crane in Mäntyluoto).

Moving into 2013, in September the M/S Nordic Orion (owned by the shipping company Nordic Bulk Carriers) sailed through the Northwest Passage successfully and headed to the Port of Pori carrying coal from Canada to Finland. This was a historic event the M/S Nordic Orion is only the second cargo vessel and the first dry bulk carrier ever to use the Northwest Passage as a shortcut from ocean to ocean. The vessel called at the Port of Pori and Tahkoluoto harbour at the beginning of October.

Another very significant development arose in May 2014, when Gasum Oy and chemicals producer Sachtleben made a deal on the delivery of natural gas to the plant of Sachtleben Pigments Oy via the M20 Industrial Park. The gas will be delivered to the Sachtleben Pigments plant using a gas pipeline from the Skangass liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal that will be built the Port’s Tahkoluoto harbour. The LNG distribution business will be operated under the name Skangass also in Finland. When the 12 kilometre long pipeline is completed, it could also serve other potential industrial users of gas situated in the M20 Industrial Park. www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 89

Bold developments H

andling 43 million tonnes of cargo annually, the Port of Zeebrugge has evolved into a major hub for European distribution. Following significant development works over the period of 1972 to 1985, the port has doubled tonnage since its inception and become multifaceted, with the facilities and skills in place to handle a wide range of trades. Based in the municipality of Bruges, Flanders and Belgium, it is the leading RoRo port in Europe and the world’s second largest port for the import and export of new vehicles. The port is also one of Europe’s largest terminals for LNG. Taking advantage of its geographical location on the coast of the North Sea, the Port of Zeebrugge has developed a strong market in areas such as the UK, Scandinavia, China and the Middle East. Furthermore, as a deepsea port with sufficient water depth for the largest of vessels, the port is on the sailing schedule of the largest shipping companies in the world.

The Port of Zeebrugge is managed by the Zeebrugge Port Authority; duties include undertaking technical preparation of the land and infrastructure, guiding vessels and commercialising its territory, which thus leads to companies investing in the port’s superstructure and shipping lines calling at the port. As new regulations on vessel emissions come into effect and the shipping industry turns its attentions to LNG as a potential fuel source, the Port Authority of Zeebrugge and Fluxys Belgium the independent operator of Zeebrugge LNG terminal as well as Belgium’s natural gas transmission grid and storage infrastructure – aim to use their 27 years of LNG experience to play an integral role in the evolution of LNG fuelling.

Already carrying out operations to load LNG onto tanker trucks, the majority of LNG loaded at the Zeebrugge terminal is used as shipping or road haulage fuel in north-west Europe. Keen

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to find growth opportunities in a developing market, Fluxys is actively researching investment possibilities with companies in the downstream logistics chain to ensure optimum service to the small-scale LNG market. To coincide with this, a second jetty that will be able to handle both small and large ships is under construction at the terminal. Due to become operational in 2015, vessels carrying from 2000 m3 to 217,000 m3 of LNG will be able to load and unload at the jetty; this includes bunker ships that will be able to load LNG at the terminal for transmission to all Belgian ports, as well as major ports in north west Europe for the fuelling of LNG-driven vessels.

“The existing jetty can handle vessels from 7500 m3 to 21700 3 m of LNG,” says the Port of Zeebrugge’s CEO Joachim Coens.

“However, with the construction of the second jetty, the Port of Zeebrugge continues to evolve into a hub for the supply of LNG as a fuel for ships and long-distance haulage trucks. With the second jetty becoming operational in mid-2015, we will be able to handle even smaller vessels; in fact, we thus expect to be able to load all bunker vessels and barges.”

Investing its years of experience into pioneering LNG projects, the port recently performed its first ‘truck to ship’ bunkering operation of an LNG driven tugboat in February 2014. The first tugboats in the world to be driven by LNG, the M/T Borgoy and M/T Bokn are two identical tugboats ordered by Norwegian Bube and emit almost 30 per cent less CO2 and up to 90 per cent NOx and particulate matter than typically powered tugs.

Beginning a long-term contract for Statoil, M/T Borgoy and M/T Bokn fuelled up on LNG at the port on their maiden voyage, the first in February, the second in May. Carefully planned with Fluxys Belgium, the successful bunkering operations confirm the Port of Zeebrugge’s developing role in LNG bunkering.

Looking ahead, as companies within the shipping industry

Profile: Port of Zeebrugge

are confronted with environmental regulations, there is an increased level of interest in finding out the available loading and bunkering possibilities for LNG vessels at the port. Taking advantage of its forward thinking approach to LNG, the port has ensured its leading role in the small scale LNG market with the development of two seagoing LNG bunkering vessels that will operate in out and out Zeebrugge. “This project means Zeebrugge will have a central position in the small scale LNG business and will be ready to feed the LNG bunkering supply chain towards all neighbouring ports,” says Joachim.

In addition, the port has witnessed interest from different parties looking into LNG vessel possibilities, as Joachim highlights: “Companies building non-seagoing bunker barges have investigated the possibility to reach Zeebrugge LNG terminal via the inland waterways network to use the port’s facilities. For example, Veka Group is now developing a plan to construct a carrier vessel in partnership with Deen Shipping, and the two firms discussed barge specifications with Fluxys to be sure of the loading possibilities at the second jetty.”

With huge opportunities ahead, the future looks positive for the port as it continues to diversify its facilities in line with market demand, as Joachim concludes: “Since the commissioning of the Fluxys LNG terminal in 1987, both the port and the terminal have contributed to one another’s success. The Port of Zeebrugge invested time, effort and resources in becoming the gas hub it is today.” l

Port of Zeebrugge

www.portofzeebrugge.be • Europe’s largest terminal for LNG • Favourable geographical location • Developing its LNG facilities

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The next chapter

R

eederei NSB is a German quality ship manager with an experience of 30 years in managing container vessels, product, crude and gas tankers. In 2010 it entered into the offshore market by winning the management of two jack-up vessels owned by the German blue chip energy provider RWE Innogy. Founded by a management with deep knowledge in shipbuilding, NSB is known in the market for its experience and innovative ideas in ship construction, providing supervision services for its own tonnage, and for some of the top liner companies.

Through serving both the ship owner and charterer in the container market, it has established partnerships with key owners such as CONTI Reederei, GEBAB, RWE Innogy and Norddeutsche Vermoegen, and charterers that include CMA CGM, Evergreen, MSC and Hanjin. By constantly striving to improve its services, adding value through innovative ideas, it has an ingrained sense of change and curiosity as part of the company’s culture. “We believe that in order to be fit for the market, an exceptional standard of quality systems, processes, reporting and transparency are mandatory to manage the requirements of both investors and the industry,” says Lutz Weber, CFO. Over recent years the company has made large investments into IT, quality management and improvement of processes. “All these investments are backed by a parallel process of training for teams both ashore and onboard. Investments only prove successful when the idea is implemented as part of the company’s DNA,” explains Lutz, continuing: “Operating as a pure service provider we focus a lot on training and on the maintenance of our technical knowledge base.

“Continuous improvement forms a substantial part of our company’s culture, regularly reviewing, adapting and adopting ideas from other shipping sectors and industries into our knowledge base. As an example, we have extended the responsibilities of our vetting department to include both tanker and container fleets in order to cope with the increasing requirements from port state control and customer audits.” The quality management system, which is designed to satisfy offshore requirements, is applicable for the whole company. In order to boost the controlling systems and financial transparency, the

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company has for some time undertaken a regime of employing professionals from other industries with standards deemed to be well ahead. Focused on training, in 2007 the NSBacademy was opened, at the centre of which is a ship handling simulator.

“Employees at sea and on shore are trained to manage our customers investments in the best way possible and to preserve the value of the ships entrusted to us. This includes a highly professional, responsible and sensitive approach to charterers’ requirements. Not only do we manage huge financial investments, but we are responsible for transporting high values of cargo with high logistical and environmental responsibility and the obligation to do whatever is necessary to help charterers to optimise their costs,” says Lutz. The academy allows the company to pursue this goal in a sustainable and targeted way, designing its own curricula, and adapting it quickly and directly to meet its own requirements.

The innovative approach has also been reflected in the widening concept on panamax containerships, which with a beam of 32 metres have been the backbone of container shipping for many years, as Lutz explains: “We developed the idea to widen the existing panamax vessels to make them more economic. We simply cut them transversely in front of the engine room and behind the collision bulkhead. The cargo hold is cut longitudinally and the parts are moved transversely to port and starboard, then additional sections between two to four container rows wide fill the gap. This widened cargo hold is connected with streamlined blocks with the bow and stern section.” The modification provides greater stability with less ballast water, container slot increase, and a relatively smaller propulsion engine due to increasing displacement, a lower speed and better fuel efficiency.

With an aim to strengthen the company’s service offering, NSB employs specialists who constantly analyse and manage technical performance of all vessels. Established in 2006, the Technical Operating Materials (TOM) department controls the quality of all fuels and lubricants onboard the vessels with a portfolio that includes the optimisation of fuel and lubricant consumption as well as the reduction of vessel operating costs. With this, the company expands beyond classical ship management and creates added value for its business partners.

Additionally, the Engine Operation Department (EOD) employs

Profile: Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft specialists to assist in an advisory capacity, working on improving the procedures on board the ships. NSB is one of only a few shipping companies which, through the deployment of dedicated experts, activates optimisation potential in its technical operations.

Looking ahead to the future, the business is faced with both challenges and opportunities as Lutz explains: “We believe that the market for container tramp tonnage will continue to suffer for at least another three years through a combination of new building programmes and the necessity for fuel saving tonnage.

“On the other hand we see a big opportunity in the consolidation of the tramp owner market and the formation of some big oligopolists on this side. A successful tramp owner in future will be described by his ability to provide high-level technical solutions at competitive prices. This requires a lean corporate organisation with high technical competence, a proactive customer approach and the ability for gaining financing at international competitive cost levels.”

Reacting to the approaching environmental legislations, the company has undertaken a pilot installation of a ballast water treatment plant on one of its 8000 TEU vessels. Additionally, it has developed plans to modify the fuel system, with tank and piping to deal with several fuels of different sulphur content, as Lutz says: “We see LNG as the future fuel for shipping and we are considering the conversion from traditional fuel to LNG, particularly on newbuilds. Secondly, we have some vessels with a four-stroke diesel propulsion plant, and we are presently working on that conversion.”

Drawing to a conclusion Lutz summarises: “We have a very clear idea of where the company will stand in the future. One substantial change will be finalising the transformation into a

corporate structure, necessary to fill the gap in our business model left by the disappearance of the KG system and the German ship financing banks.” l

Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG www.reederei-nsb.de • Thirty years experience in ship management • Recent entry into offshore market • Operates own simulator training

Seil Hering

Seil Hering is a Trademark of Walter Hering KG. Seil Hering is located in Hamburg, Germany. It is trading with fibre ropes, chains, steel wire and equipment and is proud to have been a partner of NSB for several years. The company is also assembling and installing ropes and chains, conducting tensile tests up to 1000 metric tons, also chain tests and comparable services. Additionally Seil Hering is a sail maker and rigging crew.

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Maximising value to the

W

end user

Marine INC is a fully licensed and integrated ship management company, established in Athens, Greece by its founder, Mr Yiannis Sarantitis, in 2003.

In January 2004 the company was entrusted the M/V W-ONE, a Panamax dry bulk carrier vessel, for which commercial and technical management was provided until September 2006, when she was sold for further trading. Over the period where W Marine managed the ship, the company had the opportunity to fine tune all managerial tasks, define levels of responsibility and authority, both ashore and on board the vessel, whilst, at the same time, succeeding in providing a very reliable service to the vessel’s charterers.

The next phase in the development of the company consisted of its engagement to organise and supervise the construction of four Post-Panamax (92,500 mt deadweight) dry bulk carrier vessels, built at Taizhou Catic Shipyard in China. W Marine was fully responsible for the entire technical supervision, from the

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plan approval stage until the vessels’ delivery, a task that was completed in August 2011, with the delivery of the last vessel.

This project required close co-operation with specialist consultants and marine experts, strict and attentive supervision during construction, planning for future compliance to forthcoming rules and regulations. During this contract, W Marine not only managed to fulfil its task successfully, but also managed to upgrade the specifications of these vessels and to filter through all norms of good seamanship, coupled with the latest available shipbuilding technology.

This project and its successful completion further proved the high level of expertise and capabilities of W Marine. All four vessels were delivered within the planned schedule time and praised from third parties for their high quality of build, their commercial versatility and for their economic performance. After the delivery of these vessels, the company was entrusted with their full management, both commercial and technical.

Another new vessel came under W Marine’s management in

Profile: W Marine

W Marine has worked with partners on the creation of a new ship design, the Green Dolphin 84 S, which offers a range of enhanced technological and physical features, including shallow draft, reduced emissions, fuel savings and enhanced vessel operation

June 2013. As Kamsarmax N/B vessel (82,742 mt dwt) the M/V W-SMASH was acquired as a resale from STX Dalian shipyard in China and commenced trading upon delivery from the yard. Then in October 2013 a second Kamsarmax N/B vessel was entrusted to W Marine for management – the M/V W-PACIFIC (81,233 dwt).

This vessel was built at Jiangsu Hantong Shipyard in China and commenced trading upon her delivery from the yard.

These vessels brought W Marine’s managed fleet to six the W-ACE, W-EAGLE, W-SKY, W-SMASH, W-STAR and W-PACIFIC with a total deadweight of 535,564 mt and an average age of 2.3 years. All six are currently in operation, trading worldwide, serving a number of well-known charterers and shippers, such as Augustea, BHP Billiton, Bunge, Cetragpa,

Cobelfret, Cosco, EdF, ENEL, Glencore, Noble, Norden, Oldendorff, Swiss Marine, Toepfer, Vale etc.

Since their delivery from the shipyards, the vessels under management have successfully completed 80 voyages and delivered over 6,300,000 mt of cargo, consisting mainly of thermal and coking coal, iron ore, and grains, representing approximately 60 per cent, 20 per cent and 15 per cent of total volumes transported respectively.

W Marine also has plans to expand its fleet, with an order for two, option two, vessels, to be built at Sainty Marine shipyard in China - the first due for delivery in the summer of 2016. These ships will be of a new design, developed jointly between W Marine, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI) and DNV-GL. Such a project fulfils the wishes of the company’s chairman, Mr Yiannis Sarantitis, to build up a homogeneous fleet in the Panamax to Post Panamax segment.

According to the managing director of the company, Mr Nikolas Triantafyllakis, this design came about in an effort to optimise the cargo lifting capacity of the vessels in areas with shallow waters, taking into consideration existing limitations in ports (eg like Orinoco, River Plate etc) as well as new ports under development, especially in East and West Africa and the trading opportunities that will develop via the new – widened and deepened – Panama Canal. Existing trading patterns were taken into account, together with future trade requirements, especially in the southern hemisphere, where the demand for the transportation of raw materials is increasing steadily and at a fast pace.

The end result is a shallow draught Post Panamax vessel of 84,000 dwt capacity at 13,50 metres, an LOA of 230 metres, a beam of 36 metres and total grain capacity of 100,000 cubic metres.

W Marine commissioned SDARI to develop said design and engaged DNV-GL to assist with hull and propulsion optimisation.

The new design was completed in the last quarter of 2013 and it is now marketed as the Green Dolphin 84 S. The new design incorporates a number of features designed to maximise its commercial exploitation (enhanced tank top strength to accommodate heavy cargoes, the installation of CO2 in cargo holds allowing for the transportation of IMO IMDG classified dangerous goods, the ability to transport semi -manufactured, or finished goods, like steel coils, steel bars etc), as well as a number of technological features, leading to the reduction of emissions, substantial savings in fuel consumption, enhanced vessel operation etc.

In the 11 years since it was founded, W Marine has built up a team of qualified professionals with whose assistance it specialises in the management of ocean going dry bulk carrier vessels, and is able to offer a complete spectrum of services. Today it currently undertakes the following activities in-house: sale and purchase, chartering, operations, technical management, marine & safety, supplies (deck and engine spares/stores provision), finance, www.shippingandmarine.co.uk - 95

Profile: W Marine accounting, crewing and sub-contracts insurance and crew recruitment to qualified third parties.

The company, through the vessels managed, enjoys an excellent navigational and trading record, thanks to the high level of professionalism of its seafarers as well as the attentive and vigilant shore management. This is also reflected in the PSC inspection records of all vessels under management, as well in the QUALSHIP 21 awards to four vessels plus the management company.

The company ensures that its vessels are staffed with experienced and suitably qualified officers and ratings, with properly assigned tasks and responsibilities, while experienced managers, combining substantial practical and theoretical knowledge, with a proven track record in the industry, handle shore operations.

Crew management is currently the most challenging aspect of all operations, since there is an acute shortage of qualified officers.

In order to overcome this problem, the company has engaged a number of cadets, not only from the Philippines, but also from Ethiopia, and has embarked on an intensive training programme for all its officers and ratings, aiming to increase safety awareness on board, as well as to promote and preserve seamanship values.

Both the onshore and offshore management is highly interactive and complementary in a way that ensures that all operations adhere to, and satisfy the strictest quality and safety standards of the industry. All latest communication and technological facilities are in place, enabling complete and uninterrupted provision of management services 24 hours per day / seven days per week.

According to Mr Triantafyllakis, the company strives to ensure that vessels under its management must, at all times, be able to

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perform their commercial obligations to the full extent, in an efficient, safe, cost effective, and reliable manner.

Overall, the approach from W Marine encompasses lean, efficient, fast decision making, maximising the value of available resources, and aiming to offer a competitive and reliable service to its clients. l

W Marine

www.wmarine.com • Fully integrated ship management company • Excellent safety, operational and trading records • Seamanship values at the cornerstone of management • Developer of the Green Dolphin 84 S

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