Schifffahrt | Shipping Schifffahrt | Shipping Franck Kayser, V.Group V.Group/V.Ships © V.Group Traditionally the largest third party ship manager, V.Group/V.Ships kept expanding its business over the past year through acquisition of a majority stake in Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt in Hamburg and merging it with its existing office in the Hansestadt. It hired former E. R. Schiffahrt executive Nils Aden as new managing director in Germany, overseeing the management of an increased fleet of 75 ships, most of them container ships. Integration of the Hamburg teams and operations was going to be largely completed within the first half of the year, with Hamburg now serving as centre of excellence for container ship management within V.Ships. As part of the cluster formation strategy, the group introduced another centre of excellence in Copenhagen focusing on chemical tankers. Looking only at number of vessels under full technical management, the latest moves seem not to have generated an increase overall, though. The number has been fairly steady at around 650 – the same as 12 months ago. However, it appears that the depth of services did increase, with group managing director Franck Kayers stating that V.Ships was able to add a number cruise and luxury cruise vessels to the portfolio. The crew management business showed significant growth, as the reported number of vessels for this service went up from around 300 to close to 400. This year, the group has been busy rolling out a new version of its ship management ERP system Shipsure (Shipsure 2.0) across its office network and fleet The new system will combine all business functions on one platform and offer more real-time information on vessel performance, safety and financials, Kayser explained. The implementation is to be largely completed by the end of the summer, »the biggest chunk has been done,« he said. Working processes in the local ship management offices are also undergoing some revision following the recent conclusion of V.Ships’ »fleet cell of the future« pilot programme in Glasgow. »It gave us a lot of insight into how we can do things better from managing emails to optimising the purchasing process and sharing information. We gained a lot of knowledge that we are now rolling out to the rest of the offices.« n Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) The company led by CEO Ian Beveridge achieved significant growth on the full technical management side (400 versus 360) while crewing only showed a substantial reduction (200, down from 280), based on figures submitted to HANSA . Over the last year, the group continued to expand its capabilities in the LNG supply sector with the commissioning of the world’s largest LNG bunker supply vessel. It also set up a dedicated division for the offshore vessel segment (BSM Offshore) which was strengthened through recruitment of a core team of ex-employees of Sealion Shipping. The team is based outside London as part of the BSM British Isles Ship Management Centre which has been managing floating production units, offshore and wind energy service vessels for some years already. The total number of offshore vessels managed by BSM was 44 at the start of July. BSM’s digital solutions – offered through group affiliate MariApps also to third parties – continued to expand over the past year, with the roll-out of a new version of its marine ERP software smartPAL, already running on about 1.000 vessels. MariApps is currently developing a new vessel performance module together with telemetry partner Navidium and BSM’s fleet performance centre, aiming to deliver »real-time feedback on vessel performance to technical superintendents and masters on board.« This will include three sub-modules for voyage optimisation, navigational safety and predictive vessel maintenance, drawing on numerous data sources internally and externally. The company recently acquired Ian Beveridge, BSM © BSM World-Link Communications – a satellite communications firm in the marine sector – and is now working on new solutions for ship-shore communications and cyber security. It also launched its own platform for the marine travel business. In addition to BSM, MariApps counts 25 external clilents and expects to add 5-7 more this year. Regarding the 0.5% sulphur cap, the group says it is assisting a range of diverse clients in meeting the IMO 2020 deadline, supported by its division for newbuilding, conversion and retrofit projects, Schulte Marine Concept. Although it assists owners with scrubber installations where it makes sense, BSM says it does not consider open-loop srubbers a realistic long-term solution for the industry, citing two main issues: First of all, openlopp scrubber operations will be restricted by local regulation in various jurisdictions, meaning that vessels would have to reserve larger tank capacity for low-sulphur fuel than originally anticipated. Secondly, the use of scrubbers drives up bunker consumption and also operating costs due to maintenance and spare part requirements, it says. n 36 HANSA International Maritime Journal 08 | 2019
Schifffahrt | Shipping Anglo-Eastern The managed fleet of the Hong Kong-headquartered ship manager has been steady over the past 12 months after it caught up with V.Ships on number of technically managed vessels over the years. The figures (634 + 209 for crewing only) are hardly changed from last year. »This may mask the fact, though, that ›churn‹ is quite high,« as chief executive officer Bjorn Hojgaard explained. »People buy and sell fleets or even companies, so it’s many ships out or in over a year, a total of 80 or so.« The latest addition to its global network is a new office in the Dutch town of Goes, dedicated to ro/ro ship management. »It has come off to a strong start, managing close to 20 ro/ro vessels today.« Meanwhile, the group had a change of helm at its Hamburg office, where Carsten Ostenfeldt – former chief operating officer at Nordic Tankers – took over as managing director from Jens Maddey back in spring. The Hamburg office manages around 50 container vessels on behalf of German and Belgian owners, hoping – just like V.Ships – to benefit from more management changes and fleet restructuring in the German market. According to Hojgaard, Anglo-Eastern is working on some new digitisation projects including performance optimisation, details are not revealed though. »More and more data can be ›harvested‹ using sensor technology and this gives a new level of confidence in and accuracy of the augmentation solutions that ›digital‹ can provide vessel management,« Hojgaard declared. Preparations for the 0.5% sulphur cap are well under way, with ship specific plans for all vessels of the fleet. Anglo-Eastern developed its own course programme for engineers in advance of 2020 and is also running in-house class room training on generic principles and Bjørn Højgard, Anglo-Eastern © Anglo-Eastern maker-specific training on exhaust gas cleaning systems. »Whether compliance with IMO 2020 is through exhaust gas cleaning systems or bunkering of compliant fuel, operations will alter a great deal,« said Hojgaard. »Scrubbers need to be operated and maintained, and even if bunkering compliant fuel, people involved have to be trained to understand the new operational risks.« n HANSA International Maritime Journal 08 | 2019 37
