Schifffahrt | Shipping Schifffahrt | Shipping Columbia Shipmanagement The company posted a growth in the number of ships managed from 293 to 320 (full technical) and from 51 to 60 (crewing) over the past year. It recorded a gross increase of around 40 vessels »in a tough market environment« from second half of 2018 into 2019 , driven by cruise and superyacht business, said chief executive officer Mark O’Neil. Similar to some of its peers, Columbia is now beginning to place more focus on the offshore segment with the recent launch of a new affiliate called CSM Energy, led by Joachim Brack (Hamburg) and Niki Makri (Cyprus) as co-managing directors. »It will look at traditional ship management for offshore vessels and to environmal compliance and consulting for green recycling,« O’Neil stated, adding that a number of key appointments were about to be made. Columbia’s efforts for digitisation are focused on the ramp-up of its performance optimisation control room in Cyprus, which offers a growing range of analytical tools to all its clients and to third party customers through a web-based application. Half of Columbia’s managed fleet is already connected to the control room, staffed with two master mariners. Its set-up will be completed by the fourth quarter, O’Neil said, explaining that its functionality is increasing all the time, covering areas like consumption/voyage optimisation, crew rotation and safety. The CEO expects interest from third parties in the system to soar with the anticipated fuel cost increases due to IMO 2020. »Optimisation of fuel consumption, minimising delays at load and discharge ports, avoiding bad weather, this is going to make the difference of millions on long voyages.« Non-managed clients including banks, commodity traders or other ship managers could put their vessels for a nominal fee onto the system. »All the information is completely segregated and protected. Your operations are not going to be disclosed to other parties,« O’Neil assured. Columbia is also pleased with the take-up of its joint procurement platform with BSM, Genpro. The service is now being used for the majority of ships under management by both companies, circa 800, O’Neil said. Some 80 major supplier contracts have so far been agreed, »we are probably 70% through our target list of negotiating such framework contracts.« n Wallem Mark O’Neil, CSM The Hong Kong-based manager has undergone a complete shake-up of its upper echelon following the takeover of Frank Coles as CEO last autumn. The heads of ship management and sales and marketing were replaced and a new chief operating officer and group head of safety and compliance installed. Its managed fleet had been in decline over the last years, particularly on the crew management side, but it seems to have stabilised now. The company announced a number of contract awards for VLCCs and for medium-range product tankers this year and looks to maintain that momentum under John-Kaare Aun (Ex-Cayman Registry) as new managing director for ship management. In terms of digital transformation, Wallem has set out to renovate its IT landscape with the implementation of a new ship management ERP Frank Coles, Wallem software, opting for the cloud-based solution of- © Wallem © CSM Thome The fleet managed by Thome is marginally down from mid-2018, based on figures supplied to HANSA – full technically managed fleet: 220 (down from 235), vessels for crewing only: 209 (from 215). However, CEO Olav Nortun told HANSA that momentum has picked up again for the Singapore-based manager. »The biggest change over the past 12 months was the uptick on the offshore side, and also in oil & gas. We gained new contracts for one FSO and one FPSO last year. Normally we get just one of these per year.« The group also expanded in West Africa, launching new offices serving the offshore sector in Lagos and Port Harcourt. Olav Nortun, Thome © Thome Following the launch of its new central operations hub in Singapore with four permanent staff in late 2017, Thome continues to study new funcationalities and opportunities for use of its big data. In addition to security and vessel monitoring, it was able to add new alert functionalities for ships related to regulatory compliance in the different regions, Nortun explained. The operations hub also helps experimenting with new technologies including sensors which is going to get more important, Nortun said. »Customers want more information at their fingertips. You have to invest in technology to stay at the forefront.« n fered by software provider BASSnet. Currently, only four test ships are linked to the platform which is scheduled to go live in company offices by the end of the year. n 38 HANSA International Maritime Journal 08 | 2019
Schifffahrt | Shipping Wilhelmsen Ship Management (WSM) The affiliate of Norway’s listed conglomerate Wilh. Wilhelmsen is the only of the bigger ship managers providing some financial transparency to the public although its results tend to get consolidated with the ships service (port agency) division (»maritime services«). Latest financial reports show that revenues from ship management have been under pressure, with a fall of 8% during 2018 followed by another 3% decline in the first quarter. WSM cited reduced layup management activities as main reason. However, its business pipeline increased considerably as its headquarter was relocated from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore last year, raising hopes of financial improvements over the next quarters. Of note, the number of ships under full technical management went up strongly from 140 to 180 within the past year. Talking to HANSA , Carl Schou, President of WSM, said that growth has been the result both of intensified marketing and a general recovery in shipping and vessel activity. Significant new contracts were gained especially in the »gas segment«, covering LPG, LNG tankers and floating storage and regasification units (FSRU), he said. Also, the group decided to re-enter the crude tanker segment and it made further inroads into container ship management over the past year, with a handful of smaller container ships joining the fleet. Schou expects more management contracts for container ships to be signed soon. »We are working on some large projects within the container segment and should be able to convey something to the market after the summer.« At the same time, the company is looking to expand its footprint in the offshore wind sector, with the acquisition of a 50% shareholding in Norsea Wind – a subsidiary of Nor- Sea AS in which parent group Wilh. Wilhelmsen has a controlling stake of more than 75%. WSM and Norsea Wind were already co-operating on technical maintance solutions for Tennet’s off- and onshore transformer stations and transmission systems in North Europe. »Conceptually, the two businesses [offshore wind energy installations and ship management] are quite similar. We can add a lot of strength in this area,« said Schou. Digital services have been a focus for WSM for some years already. A project involving sensor technology on a fleet of 10 LPG tankers resulted in annual cost savings of 100 million $ for two of the ships involved. This is now being followed up with another project involving cheaper sensors Carl Schou, WSM © WSM and transponders (5-10 $ per piece) transmitting data via long range wide area network to a »Ship OS« (Ship Operating System) – a kind of black box installed on the vessel – for processing and relaying ashore. Pending further trials, the system is to be turned into a commercial offering for shipowning clients, Schou announced. »This new concept allows us to utilise a lot of sensors without having to put a lot of cabling on ships because they communicate wirelessly. They feed the data into the Ship OS which again feeds it ahsore.« The system could mark a step-change, providing the manager with unseen possibilities to monitor ships at a cost »which is acceptable and absorbable,« Schou said. n WORLDWIDE SHIPYARDS 2020 handbook Order your advert 2020 www.EQUIP 4 SHIP.com www.SHIP 2 YARD.com Order online: ship2yard. com/ ad HANSA International Maritime Journal 08 | 2019 39
