In 2007, one fifth of the bulk carrier tonnage was ordered to DNV class; this trend has continued in 2008, bringing DNV’s order book for bulk carriers up to a record high of more than 43 million dwt!
Previously, DNV was struggling to gain a foothold in the bulk carrier classification market, but due to a strategic drive since 2005 the bulk carrier tonnage to DNV class has increased from eight per cent in 2005 to close to 20 per cent of the newbuild market since 2007. In a dry bulk market which is facing changed conditions over the next years, DNV is committed to ensure that the vessels in our orderbook are delivered to high quality standards.
The announcement in August this year that DNV had been selected to class the world’s largest bulk carriers underlines DNV’s position in the bulk carrier segment in general and in the ore carrier segment in particular, where more than 40 per cent of the existing fleet is classed to DNV. The twelve 400,000 dwt vessels to be built for Brazilian mining company Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (VALE) are tonnage-wise the world’s largest shipbuilding contract ever.
“We have made numerous efforts to increase our share of the newbuild bulk carrier market over the past couple of years, including competence improvements, technical support for customers and pro-active marketing,” explains Morten Løvstad, DNV’s Business Director for Bulk Carriers. “We have put a strong emphasis on improving our presence in emerging bulk carrier newbuilding nations, particularly Greater China, Vietnam and India. We have also been able to draw upon our strong tanker position at yards in South Korea so that, when these yards entered the Cape market in 2006, we were ready to assist and be their preferred partner for bulk carriers too.”
Teamwork and sharing
“Teamwork and sharing are the key words for this success,” continues Løvstad. “DNV’s improved market knowledge and technical expertise have been obtained by working systematically and creating an environment for effective information sharing – sharing rumours about potential projects, sharing our success stories, sharing lessons learnt from failures, and so on. It’s all about creating a team spirit and encouraging people to share best practices,” he continues.
Morten succeeded Ulf Freudendahl as business director in 2007, following Ulf’s move to be a customer service manager based in Oslo and working with local customers.
Customer Management
“Over the past few years we’ve worked hard to implement our Customer Management concept, which has effectively brought our people and their knowledge closer to both the yards and shipowners. Dedicated customer service managers have improved our ability to work more closely with our customers and to respond better to customer requests,” continues Løvstad.
“As an example, we have held numerous seminars and workshops on design and operational challenges with German shipowners, which have traditionally had a lot of expertise in how to operate container ships but limited experience of operating bulk carriers. We have also held seminars for Chinese shipyards to help them better understand how to work with German shipowners, with a focus on the financing system, company structures, etc. We all know that German shipowners have been very active in placing bulk carrier newbuilding orders both last year and this year, and I’m very pleased to see that close to 70 per cent of these orders are to DNV class this year,” continues Løvstad
Safety and quality
“Growing DNV’s market share is not a goal in itself, but it allows us to further increase our competence and experience and to achieve DNV’s main objectives, which are to safeguard life, property and the environment. For this reason, our continued strong performance on quality indicators such as port state control inspection results is especially rewarding. For the second year in row, the performance of DNV-classed vessels in the Paris Memorandum’s (MoU) ranking of recognised organisations continues to be best. This is really a recognition of the shipowners that selected DNV class, and in reality means that they operate vessels according to high safety standards and have fewer business interruptions through port state detentions. So safety, quality and good business go hand in hand,” says Løvstad.
Safety and efficiency
“Traditionally, bulk carriers have been regarded as sturdy work horses, kind of low-tech and with a questionable safety record. Since the late 1990s, several safety measures have been introduced, partly through SOLAS Regulations and partly through IACS Unified Rules. This has effectively improved the safety records and reputation of bulk carriers. Now the trend is that the industry wants to combine these safety measures with improved efficiency. This may seem like a paradox, but in reality it can be achieved if taken properly into consideration during the early design stage. We have tried to work pro-actively with shipowners and terminal operators on these issues, and have jointly developed a set of new, optional Class notations that seek to combine safe and efficient cargo operations.
“The Easy Loading (EL) notations ensure vessels designed for safer and more efficient loading operations, whereas the Easy Cleaning (EC) notation ensures vessels designed for safer and more efficient discharge and cleaning operations.
“Another area of development which shows that bulk carrier designs are not necessarily low-tech and that we are continuing to introduce safety measures is the new DNV guideline for calculating the effect of so-called wave induced hull vibrations, which pays special attention to the vessel’s fatigue life,” concludes Løvstad.