SMM Edition: Serving the German Shipping Cluster. Also in this issue: Carsten Rehder Shipping: A global view, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft: Testing approval system of the future, and Container ship safety: An area for increasing concern?
Date: 2008-02-13
“The port of Hamburg is very well positioned for the future. We have the capacity to handle any size of ship, we have the road and rail networks and we have an excellent geographical position,” says Dr. Jürgen Sorgenfrei, Chairman of the Port of Hamburg marketing organisation. So far this year, the port has grown by an exceeptional 15 per cent in terms of volume. “For the foreseeable future we are looking at an annual growth rate of some six to eight per cent, further positioning Hamburg as the number one sea port in Europe – with a strong focus on container shipping,” says Sorgenfrei.
“Containers are the instrument of globalisation,” says Thomas Rehder, CEO of Carsten Rehder Shipping. The shipping company is 101 years old and was founded in Hamburg. Thomas Rehder is the fourth generation at the helm of the company.
Captain Reinhard Braun is the Nautical Superintendent for the Carsten Rehder fleet. Six container vessels in the fleet are using the DNV Navigator system. “The system has been very positively received on the ships and by their masters,” says Braun. DNV Navigator is always updated per e-mail to the vessels and also by CD-ROM.
“Speeding up the process is very important,” says Wolfgang Bühr, head of design and development at Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG). “In the interaction between class and yard, the use of DNV’s eApproval saves time and thus also money.”
HSH Nordbank has one of its corporate headquarters in the city centre of Hamburg, the other one in the port town of Kiel a short drive north of Hamburg. The bank, with assets of 180 billion Euro, is a major part of the German shipping cluster.
“German shipowners have promised the German government they will re-flag at least 100 of their ships to the German flag by the end of the year 2005. This is their contribution to maintaining the favourable tonnage tax system. The German flag must also be attractive to the owners and operators,“ says Nicolai Woelki, head of SBG, the German flag state authority and also the pension fund and health insurance for German seafarers.
With the increase in the volume of consumer goods produced in the Far East, in China in particular, liner operators are demanding more and bigger ships. At the same time, we see reports of incidents involving massive loss of containers and huge fires that give reason for concern. Will container ships continue to grow in size, and what are the major safety concerns being faced by the industry?
Until the beginning of August 2004 all indicators for the container market continued their steep upward trend. The charter market reaches new all-time highs every week with not a single small decline in the marketaverage.
