“The uncertainty,” was the answer he gave me when I asked one of my good business friends “What’s on top of your agenda these days?”

The demand for container transportation is falling, service loops are being reduced and rearranged, and good charter contracts may be at risk if the downturn continues. So management of risk is an ever-increasing challenge in our current business environment.
The Chinese have a long established culture, and an ingenious way of forming their written text. As you know, their letters are pictograms which convey meaning. In Western culture we may define “crisis” as “an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty”. The Chinese combine the pictograms for “danger” (wei) and “opportunity” (ji), and put together, they express “crisis”. This logic may be productive in the current situation, and we can choose to be inspired by Chinese wisdom and look for opportunity in a world of uncertainty.
In DNV we proudly pronounce in our logo that we “manage risk.” That is even more the case in times of uncertainty. And that is our ambition, to stay with the job even when the wind is blowing.
So what do we write about in times of uncertainty? Lay-up of container ships, recycling, online market information. But we’re also looking into the future of new designs, so these are some of the articles you will find in this issue.
I hope you will enjoy reading it. Please drop me a line and let me know what you feel.