Nordin Mat Yusoff is the charismatic and focused Vice President of Fleet Management for MISC, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “We want to be a global champion and remain a global champion.” Nordin has the largest LNG fleet in the world to manage – today there are 26 LNG vessels in the fleet and by the end of 2009 there will be three additional vessels joining the fleet.
“We must believe in developing our capabilities through implementing initiatives that address the 3 Rs – Reliable, Repeatable and Replicable – to achieve our ambition of being the cost-efficient provider of LNG transportation services. In addition, we have strong focus on safety and quality of our operations and have a specific programme called Zero Incident, Zero Accident (ZIZA) to focus on this.” MISC has been working together with DNV through DNV Maritime Solutions in building world-class capabilities to assist MISC in realizing its aspiration to become a global champion.
To date, MISC has delivered more than 4,700 cargoes of LNG, amounting to more than 250 million tonnes of LNG, over the past 25 years. MISC was established in 1968 and has grown its LNG transportation services since 1983. Today, MISC has an approximate market share of ten per cent in the LNG transportation segment. From the 1980s to 2002, MISC’s sole customer was Petronas. The development of Petronas into a major gas producer has supported MISC’s development into energy transportation with a steady supply of cargoes. In 1998, Petronas acquired a majority stake in MISC (62 per cent). While the parent company continues to provide most of the business, MISC since 2002 has also been actively venturing into third party contracts with other companies. According to a company report, the LNG market may be somewhat sluggish until 2010. The analysts tend to agree on that in a recent report on MISC in TradeWinds: “MISC’s LNG operation, which is its largest earnings contributor, would continue to anchor earnings with a committed fleet expansion programme and protection from rate volatility that it derives from the charter of its vessels at rates that have already been agreed. Other analysts point out that most of MISC’s LNG fleet has undergone dry dockings, which should create a profit upswing.”
Mindset of people
“The mindset of the people within our organisation is a key success factor to me,” continues Nordin. “We can grow the capacity and order new vessels which may take some 18 months to complete. That is in many ways the easy part. The challenging part to me is the people factor. It may take some ten years to groom a master mariner and several years for many other crew members. Unfortunately there is widespread ‘poaching’ of crew by other players in the industry, which could be both good and bad. Good as it is a compliment to us as we have proven our ability to train good quality ship’s crew; bad in the sense that this creates a problem to us when we lose good MISC crew. It takes time to develop a pool of competent crew to operate highly specialized vessels like LNG carriers. Despite all this, we still continue to build our pool of highly qualified seafarers. At our own training academy, Malaysian Maritime Academy (ALAM), cadets are continuously being recruited and trained. Some 70 per cent of them are from Malaysia while the rest are from India, the Philippines, Indonesia and China. We have a growth strategy and we must have the capacity in terms of both vessels and crew.”
Zero Incident, Zero Accident
ZIZA is important to MISC. Under the headline ‘Keep it safe in MISC’ a bimonthly publication is circulated within the company and to all vessels. This publication focuses on safety-related issues – from preventing incidents and accidents to matters such as personal health. Since the launch of the campaign in 2003, the Loss Time Injury Frequency (LTIF) and the Total Reportable Case Frequency (TRCF) have both decreased, making a great contribution to safety excellence.
DNV assists in operational excellence
“In cooperation with DNV, we launched a capability building programme in 2005 that started off with Phase 1: situational assessment of our key operational areas, before we embarked on Phase 2: solution design & piloting in 2006. Now Phase 3: implementation is in progress. We are benchmarking ourselves in this programme,” Nordin points out. “The goal is to achieve operational excellence through internal change. We must change the mindset of our own people. Leveraging on the expertise from DNV as the programme partner, we are actively implementing initiatives towards strengthening and enhancing our capabilities towards achieving operational excellence. Our aim is to provide cost-effective and competitive-edged services to propel MISC to greater heights.”
Strategy and future
“Growth is our strategy. Demand for LNG as a source energy will continue to increase in the future and, with our aggressive fleet expansion and capability building programmes, we are well positioned to remain a leading provider of LNG transportation services,” says Nordin.
Date: 2008-03-14