DNV has had a strong breakthrough in the German market. Not only are passenger and cruise ships being built to DNV class in Germany but LPG and RoRo ships are also being built at shipyards on the Baltic Sea. In addition, German shipowners have ordered container ships, bulk carriers and tankers in Korea, China and other countries – to be built to DNV class.
”We’ve worked hard for a long time to achieve this position in Germany,” says DNV Maritime’s regional manager in Northern Europe and Africa, Jörg Beiler. His main base is in Hamburg, but you are just as likely to find him in London, Rotterdam, Marseilles, Cape Town, Port Harcourt or other places with shipping activities. “We’re 230 employees working throughout Northern Europe and Africa, and we’re all busy with newbuildings, following up ships in operation and certifying materials and components (CMC).”
Jörg Beiler has worked his way upwards in the DNV system. He joined DNV in 1989 as trainee surveyor at the station in Bremerhaven. After some time in Korea, in 1997 he took over as project manager for cruise vessels and later became site manager at the Meyer Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. In 2001, he was appointed country manager for Germany, based in Hamburg. Since 2005, he has been regional manager for Northern Europe and Africa – still with Hamburg as his base.
From London to Hamburg
“The regional office is small, with very few employees apart from me,” says Jörg Beiler. “Nonetheless, we chose to formally and officially move the office from London to Hamburg. We wanted to send a strong signal to the German market to underline the importance of this market to DNV – and the confidence we have in both the market and opportunities it presents.
“At the same time,” he continues, “we’re focusing on further developing our operations in London. London and the UK market are extremely important to us and always have been. After all, here is also where we have the IMO and our relationship with that organisation – and many others – to take care of, not least including the Scandinavian cluster, the London-Greeks and the Asians too, who are increasing in number and importance in London. This means we have to have a good presence and work to build relationships in the UK. For this reason, we’ve transferred Michael Lavidas, a very experienced DNV man with a wide background from Piraeus, Oslo and New York who has been appointed country manager for the UK – based in London.
Training, service and seminars
Jörg Beiler underlines that DNV’s success in Germany is primarily due to focused hard work. When DNV moved its regional office to Hamburg, this on its own was not considered to be a big deal in Germany but it fitted in well with all the other actions that had been taken.
Jörg Langkabel, country manager for Germany, has worked hard to build relationships, with a lot of help at all levels. This is a long, dynamic process. Tom Virik, senior executive vice president in DNV with plenty of experience from the Middle East, Asia and Scandinavia, a key executive in DNV Maritime and head of DNV’s maritime activities for many years, has been an important contributor to this work. He has helped to give the work of building relationships in Germany an international face.
”DNV must compete on service,” says Jörg Beiler. “In order to achieve momentum, we’ve had to be even more focused and we’ve concentrated on those we wanted to achieve something with. We have a good reputation for training and shipping seminars and have extended this work even more. Training, qualifications and knowledge have become more and more important to the shipping industry – which is why we’ve focused so strongly on these issues.”
Large and small container ships
Over the past 4–5 years, German shipowners and financiers have become very active. Limited partnership financing in connection with tonnage tax plus growing world wide trade have resulted in constantly increasing demand for container ships.
”The trend has been in the direction of large, fast container ships. Two years ago, there was a boom in new orders for large container ships, but now we also see that more and more shipowners are buying smaller container ships – so-called feeder ships that service the major hubs by sailing to and from smaller ports,” says Jörg Beiler. “The ships are ordered all over the world, some of them with DNV.”
German manufacturers of maritime equipment and components are also fully booked, as are engine builders such as Caterpillar, MTU and MAN. For DNV, this means very high CMC activity in Germany, where no fewer than 19 CMC surveyors are working from home offices throughout the country.