Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2000)

Investment in Design wider-than-panamax cellular tonnage has been one of the outstanding features of newbuilding investment in recent years. Post-panamax boxships on order, under construction and in service now account for 20 percent of total slot capacity at sea and to be delivered.

Net gains for yards cost efficiency in ship construction for those willing to grasp the nettle.

As a widely respected supplier of software systems tailored to the needs of shipbuilders and design engi- neering offices, the Swedish specialist firm Tribon

Solutions believes that potential savings of up to 10 percent of total newbuild cost are attainable by using an Internet-based procurement system.

The tribon.com offering, to be launched at Ham- burg's SMM Exhibition in September, will link yards, suppliers and shipowners in a global network. It will be centered around a Global Component Database, containing extensive, standardized data about the full universe of shipbuilding components, and modeling and design information facilities.

But the major value creation lies in the scope for sav- ings offered by the companion, e-commerce function- ality. This will allow buyers to search for components and suppliers, issue requests for quotations (RFQs), run auctions, and place orders direct. Tribon Solutions, previously known as Kockums Computer Systems (KCS), bases its estimation of possible, aggregate sav- ings on reductions in process costs, lower component costs through increased transparency and wider sourc- ing, and reductions in lead times. Major, recent ini- tiatives in Japan and South Korea have addressed the scope for cost reduction offered by the application of the concept of the electronic market place to ship- building procurement. Tribon Solutions is nonetheless strongly placed in its endeavors by virtue of the fact that its nascent product will lend itself to integration with the company's existing design and information systems, in service at nearly 300 shipyards and design bureaus around the world.

Following the public unveiling at SMM, tribon.com is due to go live at the Tribon Users' Meeting on Octo- ber 2 in Sweden.

Double act for the Baltic

Finnish innovation in ice-going tanker technology will have a major application in the country's own mer- cantile fleet, albeit with ship construction assigned to the Orient. The pair of 106,000-dwt crude oil carriers booked by Helsinki-based Fortum Shipping, part of

Finnish energy group Fortum Corporation, will extend the application of the double-acting tanker (DAT) prin- ciple to the type of tonnage for which it was original- ly, primarily intended.

The DAT concept is the result of development work carried out by Kvaerner Masa-Yards to solve the prob- lem of open-water performance of efficient icebreak- ing vessels. The ensuing type is formed and equipped to sail in an astern direction in ice-bound waters. This permits an optimized open-water bow form to be adopted, rather than an ice bow, so as to enhance effi- ciency sailing forward in ice-free conditions. The arrangements also promise good icebreaking capabili- ty with reduced power levels, offering fuel consump- tion savings relative to conventional vessels of compa- rable capacity.

Running astern is facilitated by the use of podded electric drives, championed by Kvaerner Masa-Yards

In today's tightly competitive, global shipbuilding environ- ment, every opportunity has to be taken to squeeze cost out of the system, notwithstanding the con- siderable advances already achieved, espe- cially over the past five years, in efficiency and pro- ductivity. Each percentage point gain is to the good in an industry con- fronted with manifold, complex forces influencing ref- erence price levels over-and-above the economics of supply and demand.

The fact that so much of the cost of a commercial vessel newbuild is represented by materials, equip- ment and machinery, typically accounting for around 60 percent of the total value, has hitherto been regard- ed as limiting the extent to which a shipyard can drive down costs through further improvements in processes and organization. But the era of e-commerce seems to hold out substantial new opportunities for increased

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