Page 70: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2005)

70 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

Thornberg:

TESMA has set up business in Edinburgh,

Scotland. The initial fleet will consist of

Gibson Gas Tankers' (acquired by the Eitzen Group in late 2004) man- aged vessels as well as 5-6 vessels being transferred from TESMA Denmark to

TESMA UK. TESMA is also planning the opening of operations elsewhere during 2005/6.

How are ship mangers able to add value to their services?

Bajpaee: Adoption of an 'Expect More' culture… continuous and innovative efforts to expand the frontiers of quality are the keys to consistently exceed cus- tomer expectations.

Evitt: Ship managers, like any other industry, must identify the benefits that they can bring to their client.

Grool: By being more efficient. And being satisfied with small profits. This is no glossy-brochure-talk, but the only way we can survive.

Thornberg: The challenge is to achieve an outcome where asset value is protect- ed while earning maximum profit (meaning no incidents and being cost- competitive).

Are current training methods and facilities capable of meeting industry demands?

Bajpaee: Most definitely there is a wide and gaping gap in demand and supply, as well as in new legislations and new technology and training to develop the necessary competencies. Demands are seldom predicted and training facilities are rarely aligned to predictions. New technologies and new legislations are seldom approved with proper thought to the development of necessary compe- tencies. The shipping industry is faced with an unprecedented shortage of sea- farers. No thought is given to develop- ing the skills for manning the world

LNG tonnage, which will more than double with the new buildings on order.

How important to your company is the US market?

Bajpaee: The importance of the U.S. market has increased dramatically fol- lowing the lifting of all roadblocks with

MarAd and the U.S. Courts' ruling that companies fully held by overseas con- cerns can be considered as U.S. citizen companies. This ruling has opened the

Jones Act companies and tonnage to competition by foreign management companies

Evitt: The U.S. market is paramount in

Meridian's future plans, we see Houston as being a critical cluster of offshore industries and we are actively pursuing development in this region.

Rajvanshy: We will eventually be look- ing at having a presence in the U.S. The likely location of our office there will be in Houston where we intend to start with a small office that can monitor the ves- sels calling in that region.

Thornberg: We do not have any U.S. based ship owners as customers; howev- er, vessels in our fleet are frequently calling in the U.S. Consequently, the

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