Page 43: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2005)

"We're consistently using our full order books to sharpen our international competitive edge," said Dr. Alexander

Nürnberg, chairman of German

Engineering Federation (VDMA) -

Marine and Offshore Equipment

Industries, in describing the current situ- ation of the sector.

Global shipbuilding production will probably continue at a very high level in the next two to three years. "But condi- tions as in the Bible pre- vail in the cyclical ship- building sector: fat years are also regularly fol- lowed by lean ones. We want to focus on prepar- ing ourselves for these now and invest a high proportion of our profits in the future," said Nürnberg, referring to the extensive innovation activities of the mainly small or medium-sized equipment suppliers. According to

Nürnberg, 80 percent of companies expect to see further growth in incoming orders from abroad in 2005, with about 60 percent also expecting more business from domestic customers - for both con- tainerships and special-purpose vessels.

Nürnberg said that this is overshad- owed by adverse parameters confronting suppliers: "The increasingly fierce com- petition, particularly from Asia and other non-EU countries, the general dol- lar/euro exchange rate problem, delivery and cost problems for high-quality materials, price reductions particularly for increased series ship- building, short delivery deadlines and many other factors don't make it easy for us to maintain our currently high capac- ity utilization in the long term and improve our profitability for future investment."

With their about 70,000 employees,

German marine equip- ment suppliers registered sales of approx. $10.6 billion in 2004, achieving average growth of 5.2 percent compared with the previous year and an export rate of 64 percent.

The dominance of the Asian shipbuild- ing market continued to be evident in 2004: of the 2,410 ship orders booked worldwide, 633 were accounted for by

Japan, 514 by South Korea, 384 by

China, 282 by the EU 15 and 358 by the

EU 25 countries (including 76 by

Germany) and 236 by the rest of Europe.

In 2004, Asia's share of German sup- pliers' foreign incoming orders was 41%, with China accounting for 23 per- centage points, Korea 10 and the rest of

Asia 8. Last year, 30 percent of suppli- ers' foreign orders came from other EU countries. Incoming orders exceeded sales by 9 percent - and by as much as 19 percent in export business.

October 2005 43

Siemens Tests Superconducting Motor

Germany's position as a technological driver in engineering has substantial ref- erences in the marine field, and an initiative in high-temperature superconductor (HTS) generator development could offer a new ship powering solution for the future. HTS motors use superconducting windings instead of copper, generating a more powerful magnetic field, offering higher electrical efficiency and allowing the use of machines of very much reduced volume and weight for a given power.

An HTS generator producing around 4,000-kVA at 3,600-rpm has been put into operation at Siemens' test facility in Nuremberg, to verify its suitability in ship- board duties and other applications. The savings potential offered by the 'low-loss'

HTS technology is claimed to be considerable, especially in the context of all- electric ships. Classification society Germanischer Lloyd is following the progress of the project, which is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research(BMBF).

The new synchronous generator incorporating HTS windings in the rotor is a joint development of Siemens Corporate Technology, Siemens Industrial

Solutions & Services and the group's Automation and Drives arm. The HTS wire has been designed and manufactured by another German firm, European

Advanced Superconductors of Hanau. The benefits of HTS generators in terms of power density and footprint, electrical efficiency and voltage stability, are seen to be of greatest potential value in isolated power systems, such as seagoing plant. A key target market will be the large cruiseship sector, in which the 'power station' concept is well established, whereby main generators driven by diesel engines or gas turbines provide the energy source for the considerable hotel load electrical requirement as well as the electric propulsion.

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