Page 38: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2022)

COVER STORY KNUT ØRBECK-NILSSEN, CEO, DNV MARITIME “A famous politician in Europe said that we have to base our decisions on facts, logic and hope. I think that resonates well with the situation that many ship owners are in these days: you have to know the facts; you have to make some logical assessment of what to do; and then you just hope that you made the right choice!”

Photo courtesy DNV

He cites the evolution of LNG as a maritime fuel as a great on the world that want more control over the supply chain.

example. “We’ve been talking about since the early 2000s, “The whole industry is becoming more complex, the mar- and that was based on a lot of these AIPs and other initiatives. kets are very dynamic and changing faster than we’ve seen

Then batteries came along, and now we’re looking methanol, in the past,” said Ørbeck-Nilssen. “Regulations are becoming ammonia and other alternative fuels.” quite challenging just to keep pace. And as we just discussed,

But the sheer size of the challenges facing maritime today choosing the right technology and how to move ahead with mandate that it is best not to ‘go it alone,’ and Ørbeck-Nilssen the digitalization effort. These are the tectonic shifts that I’ve believes that the role of partnerships across maritime, across been talking about for some time. And I’ve said often that in a countries and increasingly across other industries are the key more complex shipping world, it would be either you have to to success. “What I ? nd is that many ship owners are indeed be big, or you need to be a niche player where you are really naturally very competitive, as are shipyards and engine manu- focusing on something speci? c.” facturers (and class!). But I think when it comes to some of He sees consolidation continuing, but not at the pace where these challenges around decarbonization, the willingness to in a decade that “we can say that shipping is not a fragmented collaborate is much bigger than we’ve seen before. I think industry. We will still have a number of different (sized) ship many realize that we will not compete on having the best fuel. owners and players.”

That is not really a competitive edge and therefore the whole There will be consolidations, but there’s still room for niche basis of collaborating makes more sense to them,” said Ør- players, particularly as markets get more specialized, and reg- beck-Nilssen. He cites the Maritime Technologies Forum that ulations become stricter for certain areas. “But if you want to

DNV helped to create earlier this year (together with three be a ship owner and have ? ve ships, it’s going to be increas- other classi? cation societies and three ? ag states), as well as ingly dif? cult unless you can ? nd your own niche.” interest in decarbonization centers such as the Mærsk Mc-Kin- ney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and the Global Prudent decision making ... choose wisely

Center for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD) in Singapore With the technical and business storms spinning around “are all about trying to leverage research activity, especially him, Ørbeck-Nilssen takes a breath to discuss how shipown- around decarbonization. That the old perception of working in ers can turn uncertainty into decision.

silos may be changing, especially for those that would like to “Today we see a big demand (from owners) to establish be on the leading edge,” said Ørbeck-Nilssen. where their ? eet is in comparison to the upcoming regulations.

The maritime industry itself, too, continues to evolve, with What is the impact of these regulations? And then second, the really large companies growing larger, affording the scale how can they deal with the ? eet that they have to make it last to invest in some of the big and expensive changes ahead, not longer, or (make the best decision) when it should be phased to mention the increasing presence and sway of the Amazon’s out. After that comes the questions on ? eet renewal, and mak- 38 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2022

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