Page 39: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2022)

TECH FEATURE GEARS

But our focus, of course, is our machines; [our future is dependent on having] state-of- the-art machines in our factory shop.

Can you give a quick overview of how the Reintjes family of prod- ucts has changed most during your seven years at the helm?

Over the last seven years, the markets [continue to change, for example there is growing] demand for aluminum lightweight gearboxes, so if you look at our gear- boxes the share of aluminum [units] is growing.

We have invested into R&D and we have now a new small gearbox family; light- er, tougher, and more compact. And, as I said before, hybrid drive [solutions] are ev- erywhere, so you’ll see gear boxes with PTI PTO, many more than seven years ago.

Reintjes serves a variety of markets from commercial to military, to pleasure boats in the form of large yachts. When you look at the market today by geographic region, by market sector or both, where do you see opportunity?

We serve everything apart from Russia; this we don’t do anymore. The biggest growth area that I see is Navy and Coast Guard; due to the Russia/Ukraine crisis, everybody is spending a lot of money also in the Navy and the Coast Guard area.

But we see also some smaller cargo vessels and also ferries, passenger ferries coming up and building new. [From talking to shipowners regularly,] I can say with certainty there will be increased investment in retro? ts and newbuilds. I’m completely convinced we will see a lot of feeder ships in the near future. [Also, government regulation on emissions] will continue to drive retro? ts and newbuilds to make ships greener.

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