Page 52: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2024)

SHIPOWNER INTERVIEW

UHL Fable in front of Hamburg's

Elbphilharmonie

Images on spread courtesy UHL long-term contracts for big projects; but at the same time it has meters. “This allows us to load much more spacious cargo on the vessels and crews to tap the spot market, too. the deck, so we have much more lifting height,” said Rolner. “Right now, for the rest of this year, the vessels are basical- “We changed the hatch covers too; they're strengthened and ly booked out,” said Rolner. “Until 2028, we already booked they're a different size compared to the other ships: they're 30% of the capacity of the ? eet for the long-term projects, 40-ft. size instead of 20-ft. and I think that will go up maybe to around 50%. I think it's a Despite the minor nuances, Rolner said having 19 [almost] healthy 50/50 [split between contracts and spot].” identical ships “gives us a lot of ? exibility when it comes to

The wind turbine business speci? cally, renewable energy planning,” particularly when accounting for blank sailings in general, has been a big driver in the heavy lift sector for from Europe to Asia and the additional time needed to avoid years. “Especially onshore has been massive, that's where the the geopolitical mess, rockets and drones targeting commer- volume is,” said Rolner. “But it is shifting fast. We see that cial shipping in the Red Sea.

oil and gas is coming back on track,” effectively expanding “If our clients have a situation where cargo needs to be de-

UHL's exposure across energy markets. layed for a month, we're very ? exible on ? nding new solutions

While the energy markets are ? uid, growing and in need of … we don't have to re-engineer the whole thing,” said Rolner. heavy lift, UHL is not immune from the challenges that pro- “We can switch things around easily, and it's a very cost-effec- vide headwinds for all international shipping today, namely: tive solution. On the other side, it's also easy for us when we ¦One-Way Roads: “We see 95% of the export is out need to bid on projects. We know that we're going to have four of Asia; there's not a lot of export coming out of to ? ve vessels on the continent every month and the same in Europe. In the end, we might have to send the vessels Asia, so we don't have to calculate in a lot of pre-ballast.” back empty just to cater for the contracts that we have The ‘Eco-Lifter’ name far exceeds marketing brochure fod- in place.” der, and in fact UHL recently issued its second ESG report and ¦Freedom of Navigation: With Iranian-backed Houthis can boast ef? ciencies of 30-50%. While much energy is spent attacking ships at will in the Red Sea and a prolonged discussing the maritime fuel transition, digitalization and auto- low-water situation at the Panama Canal, two major mation in the name of ef? ciency, Rolner admits the ef? ciencies shortcuts have been eliminated and/or minimized. “We his company sees “is not actually rocket science:” UHL has are routing around the Cape, and that's costing us 10 a young ? eet running modern, clean two-stroke engines and days each way. If you have commitments of three to sporting updated design and cargo handling premised on the four shipments every month, it's quite challenging.” longer and heavier loads of the day. “If you take our average age of the ? eet being three years

THE FUTURE FLEET compared to the general average age, which is more than 20, of

As any shipowner knows, there are inherent advantages to course, something has happened on the engine side as well, but operating a ? eet of identical ships, and though “on a piece of also on hull design. If you take also the amount of cargo that paper they all look alike, there are a few small differences on we can transport on these vessels compared to the consumption all the vessels,” said Rolner. that we have, that is just a very simple reason,” said Rolner.

In particular, the two newest ships – Fable and Fresh – have When mulling the ‘fuel of the future’, the path for Rolner cranes that sit on a crane pedestal that has been raised by six and UHL is a bit fuzzier, premised predictably on alterna- 52 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • August 2024

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