DNV GL prepares for 2019 shipping upturn with a digitalisation focus

“This year of course there has been a massive reduction in the number of newbuildings orders being placed,” Eriksen, president and ceo of DNV GL, told Seatrade Maritime News on the sidelines of the recent Danish Maritime Forum in Copenhagen.

To date around 15 – 16m gt of newbuildings have been ordered this year, compared to 80 – 82m gt for the full year in 2015, so overall ordering in 2016 is expected to be just a quarter of the previous year. When it comes to the offshore rig space DNV GL says the picture is even more grim with no orders at all this year.

With most sectors of shipping grappling with severe overcapacity, as to when Eriksen sees a recovery in ordering, he commented: “I think it will be 2019 until we see things getting better for many types of companies in shipping”, and broadly the classification society is preparing for 2019. When it comes to the offshore rig sector this date would be 2020 or 2021.

DNV GL has not been spared the difficult times that have hit the shipping and offshore sectors but Eriksen says most of the pain is now behind them as it had already been taking measures to consolidate as result of the 2013 merger of DNV and GL, although it did have to take “extraordinary measures” in the shipping and oil and gas sectors. In total DNV GL’s headcount has reduced from 16,000 in 2014 to around 14,000 today.

“It’s a tough time, but we have taken steps and are optimistic about the future that we will be to adapt and help the industry to get out of this mess,” he stated.

Part of how DNV GL believes in can help shipping is through its involvement in other growing sectors such as renewables sector and power transmission. This he believes not only makes DNV GL more robust as whole, but also “gives us experience and inspiration that we can take back to shipping”, in particular the development of battery power and digitalisation.

Digitalisation is major area of investment for DNV GL with it putting half of the 5% of revenues it pledges for R&D into this sector. In particular a role is seen in big data where a move is seen from being an analogue data hub with for example paper ship designs, to one of being a digital data bub.

“I think going forward class societies will be the digital hub for data because they can the trusted partner, equipment makers are also positioning themselves in this data platform regime, but I think class societies are more neutral and better positioned,” Eriksen said.

Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.