Class societies continue to expand

Shanghai: Two of the world's top classification societies have announced further expansion plans in recent days. First, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) officially announced the opening of two new exclusive surveyor offices this week in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Colombo, Sri Lanka, respectively.
The new offices become the 117th and 118th offices (21 in Japan, 97 outside of Japan) in the society's global service network.  The opening of the new offices continues ClassNK's aggressive network expansion, which saw the class society open seven new exclusive surveyor offices around the globe in 2010. ?The new offices in St. Petersburg and Colombo are the first exclusive surveyor offices ClassNK has opened in Russia and Sri Lanka, respectively. Chairman and President Ueda marked the achievement by saying, "These new offices reflect the growing number of NK clients in Russia and South Asia, and the continuing globalization of the ClassNK fleet." ?Meanwhile, ABS Nautical Systems this week announced it has opened offices in Vancouver, BC Canada and Shanghai, China.  The Vancouver office will serve local clients including Teekay Corporation, Seaspan Ship Management Ltd., and Valles, while handling all Pacific Northwest operations, spanning from Northern California to Canada including Alaska. ABS Nautical Systems has also opened an office in Shanghai to service maritime companies within China.
"ABS Nautical Systems has emerged in various markets to better serve our existing clients and to further expand our operations in these various regions," said Tom Blenk, VP Global Operations for ABS Nautical Systems.
ABS Nautical Systems, a division of ABS, is the fastest growing provider of fleet management software in the world.  [06/01/11]