ClassNK claims good gains in the German market

“They [DNV GL] are losing market share because they are losing support from the German shipowners,” Yasushi Nakamura, ClassNK executive vice president, told Seatrade Global at Sea Japan 2014.

He said that ClassNK and other class societies were strongly promoting themselves to German owners. This competition has intensified with the merger of DNV and GL completed last year.

Three years ago ClassNK moved to beef up its presence in the German market with its representative office in Hamburg having technical full authority. “Three years ago we customised ourselves to the German market, they need face-to-face decision.  The important thing is our representative in Hamburg has the full authority to make the final technical decision,” he explained.

In those three years ClassNK has added 3m gt of German tonnage, comprising more than 100 vessels.

Nakamura rejected criticism in the market that they were offering low prices to capture a greater share of the German market and countered their German representative was “surprised” discounts offered by some other classification societies. “We really appreciate the German shipowner, now the German market has very fair competition,” he said.

However, he did admit they might offer some lower prices to open the door to German owners, but once they were onboard it was quality of service that was the most important factor.

“I always say the most important thing is to provide the best service to the shipowner. The most important thing is how to avoid the offhire of the ship belonging to the German owner,” he said.

DNV GL is the world’s largest classification society, by gross tonnage with 267.9m gt at end of 2013, followed by ClassNK with 220.9m gt.