Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wärtsilä forms unified ship design unit targeting Asian yards
Oslo: Wärtsilä is to combine all its ship design units into a single entity, to be known as Wärtsilä Ship Design, with offices in Singapore and Shanghai as well as Poland, Germany and Norway. The Shanghai office was established two months ago with what the company describes as a fully functional design capacbility. Design brands included in the consolidation include Conan Wu & Associates (CWA) of Singapore.
Unveiling the move at this week's Nor-Shipping event, company officials said the new set up will generate a variety of new designs, from simple, low-cost, standard vessels and proven designs - "aimed mainly at Asian yards" - to more high-end, ground-breaking tonnage.
"There will be close collaboration between our Ship Design unit, other parts of the Ship Power organisation, and other Wärtsilä businesses," said Arne Birkeland, Vice President, Ship Design, Wärtsilä Ship Power. "Our long term ambition is to create standard proven designs with predefined solutions, and to provide operational services with performance guarantees and fixed prices. This may also include extended services, such as yard selection and supervision support in the construction phase."
The move is part of the company's repositioning in the maritime sector away from being an engine designer to a total solutions provider, with an emphasis on designs offering better total efficiency, improved environmental performance and reduced lifecycle costs.
Also at Nor-Shipping, fellow VP Jaakko Eskola clarified that the company's Ship Power division was looking at shedding 450 jobs due to the market situation where he said "zero orders" had ben placed of late. The company has an orderbook totalling Euro 4bn, he said, and while only Euro 70m worth of orders had been cancelled by the nd of Q1, the company has identified a "risk portfolio" of projects worth Euro 1bn that could be cancelled or deferred. [10/06/09]
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