A touch less class

As competition increases and the market continues to suffer, the possibility of class society mergers gets closer. There are likely to be mergers or alliances among classification societies within the next few years. Some believe that it may take slightly longer, but few believe the current situation will continue. The greatest pressure to consolidate is among western classification societies, although some argue that the existing diversity is beneficial. A major factor is the increased competition in the marine world which has been intensified by the poor trading in the Far East.

One trend that all the classification societies have followed has been to diversify activities to find alternative sources of revenue. The societies are reluctant to state their willingness to consider mergers. For the moment the preferred language is of co-operative ventures or alliances. BV notes that it is already closely co-operating with GL and RINA on developments for high-speed craft. It does not see this developing further at the moment, but argues that there is a need for more co-operative ventures between classification societies. Comments Germanischer Lloyd`s chief executive, Hans Payer: “Over the next ten years the number of classification societies will decline as there is growing pressure for alliances.”