Keeping up traditions

Currently around $7 billion of vessels are under construction or on order world-wide for Norwegian interests, including nearly a hundred ships and a number of mobile offshore platforms. The global Norwegian merchant fleet amounts to around 1,600 vessels and 52.5 million dwt, and covers a broad spectrum of ship types. Passenger vessels are a prominent feature, as owners in Norway were not slow in spotting the potential in the burgeoning cruise ship business.

What is probably the largest passenger vessel to be built in Norway was handed over in June, when the Fosen shipyard delivered Carthage to the Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation. Carthage is a 180m ro-pax ship intended for short Mediterranean routes.

The offshore industry is an important part of the Norway?s economy, but has been suffering in the aftermath of the sudden drop in oil prices.

The marine industry in Norway is changing its structure, both as a result of company reorganisations and as a general response to globalisation. To remain competitive in international competition in a country with high wages and other costs has led many of the shipyards to source structural steelwork in lower cost countries. Hulls and superstructures are increasingly fabricated abroad and towed to Norway for fitting out.

The decision of the Kvaerner Group to divest itself of shipbuilding interests is having an impact in Norway. The former Kvaerner Kleven yard in Ulsteinvik has been bought by a consortium of investors comprising the former owner John Kleven, the Myklebust Mek Verk shipyard and electrical outfitters Hareid Elektriske. Having run through its offshore vessel orderbook the yard is now building a trawler.

The fate of the Kvaerner Floro yard has not yet been determined, but there are possibilities of a management buyout headed by the present managing director. Orders from Odfjell and Navale Francaise have given the shipyard a workload through to 2002.

Aker Yards has completed its management restructuring and is to revert to full control by the holding group Aker RGI in an asset swap with the previous part owner Aker Maritime. In parallel with this, Aker RGI is ceding Aker Geo to Aker Maritime, reinforcing the latter?s position in the seismic and geological end of the market. It is understood that Aker Yards? plans for a stock exchange listing have been postponed indefinitely, while Aker Maritime is up for sale.

The acquisition by Vickers of the Ulstein Group has created another new alignment. Integration of the former Ulstein design and equipment manufacturing companies with the former Vickers marine companies to create Vickers Ulstein Marine Systems has produced a major equipment supplier spanning the spectrum from fast ferry and naval ship propulsion through offshore to merchant vessels. In the process the Ulsteinvik shipyard has reverted to the Ulstein family?s control.