Record growth at GL

Over 100 ships under construction with a gross tonnage (GT) of more than 2.1 million were commissioned in October with Germanischer Lloyd (GL) class. These include container ships amounting to over 1.7 million GT, tankers, bulk carriers, passenger ships and other types of vessels. The record-breaking month of October has seen the highest intake of new orders so far in 2006. As at the end of October 2006, the orders on hand totalled 1,116 ships with 19.6 million GT. With over 1.08 million GT already in September a disproportionate rise in the orders on hand took place. This means that GL has already – well before the end of the year – greatly exceeded its plans for the intake of orders for newbuilding classification.

At the SMM trade fair in late September, GL announced that it had broken a record as regards fleet in service. Over 6,000 ships with more than 60 million GT are inspected by GL for technical safety. Since SMM in 2004, the number of fleet in service has increased significantly, with an extra 700 ships (+13.1 %) with a total of 15.8 million GT (+34.1) being added. This growth has already been sustained for quite a while, with the order intake in October 2006 being equivalent to the total order intake for the whole of 1995.

“On the basis of this intake of new orders, we are again expecting a growth in turnover in double figures for 2006,” said Rainer Schöndube, Member of the Executive Board at GL.

This positive trend is also reflected in the increasing number of employees. In 2005, worldwide almost 400 new employees, 70 of whom in Hamburg, were taken on. At present, more than 1,300 employees work for GL in Hamburg. Achieving 17% growth in the last two years puts GL at the top of the league in terms of employee growth in Hamburg. At the end of 2005, the total number of employees worldwide was 2,929. This year 283 new employees have been hired so far and GL currently employs more than 3,200 persons worldwide.