WILHELMSEN Maritime Services (WMS), one of the world’s largest shipping services company with an annual revenue of US$1 billion (RM 3.17 billion), wants to shape the future of the global shipping services industry with leading edge solutions and continue to grow in the next 150 years, says the company’s president and chief executive, Dag Schjerven. He said WMS, which is part of the global Wilh. Wilhelmsen Group of Norway, was well-poised to serve the global merchant fleet as ship owners were increasingly seeing the benefits of outsourcing services to professional companies. “Presence is the key word for us. We operate round the globe and we have been very well received by the industry because of our expertise to provide various engineering and other support services amidst the changing business and regulatory environment. “We are confident of growing in the next 150 years because of the expertise and experience that we have acquired to service the global shipping industry and as ship owners seek to outsource certain services that we know best,” Schjerven told Bernama during the group’s recent 150th anniversary celebrations here. The origins of the Wilh. Wilhelmsen Group began in 1861 when the founder, Morten Wilhelm Wilhelmsen, then aged 22, bought a sailing vessel, Mathilde, in the small coastal city of Tonsberg in Norway. Today, the group is helmed by Thomas Wilhelmsen, a fifth generation descendant of the founder. The group’s car and roll-on, roll-off fleet controlled almost 130 vessels that had been purposely built to transport cars, trucks and heavy cargo which represented about 25 per cent of the global market share measured in car equivalent units. As for WMS, it operates three main business areas through Wilhelmsen Ships Service, which focuses on products, safety and environmental services, ship agency and maritime logistics for the merchant fleet. Wilhelmsen Ship Management focuses on safe and efficient vessel operations of ships by providing efficient technical management and competent crew while Wilhelmsen Technical Solutions offers environmental, safety, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAR-R) power solutions for new ships and retrofits. Schjerven said WMS, being the world’s largest maritime services network, serves 2,200 ports in 71 countries and its main focus was to deliver improved vessel operating efficiency to the world’s merchant fleet. He said the maritime services and ship owning or freight business supported one another but reckoned that maritime services could act as a buffer during bad times as they were more stable and not so cyclical. During the recent financial crisis, he said maritime services of the group only saw a 15 per cent drop in revenue but shipping services dropped more than 50 per cent. “From an owner’s perspective, this diversification has helped the group to survive in bad times,” Schjerwen said. For the future, he said WMS would capitalise on its expertise in managing other people’s vessels, especially in the light of new regulatory requirements which meant that all vessels would need to comply to new standards, especially the “green cycle” or environment-compliant standards. “WMS stands ready to offer ship owners to deal with new environmental and safety systems. It is easier to get someone who knows the system. “For example, there would be regulations to prevent the discharge of ballast water from two different water ecosystems as this could introduce microorganisms from different environments. “As such, ship owners have to comply with the new regulations. For owners, this is a cost and hassle. For us, we view this as a business opportunity. we see business of US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion (RM7.9 billion to 9.51 billion ) a year,” said Schjerven. Bernama
This article is copyright © 2012
