14th Germanischer Lloyd Korean Shipbuilding Committee

Gyeongju, October 24, 2008 – More than 23 members of the Korean shipbuilding sector met for Germanischer Lloyd’s 14th Korean Shipbuilding Committee in Gyeongju, South Korea. Committee Chairman Mr. H. C. Kim, Daehan Shipyard, and Secretary Mr. Stefan Höner, Germanischer Lloyd, presented a programme focusing on current shipbuilding challenges; Environmental requirements, developments of stability regulations and quality assurance were on the agenda.

In the last two years, shipowners have seen bunker prices increase by roughly 140%. Additionally considering upcoming environmental regulations, shipowners pay more attention to an economical and environmental friendly way of transport. Responding to the ecological and economical demand for fuel consumption reduction, Dr. Hermann J. Klein, Germanischer Lloyd Member of the Executive Board, presented the "GL FuelSaver" suite of new services.

It includes the "CO2-Index Data Analysis" and the "Operational Fuel Consumption Analysis", which help shipowners and ship managers to understand fuel consumption patterns and identify technical and operational measures for reduction in fuel costs. Additionally, GL offers reviews and analyses for hull, machinery and the ship's operation to examine in more detail identified efficiency improving measures and their cost-benefit ratios.

Stefan Höner, Area Manager, GL Korea/Philippines, gave an overview about ”Germanischer Lloyd activities in Korea”. Representatives of seven Korean shipyards gathered in Busan in April 2008 for the inaugural meeting of the Germanischer Lloyd Hull Technical Committee. His speech also included a future outlook of the newbuilding situation and the containership newbuilding sizes in Korea from 2008 till 2012.

In his presentation "Future Development of Stability regulations", Mr. Jan Schreiber, member of the Stability Department of GL, informed the Committee about the ongoing work on the revision of the Intact Stability Code and about the latest considerations within the IMO to possibly amend the forthcoming damage stability requirements of SOLAS 2009 in the coming years. For the revision of the IMO Code on Intact Stability, in depth research is currently being performed within the relevant correspondence group to develop stability criteria suitable to assess the dynamic stability of vessels. In the case of SOLAS 2009, possible amendments could affect amongst other items the consideration of trim for the calculation of damage stability or the assessment of the probability of long and high damages. The active role of Germanischer Lloyd in these regulation developments was pointed out and the participants of the Committee were invited to cooperate with GL in these and other developments.

Workmanship and quality are the main components with regards to safety discussions. Tanjo Sinovcic, Technical Manager GL Korea/Philippines and Japan, reported about this issue in his speech about “Workmanship + Quality = Safety”. Shipbuilding is always relating the strong and fair partnerships between shipyards, class and owners. It is important to maintain this co-operation, always providing the best services in order to minimize complaints. He also underlined the necessity to fulfill safety requirements.<Korea Shipping Gazette>