HANSA 01-2019

Schifffahrt | Shipping
more difficult to trade. The result will
impact the life of these vessels with a
lot being scrapped before they reach
20 years of age. There is also a big question
mark over whether there will be
enough low-sulphur fuels available at
minor ports. For those that choose the
scrubber route, there are many considerations
to be taken into account,
yet time is rapidly running out as the
2020 deadline looms. There is also the
Ballast Water Management Convention
which came into force in 2017, meaning
decisions on system selection should
have already been made due to the
long installation lead times, yet questions
still remain about type approvals
and which systems will be recognized
by the different PSC authorities.
Game changer and chances
I also think that, within the next
10 years, big changes will be seen in
the structure of ship owning and I expect
to see an increase in ships managed
by 3rd party ship managers. Due
to the lack of finance available from
the more traditional institutions that
used to provide loan to traditional
owners, more vessels will be owned
by asset management companies and
they will require professional ship
managers to run their fleets. This
bodes well for ship management especially
if ship managers are viewed by
these asset owners as more of a partner
rather than simply a service provider.
n
...today it is still a family run business of Olav and Claes Eek Thorstensen
© Thome
Some key highlights
1963 The original bearer of
the Thome name, Fridtjov Thome,
set up Thome & Co in 1963 and
undertook agency work mainly
for Scandinavian owners, in addition
to his chartering and shipbroking
activities.
1976 Thome Ship Management
is incorporated, and Olav
Eek Thorstensen comes onboard.
Its Singapore headquarters is set
up.
1981 Olav Eek Thorstensen
became the sole owner of Thome
Group.
2005 Thome continuously
expands the business by creating
another business unit called
Thome Offshore Management Pte,
which offers turn-key management
solutions for new building,
conversion and operation of offshore
support vessels.
2010 Thome introduces a new
business unit, Thome Oil & Gas Incorporated
which offers operations
and maintenance on offshore oil
and gas installations with strong
focus on FSO, FPSO, FSU, production
rigs and facilities.
cility is integrated into the premises of
the corporate headquarters in Singapore.
According to a Thome press release,
employees are to react more quickly to
emergencies and improve the efficiency
of fleet operations using state-of-the-art
technology. Key activities at the new hub
include automatic tracking of individual
ships, risk analysis, route planning with
greater consideration of weather conditions,
camera-based monitoring of onboard
operations from shore, and video
conferencing with the ship’s command.
An important aspect is emergency management.
The new technology will make
it possible to respond more quickly to
emergencies and better assess the situation,
allowing better crisis response, they
said. For this purpose, individual crisis
rooms can be separated at headquarters.
Nortun outlined the investment in
the Operations Hub which provides up
to the minute information on situational
awareness by allowing remote tracking
of individual ships in the fleet, passage
planning, security risk assessment,
weather routing, video conferencing, integrated
vessel management system implementation,
and individual on-board
close circuit TV remote monitoring.
HANSA International Maritime Journal – 156. Jahrgang – 2019 – Nr. 1 39