SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

One industry, three facets
What we often refer to, a
bit casually, as the shipping
industry in the
Nordic-Baltic area, is in
fact a three-headed phenomenon,
each with wide effects on the
community at large. These three facets of
the industry are sharing the roots in seafaring,
but have evolved along different tracks
into three rather distinct clusters: Regional
transport and logistics, into deepsea trading
and into the maritime offshore business.
Though the industry should speak with one
voice in most cases, the conditions and
challenges tend to differ, and this should be
understood by the political level.
The maritime logistic systems, with elements
like ferry and cargo services, ports,
distribution and cargo-tracking, are essential
to the economies of Sweden and Finland,
and quite important to Norway and
the Baltic nations. Deepsea trading, or
simply international shipping, provides
the basis for the Danish shipping industry
and is still the main market for the Norwegian.
Also Sweden, Finland and Latvia
have a foot or two in the deepsea trades.
The maritime offshore industry has
become the driving one in Norway, but is
also important in Denmark and to a lesser
extent in Sweden.
These different aspects of sea transport
The Scand(a)lines saga
For more than two years the owners of
Scandlines have tried to agree on selling
the company, because they cannot settle
on how to run the company. The compromise
worked out by the Danish Ministry of
Transport, as the owner of 50 per cent of
the company, has been turned down. The
compromise was to give British 3i (competing
with Baltic Ferry Development) a share
of 20 per cent, with the other 80 per cent
divided between Baltic Ferry Development
and the Allianza Group. This compromise
was turned down by the latter two, which
are the preferred buyers of Scandlines
according to the German part owner
Deutsche Bahn. A rather strange situation,
as companies are normally sold to gain
and services share not only their ancestry,
but also most of the challenges. They all
draw heavily on the base of human competence,
on equipment and technology,
on entrepreneurship and innovation. The
nature of the challenges does, however,
differ from one sector to the other, and we
should be aware of this.
The regional transport/logistic business is
embedded in the overall EU transport policy
and integrated in road or rail structures.
The sector has been undergoing simplification
and consolidation, the building of systems
for high volumes of units or tailored
for the individual industry group. There
are still opportunities for innovation, but
the main challenges are clearly related to
the environment, both as to emissions,
congestion and other strain imposed on
the community. This is clearly the area that
attracts the widest political interest.
The maritime offshore sector, which
ranges from service and supply ships to
drilling vessels and production/storage
ships, has been subject to strong technological
development for a couple of
decades, and more so as offshore oil production
is being confined to automated
cells on the ocean floor and in deeper
waters. Here, environmental protection is
the keyword, but also cut in emissions.
Politically, this is a hard issue, as the burn-
profit for the owners, but not in this case.
Many experts have tried to find a reason
for the trouble within the company, but
have not yet found anything in particular.
It is more likely the result of a range of differences
between the two cultures in Germany
and Denmark. Germans have a completely
different management style, far
stricter than the looser Danish style.
Former CEO of Scandlines Ole Rendbæk
once gave me a good example of the cultural
clash: One day at the office in
Warnemünde, he decided to get a cup of
coffee and went for it himself. This
rather shocked the staff and his secretary.
It is highly unusual for a CEO to pick up
the coffee himself. In a more Danish
office style he would have asked the sec-
EDITORIAL
ing of oil and gas is the main source of
greenhouse gases.
In contrast, international shipping relies
on mature technology; safety and operational
standards ensured by certified systems.
This is the area of commercial networking
and entrepreneurship. It is also an
area ruled by international rules and regulations.
Few politicians know anything
about it, and fewer still care, except when
an accident or oil spill happens.
The message is: The maritime transport
and service industry reacts and adapts to
commercial, technical and political influences.
The biggest challenge for the industry
is to make the political level understand
its complexity, importance and potential.
The tools and objects may vary from Finland
to Denmark, from Estonia to Norway,
but basically a finely-tuned maritime transport
policy is needed, based on the EU
guidelines on transport,
labour and taxation.
As will be shown
by the following
articles, our industry
offers a lot in
importance and
potential.
dag bakka jr
Editor, Norway
Phone: +47 55 32 17 47, E-mail: dag@shipgaz.com
retary, if she (or he) wanted a cup as well!
From my point of view it is awful the
way two owners are playing games with
the future of several hundred employees.
On the other hand, they are making
tons of money every day for the benefit of
the company. It is a pity that an idea to
join two ferry operators (DSB Rederi and
Deutsche Fähr) into a strong combined
company turns out to be such a hopeless
case. On paper the idea looked great, with
great enthusiasm from the employees even
though several thousand of them would
lose their jobs. At this stage we can establish
the fact that the distance from Denmark
to Germany is greater than the 45
minutes of sailing between Rødby and
Puttgarden. Where will this story end?
bent mikkelsen
SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 21, 2007 11