WHY OSLO? - Oslo Maritime Nettverk

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Norway’s maritime industry is built on the expertise gained from centuries as a shipping
nation, with Oslo at the centre of this complete and globally oriented maritime cluster.
Maritime companies locate in Oslo to be part of a dynamic and innovative environment
of shipping companies, financial services, ship brokers, consultants, legal firms and
underwriters. For investors and partners, the strength and the international position of
the maritime cluster in Oslo offers many attractive opportunities.
Photo: Morten Brakestad

WHY OSLO?
“Compared to other shipping centers around
the world, the cluster environment in the Oslo
region is the most complete.”
Morits Skaugen,
CEO IM Skaugen AS and Chairman of the Oslo Maritime Network
Oslo has a unique maritime community Few cities in
the world can offer a maritime environment with a concentration
of companies and competence like Oslo’s. Norway
has the fifth largest merchant fleet in the world, and Oslo is
a leading international shipping metropolis, numbering over
1200 maritime companies with nearly19 000 employees. With
Oslo’s attention focused on international markets and business
opportunities, shipping and services in the regional cluster
are continuously improving in order to meet or beat global
competition.
Close collaboration offers opportunities Norway
has a history of producing technological breakthroughs in the
maritime industry. Ship and equipment innovations, innovative
financial services, and one-stop maritime service providers
are all examples of important innovations fostered in Norway,
many of them driven by collaboration between shipowners
and advanced suppliers in the Oslo region. The combination
of open communication and local rivalry makes Oslo a vibrant
learning community for maritime companies.
Access to a highly competent workforce The Oslo
region has the most highly educated population in Europe,
available at competitive salary levels. The maritime industry
in Oslo is highly profitable and is seen as an attractive employer,
ensuring access to the brightest minds in managerial, financial,
technical and legal fields.
Advanced maritime R&D Some of the world’s leading
maritime research institutions are based in Norway, several of
which are present in Oslo. Complementing this presence is the
history that Norwegian maritime firms have of maintaining
close relationships with research institutions throughout the
country and internationally, helping them to accelerate innovation
and commercialisation of new maritime technologies.
World market leaders Oslo-based companies are among
the world leaders in several shipping segments and maritime
services, like Höegh Autoliners in car transport, IM Skaugen and
Norgas in petroleum and chemical tankers, Wilhelmsen Maritime
Services in equipment supply and management support,
DNV in classification and risk management, Skuld in maritime
insurance, RS Platou in ship broking and DnB NOR and Nordea
in ship financing. These firms and other world leaders serve as
benchmarks and bellwethers for the rest of the cluster.
“The reason why we invested in Norway was
because there is more here than just steel ...
it is a centre of tremendous competence for
shipping”
Andreas Sohmen-Pao,
CEO of World-Wide Shipping, after the acquisition of Bergesen,
now BW Gas and BW Offshore in Oslo.
New, favourable tax regime Topping off this list of reasons
to do business from Oslo and Norway is the new shipping
tax regime effective from January 2008. The new laws
harmonise Norway with the EU, granting tax exemption on
shipping and related activities. With this official vote of confidence,
the maritime industry in Norway is set for further
growth into the future.

WHO’S in OSLO?
A global hub of shipping companies The creation of
the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS) in 1987 led to
growth in the Norwegian share of the world’s shipping fleet, and
the new tax regime, based on the EU tax exemption on shipping
and related activities, sets the stage for further growth.
Norwegian shipping companies today control five per cent of
the world’s merchant fleet. They are large and demanding customers
for goods and service suppliers, stimulating continuous
innovation in the entire maritime cluster. The close cooperation
between demanding owners and the rest of the maritime cluster
is of vital importance to both parties and a key to understanding
Oslo’s attractiveness for maritime companies.
World leading maritime finance Norway is today one of
the largest ship financing nations in the world, with Oslo-based
DnB NOR and Nordea as the two leading organisers of syndicated
shipping loans. The attractiveness of Oslo as a centre
of ship finance is proved by Stockholm-based Nordea’s choice
to locate their shipping headquarter in Oslo and Danske Bank’s
recent choice to locate their shipping division at the Oslo office
of Fokus Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Danske Bank.
In 2001, the International Maritime Exchange (IMAREX) was
established in Oslo as the first professional freight derivatives
exchange for the global maritime industry within freight of
oil, refined products, and other bulk commodities. Oslo Børs
(Bourse) is also a natural ally of the maritime cluster. Its position
as a leading market for shares in maritime enterprises has
evolved along with the shipping activities. It is also attractive
as an international shipping exchange, with companies like the
Greek-owned Tsakos Energy Navigation listed since 1994.
Norway holds 20% of global insurance market
The market for ship insurance is relatively concentrated with a
few players operating on a global scale. Norwegian companies
hold approximately 20 percent of the world market. One of the
leading insurance companies (P&I clubs) of the world, Skuld,
operates globally from its headquarter in Oslo. Leading marine
insurers such as Gard and the Norwegian Hull Club, and global
insurance brokers Willis, Marsh and Aon Grieg, are also represented
through offices in the Oslo region.
“The maritime cluster in Norway is a fundamental
and stable basis for maintaining and developing
insurance products and services that are demand-
ed by both national and international clients”
Tore Forsmo, former Managing Director of Cefor (The Nordic Association of
Marine Insurers), Oslo, now director of Competence and Recruiting in the
Norwegian Shipowners’ Association
Finance
Education
Equipment
and maritime
services
R&D
THE OSLO REGION MARITIME CLUSTER
SHIPPING
Shipbrokers
DNV
Legal
services
Insurance
World class ship brokers Shipbrokers are the mediators
in four markets – freight, sales and purchase, newbuilding
and demolition – linking sellers and buyers of ships, and ship
owners to charterers and yards. The 1990’s saw dramatic increases
in the number of shipbroker companies in Norway and
Oslo, where there are approximately 180 registered brokerages.
Though most of these are smaller firms, the two largest,
Fearnleys and R.S Platou, are widely known and respected,
and both are among the world’s largest ship broking groups.
High quality legal services Legal services in the maritime
sector are routinely required for contentious and noncontentious
work relating to a wide range of matters including
charter parties, shipbuilding, finance, commodities,
energy, insurance, cargo, collision, salvage, general average
and pollution. Vogt og Wiig and Wiikborg Rein are two of the
best-known of Oslo law firms specialising in maritime law and
transactions, joined by Nordisk Defence Club. The Scandinavian
Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Oslo is one
of the leading centers in the world for maritime legal studies,
and an important part of the cluster.
16 % share of the world ship classification market
DNV (Det Norske Veritas) is one of the oldest and most important
members of Oslo’s maritime cluster. The company is one
of the four largest ship classification companies in the world,
and its market share has grown significantly in recent years. A
cornerstone of the Oslo maritime cluster, DNV is a knowledge
and R&D intensive enterprise, and is and one of Norway’s most
international enterprises, with over 300 offices in more than
100 countries.

“Shipping is one of the most interesting busi-
nesses for Veritas today, and the Oslo region is an
excellent location for a company like ours, given
the variety of actors from the sector to be found
here. Compared to other shipping centers around
the world, such as London, New York, Piraeus and
Singapore, the environment in the Oslo region
is the most complete. We still have some of the
largest shipowners in the world, brokers, financial
institutions, classification and insurance companies,
and a highly developed and knowledge-based
ships’ gear sector.”
Tore Høifødt,
Director of Information, Det Norske Veritas
Broad spectre of equipment suppliers The maritime
cluster in Norway includes a wide selection of specialized
equipment producers, both large and small. Among the
largest, with significant shares of international markets, are
Aker, Kongsberg Maritime and FMC Offshore, all located in
and around Oslo. Ship’s equipment from all over the world is
available through Oslo companies, particularly Wilhelmsen
Maritime Services, which in 2005 acquired Unitor, and Eitzen
Group, which shortly thereafter acquired Strømme, making
them two of the leading equipment distributors in the world.
There are no large yards left in Oslo, but tight linkages between
yards in the rest of Norway and the shipowners in Oslo
are still strong.
Advanced R&D The majority of maritime research and development
is conducted by a number of specialist institutions
in Norway’s three largest cities; Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.
MARINTEK, a research company in the SINTEF Group, together
with the Faculty of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, delivers
marine technology R&D services to a range of national and
international companies and authorities. In the Oslo region
DNV and Kongsberg Maritime are among the largest technological
research centres, but also FFI (Norwegian Defence
Research Establishment), Telenor in maritime telecommunications
and several small specialized centres and companies
are performing maritime related R&D in Oslo. The University
of Oslo is Norway’s largest knowledge producer and home to
the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law. A private institution
with maritime education programs and research projects
in Oslo, Shanghai and Singapore, the Norwegian School of
Management (BI) is also Europe’s largest business school. The
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
(NHH) in Bergen provides world-class research in the field of
shipping economics and market research.
Photo: Norges Rederiforbund, Wilh. Wilhelmsen

WHat’S Happening in OSLO?
Close links between companies and research institutions
Norwegian maritime firms are tightly connected
to research institutions. One reason for this is that almost
half of the Norwegian firms regard maritime research institutions
in Norway as among the best in the world. It is a goal for
the Norwegian government to increase innovation and R&D
efforts in Norwegian industry, and in 2002 the SkatteFUNN
program was introduced as a scheme for tax deduction of R&D
expenses in companies registered in Norway.
Focus on trainee programs The Norwegian Shipowner’s
Association has taken the lead in establishing this important
addition to Norway’s maritime training offerings. A two-year
program established in 2005, Maritime Trainee is now in its
third round, each involving approx. 20 companies including
ship owners, ship yards and maritime equipment companies,
oil rig companies, classification societies, law firms, banks
and ship brokers. Some notable participants are DNV, DnB
NOR, BW Gas, Leif Höegh, R.S. Platou, Wilh. Wilhelmsen, and
Kongsberg Maritime. The program seeks to give each trainee a
basic understanding of the industry, enabling them to master
numerous functions within the maritime industry at an early
stage of their careers. The program is first and foremost targeted
at students holding a masters degree in economics,
technology or law or graduates of the maritime college.
The future of shipping is knowledge With a recently
launched initiative to make Norway a global knowledge hub
in the maritime industry, the Oslo maritime cluster has taken
the initiative to secure a knowledge base for growth that
bodes well for the entire Norwegian cluster. Organisations
like Kongsberg Maritime, DNV, IM Skaugen, MARINTEK, Tschudi
Shipping, Wilh. Wilhelmsen and Leif Höegh have committed to
sponsoring professorships over a five-year period at various
universities around Norway, in fields of the donors’ choice.
Central to the concept is intensified R&D and knowledge
transfer generated in research and educational environments,
and then transmitted to the industry in the form of leadingedge
innovation and highly qualified employees. With 14 professorships
as of April 2009, the Knowledge Hub program is
the largest private investment in knowledge development in
Norway’s history.
Oslo Maritime Network (OMN) OMN is a public-private
initiative, founded in January 2007 with members from all segments
of the Oslo region cluster. Members contribute time
and resources to activities designed to promote sustainable
growth in the regional and national clusters, focusing on innovation
and financing, recruiting, information and marketing,
and knowledge development. As an example, the vision for
Norway as a global knowledge hub was spawned in OMN and
developed in cooperation with the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association.
On the innovation side, OMN arranges annual workshops that
gather experts from both maritime and onshore industries,
in order to encourage the exchange of technology and innovation
between these otherwise segregated environments.
The latest workshop, in November 2008, was titled “Maritime
fuels: cleaner energy, reduced consumption – plotting the
course.” As follow-up to the workshops, the most promising
companies are selected for participation in maritime springboard
events, in cooperation with Connect Norway. Springboards
assemble expert panels to advise companies on robust
business plans and fast tracks to markets.
OMN also contributes to regional participation in global
maritime events such as Nor-Shipping, as well as keeping the
public and politicians informed about activities and developments
in the regional cluster.
For more information, contact network secretary Kevin
Gallagher at kg@oslo.teknopol.no, or visit the website at
www.oslo.teknopol.no/maritime

Photo: Norges Rederiforbund, BW Gas

Oslo Teknopol IKS
Tollbugata 32
P.O. Box 527 Sentrum
N-0105 Oslo, Norway
Oslo Teknopol
Tel: (+47) 22 00 29 90
Fax: (+47) 22 00 29 91
Org.no.: 980 014 630
E-mail: info@oslo.teknopol.no
Oslo Teknopol is a non-profit regional development agency
established by the City of Oslo and Akershus County Council.
Our aim is to stimulate innovation and attract foreign investments
and talent to the Oslo region. We act as secretariat for
Oslo Maritime Network and have close cooperation with other
key maritime organizations and companies in the maritime
industry. Together we can help you access the Oslo region’s
unique knowledge base and connect with its innovative players.
Web:
www.oslo.teknopol.no
Cover photos: picture 1: Giulio Bolognesi/visitOSLO, picture 2 & 3: Norges Rederiforbund, picture4: Gunnar Strøm/VisitOSLO, picture 5: Norges Rederiforbund