Marin Teknikk
Grand designs
Boasting an expert staff specialised in the design and use of advanced modern ship design technology, Marin Teknikk (MT) is a prominent ship design and engineering company with a history dating back to January 1981.
MT’s experienced naval architects and marine engineers offer proven solutions for various types of ships and, together with its daughter company MT Poland in Stetin, Poland, has approximately 40 employees – having started off with just two. The company, located on Norway’s west coast, also works as an independent consultant, and so it is able to give clients the freedom to choose the latest solutions and products available on the market for their ship.
MT’s managing director Svein-Rune Gjerde outlines the organisation’s current work: “As a ship designer, we operate in the offshore industry, catering to ship owners that serve different oil companies. Our main geographical markets are Norway, UK, the Middle East, South East Asia, India and the US. Traditionally we have also been into fishing vessels but at the moment we’re involved with designing offshore vessels of different kinds. We have more than 20 different projects between contract and delivery – everything from supply vessels, tugs and cable vessels to construction, seismic, wireline/intervention ships and diving support vessels.”
Follow-up visits during shipyard construction are standard and MT has the means to provide its customers with a wide range of consultancy services, such as shipyard negotiations. It also offers and installs its MT-Lodic fully integrated onboard loading computer system with simulation possibilities. The innovative organisation has the capacity to design ‘green’ ships that offer the benefits of reduced fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, a high level of safety, excellent speed and seagoing properties and a low noise level.
Importantly, MT is an independent, privately owned company that is unconnected to any shipyard or large equipment supplier. Svein, who co-founded the business with Edvard Gjerde, believes this to be one of the company’s key strengths: “By being in that position, we can work all over the world without taking another party into consideration and the ship owner can choose whatever shipyard or equipment he or she would like to use in their vessel. Each ship we design is tailored for each individual customer – we’re very flexible in adjusting the projects to both the market’s needs and ship owners’ wishes. We continuously try to develop our designs to allow us to be at the forefront in terms of generating new solutions.”
Design and project work is performed by means of advanced computer programmes, which has been the case since 1984 when MT purchased its first computer for stability calculations. The development of differing programmes is a continuous process in improving the company’s services. In terms of what the business is currently working on, Svein elaborates on how MT adapts to
meet changing requirements and reveals which market areas are experiencing an increase at the moment: “Over the past two years we have noticed a trend for bigger vessels in the sector that we’re working in, especially in respect of offshore construction vessels – bigger cranes and a bigger deck load capacity are required. Intervention vessel design is an interesting market for us at present. These ships are designed to undertake different kinds of drilling work and they’re used for maintenance work on oil wells. The diving support market is quite strong and, having worked in this area recently, we still have four advanced diving support ships under design at the moment.”
MT’s recent history has been characterised by growth and cementing its respected reputation in the offshore industry. Commenting on the company’s development and to what extent this will continue in the coming months, Svein says: “We established a new office in Poland last year, which will have 15 people working in it by the end of 2008 so we have added to our 40-strong workforce. There has been a fair amount of growth over the last couple of years and I don’t know if there will be much scope to actually grow significantly more over the coming year. However, based on the current market that we’re seeing, I think our activity can only increase in the near future. We have big expectations for our new designs as all the tests we have carried out show that we have what the market is asking for.”
Svein doesn’t foresee any obstacles to the continued success of MT and the inventive organisation can count on its fresh designs to take it into the next stage of its development. With 27 years of experience behind it, MT is in an excellent position to seize opportunities arising in the market and has the knowledge to adapt to changes. “As long as we can come up with new and good solutions for ship owners and charterers then we will have a good future ahead of us,” Svein concludes. “Some of the contracts that we’re signing up now are for a delivery in 2011 and we have never before been booked ahead of time to this extent, despite our long history, so we’re very excited about MT’s future prospects.”
Marin Teknikk AS
Services Vessel design and consultancy