We always cherish opportunities to meet industry professionals who perceive innovation as their catalyst for doing business. For this reason, at the beginning of June, GLO Marine team visited Nor-Shipping and SeaWork, events which host an extensive range of actual decision makers and achievers in the industry.
Nor-Shipping is one of the most important events in the naval sector, a hub that reunites every two years the bright minds of the industry. Considering how much value we put on being up to date with the new technologies, Nor-Shipping offered us the perfect context to meet with existing partners and connect with inspiring people. Development opportunities, ocean solutions and the future of the maritime industry were only a part of the thought-provoking topics that we touched.
Given our passion for fishing vessels and workboats, and our intentions to develop in that direction, our team went to Southampton in order to visit SeaWork, the home of the professionals in the commercial marine and workboat industry. We are content that we once again have confirmation that this market is on an ascending trend and that exceptional people are making sure that innovation and green solutions play a major role in this process.
We value the chance to cross paths with these inspiring people, to have meaningful discussions and forge new partnerships. The future of the industry is in good hands.
Following the success of the first ShipDX edition, this year we did our best to overcome every single expectation big time. Might we just say, we may have outdone ourselves! But don`t take our word, look at the facts!
The Theme
This edition was centered on giving the students a much more practical sense of what the job really looks like from the inside. In order to do this, the proposed theme was designing a fishing vessel`s hull to fit the given parameters, aiming to reach the minimum forward resistance possible. To top it off, not only did the participants have to design using software tools and their personal knowledge, but the finalist teams had to build their scale models with their own hands and run them in the Faculty`s towing tank, to verify their results.
The backbone of the competition was developing the students` practical skills, making them feel like actual engineers, with problems to solve, decisions to make and technical input to bring to the table. Not only did they have tasks to accomplish, but all of them were limited by deadlines and the teams had to function at their best, in order for everything to work out as desired.
The Competition
The competition was announced and started receiving applications at the end of February. Unlike last year, this time the teams had a different structure: it was mandatory that each team included a sophomore, alongside two juniors of different majors in the field („Hull Design” and „Systems and Equipments”). Happily, 11 teams registered and embarked on this adventurous journey.
The qualification round that took place at the beginning of April determined the 6 finalist teams, based on their design choice, reasoning, innovation, and the way they presented their ideas. Afterwards, their 3D designs were refined and sent to a CNC machine. This resulted in raw scale models that were further glued, polished and painted morning, noon and night, for a week, by the competitors.
We are happy to say that the week they spent grinding in the workshop brought them all together, raised their team efforts and almost took the competition out of it. Everyone pitched in on their fellow teams` models whenever they got a moment to help, they all bonded and had a great time. It was great to see such a united group and a pleasant work evironment, that they created themselves.
When all was said and painted (get it?), the models were ready to take a dive in the towing tank, to measure their actual forward resistance. Although the students took part in this process and even learned how to operate the tank`s equipment, they were unaware of the results.
Finally, the big day came at the end of May. The spotlight fell on our finalist teams: they presented their months` work in front of students, teachers, sponsors and partners. Some of them were tried by powerful emotions, reliving the journey they took from the very beginning and talking about their hard, tireless work, but they did keep it all together and delivered outstanding presentations.
The decision
The teams were scored on technical aspects such as compliance with project requirements, presentation format but what mattered most were their towing tank tests results.
There were indeed changes among the order that first three teams walked up the podium, caused by a set of factors taken into consideration by the jurors.
The Winners
1st Place – 1500 € – Dao Ship : Mihaela Angela Ciuraru, Marius-Ștefan Mihai, Nichita Sava 2nd Place – 1000 € – Protoship : Cosmin Buti, Valentina Stroiu, Nicolae Bîlhac 3rd Place – 500 € – Novice Crew : Iulian Radu, Eugen Magadan, Ana Podgoreanu
The Future
We take pride in what ShipDX 2019 turned out to be. This competition has only wrapped up its second edition and is already breaking barriers, changing the way students see the industry, and the way we all see the educational process. As the years go by, we get a deeper understanding of the importance of hands-on approach. To quote one of the finalists, „Participation to ShipDX made us realize that we can build something starting from almost nothing and that we can do more than we can imagine. It was like an impulse for us to get to work.”.
We can only promise that we will work even harder to make the following ShipDX edition bigger and better. And since we have already witnessed what kind of motivation and eagerness to learn this whole adventure has awakened in our students, we are excited to announce that partnerships are in the works to get other Universities involved in the competition. Bringing as many students as possible this close to the real industry is essential to the responsibility we all have in shaping tomorrow`s engineers, and with them, the world they create.
So bear in mind, ShipDX 2020 goes international! Regarding as much Universities, as sponsors. Join us for the ride!
GLO MARINE COLLABORATES WITH VARD TULCEA FOR HAPAG LLOYD CRUISE VESSELS FORE PART DETAIL DESIGN
GLO MARINE is proud to have contributed alongside VARD to the hull delivery of the most recent cruise vessel for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, supplying the execution drawings for the forward block.
We have focused to efficiently integrate all the hull design and steel outfitting details to facilitate the shipyard’s production process. This project innovative design challenged our team experience while enhancing our capability to deliver fast and smart engineering solutions to keep up with the tight building schedule.
Our work translated into many thousands of workhours, being poured into the detail design of the fore part of the vessel. More project details can be found here.
GLO Marine keeps up to date with industry trends at the AVEVA World Conference Marine 2018
Representatives of GLO Marine attended the latest AVEVA World Conference, in Malmo, Sweden, 12-13 June. They took part in the two packed days of technical presentations, workshops and networked with industry peers to exchange ideas and share best practices.
This year’s conference focused on the integration of engineering, design and production, as well as on new and upcoming products for shipbuilding. The programme included presentations by 25 speakers, 3 work-stream sessions in parallel, an innovation hub and countless compelling discussions on why #digitalisation is vital for marine and shipbuilding.
GLO Marine is committed to investing in its development, for the benefit of both internal and external customers.
SHIPDX 2018 – The first and only competition for Naval Architecture students in Romania
The first specialised naval architecture competition for university students, SHipDX (Ship Design Exercise) has taken place on Friday 8th June 2018. This competition is organized and sponsored by GLO MARINE, in partnership with the Faculty of Naval Architecture, Dunarea de Jos University, Galati.
THE THEME
The theme of this first edition was the Design and General Arrangement of a leisure catamaran.
The students had to approach both theoretical and practical aspects, with the purpose of proposing a small leisure ship concept which is in line with the current industry trends, both in terms of engineering solutions and commercial guidelines.
The main driver behind organizing this competition was to challenge students to come up with a practical design theme in a complex, real life situation. Together with university professors we identified the need for students to develop their technical skills and test their teamwork and innovation skills when faced with the challenge of designing a product rather than discussing a theoretical concept.
THE COMPETITION
The competition was launched on 8th March – the news was so well received that 14 teams (each formed of 3 students) registered their interest. The competition had 3 stages: 2 initial presentations during which the jury assessed the project development and offered support and one final presentation held on 8th June. The final presentation was attended by students, professors and local media.
Out of 14 teams, 3 made it to the final. The teams really came together and pitched their ideas in professional and engaging manner. The proposals were not only focused on technical details and specialized calculations, but the teams also proved their entrepreneurial skills and commercial acumen by showing promotional videos, brochures and even presenting miniature replicas of their concept.
The judges assessing the presentations were: The Dean of the Faculty of Naval Architecture, Prof. Dr. Ing. Costel Iulian Mocanu, the Chief of Works Dr. Ing. Eugen Gavan, and the 4 associates of GLO MARINE.
THE DECISION
The teams were scored on technical aspects such as compliance with project requirements, on presentation format but also on feasibility of project being presented to a real-life client.
The winners went above and beyond and that got them 1st prize. They contacted industry professionals for advice during the project, their design was done according to classification society rules and the proposed hull shape could pass for commercial design . We were impressed with their creativity. The 2 runner-up teams were in a tie and they both got 2nd place prizes.
THE WINNERS
First place (Winner of Best Project) – 1000 euros – PEAKY BUILDERS: Lupoae Laurenţiu Alexandru, Tudor Ovidiu Cosmin, Căluian Mihai 2nd place (Innovation Award) – 250 euros – YOUTH CREW: Cardaș Gabriel, Alin Droahnă Nicușor, Ionescu Alin Gabriel 2nd place (Innovation Award) – 250 euros – SHEEP DESIGN: Niculache Alecsandru Mihail Purice Marius Cosmin, Stan Cristian
THE FUTURE
We’re happy with how successful the first edition of ShipDX turned out: the innovative teams, the motivated judges and the engaged media. So much so that a second edition of ShipDX is coming up in 2019, with even more teams, more prizes and more industry sponsors.
“THE DAYS OF PAPER-BASED WORKFLOWS IN SHIP MANAGEMENT ARE GONE”
The overall global shipping market has deteriorated significantly during the first five months of 2016.
Earnings across most of the segments continued to decline, in many cases representing levels significantly below operational expenses. Even the oil tankers segment, which is still generating income, has experienced softer rates.
The current order book consists of 6,000 ships, corresponding to 191 million GT. However, it’s facing a descending trend since the number of deliveries exceed number of new contracts.
Moreover, a 2015 survey from Moore Stephens International found that vessel operating costs rose by 2.8% in 2015 and are expected to rise by 3.1% in 2016 while the cost of repairs and maintenance escalated by 2.3% in 2015 and was expected to grow by 2.4% in 2016.
CONTAINERSHIPS
After a very weak 2015 for container transportation, in which global trade growth disappointed and freight rates collapsed, the containership sector faces major challenges in 2016.
Two of the most significant changes in 2016 are represented by
• mergers between liner companies and
• the opening of the new Panama Canal
For the full year 2016, total containerized trade is expected to grow by 4%. However, the uncertainty surrounding the predictions is higher than in previous years. A lot will depend on the economic developments in the US, Europe and Asia. In the long run, the contracting is expected to slowly pick up and reach 1.66 million TEU by 2020.
BULK CARRIERS
During the last few months dry bulk earnings have hit record lows and asset prices continued to deteriorate. In an attempt to reverse the trend, owners either demolish or lay-up an increased number of ships.
At the same time, the contracting activity has almost stalled. With hardly any signs of an improvement on the demand side, the market seems to have reached rock bottom. The forecasted trends are similar as in the case of containers, perceiving a slow but steady recovery up until 2020.
OFFSHORE SERVICE VESSELS
According to DNV GL, the offshore support vessel (OSV) market has been suffering serious challenges since the oil market drop in 2015.
The overall vessel utilization has fallen significantly over the last year as a consequence of the oil companies trying to adjust to the “new reality” of the low oil prices by announcing further cutbacks in exploration and production. In May 2016 the number of lay-up vessels reached 1400.
Annual OSV fleet growth (based on numbers) has remained above 5% over the last five years. For 2016, the fleet growth is expected to be in the range of 4%, after which it is expected to drop to 2%-3% per annum.
In the case of mobile offshore units (MOU), 2016, will see a total number of newbuilds contracted of around 20 units (compared to 100 in 2014 and 34 in 2015). Deliveries are forecasted to increase from 70 in 2015 to around 120 in the full year 2016. MOU demolitions are expected to remain at a comparable level as in 2015
The most recent newbuilding contracting forecast, according to Clarksons Research, suggest only 934 ships over 2,000 GT for 2016, which is the lowest in 25 years. Considering that the order book for the newbuilding market in the first 5 months has been reaching 300 vessels, it appears that this forecast is still optimistic but in the same time a higher activity in the market it is expected in the second half of the year.
The evolution of the market has led to a decrease in the newbuilding contracts and due to the low prices that the yards are practicing, the competition on the Asian market has increased.
The best industry overview in terms of world fleet by principal vessel types is offered by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in their 2015 Review of Maritime Transport:
THE THEME
