Wartsila wins major ship design orders from China, India and Germany

Wartsila has received major orders for its recently established Wärtsilä Ship Design unit. The orders were received from customers in China, India and Germany. The Ship Design unit was set up following the acquisitions of the ship design companies Vik-Sandvik and Schiffko. The most recent acquisition, the Singaporean based Conan Wu & Associates will also be part of the Ship Design unit. The orders call for Wärtsilä to design a Deepwater Engineering Survey Vessel, a Multi-Purpose Support Vessel, a Diving Support Vessel, and an Emergency Towing Vessel. Each of these contracts comes as a result of successful bids to design sophisticated tonnage.

In commenting on the new orders, Arne Birkeland, Vice President, Ship Design, Ship Power, Wärtsilä Corporation, noted: “The design contracts we have signed with these Chinese, Indian and German ship owners are an indication that there is a readiness to take on high-value, sophisticated new tonnage. We are able to offer our customers a design which leads to better overall efficiency, improved environmental performance and reduced life cycle costs. This has been made possible by optimizing the design to accommodate the vessel’s various operating processes”.

Jaakko Eskola, Group Vice President, Ship Power, Wärtsilä Corporation, said: “From a strategic point of view, being able to offer ship design services is a very important step for Wärtsilä, since it brings us even closer to our ship owner and shipyard customers. We can now enter into dialogue with them at an earlier stage, when the key specifications of the vessel are being decided. This puts us in a position to offer even more competitive solutions.”

Further Mr Jaakko Eskola said: “The role of ship design is becoming increasingly important in the value chain, due to higher integration and more sophisticated systems onboard most vessels and increasingly stringent environmental regulations. In addition the ship design is more and more linked to system providers, shipyards and integrators. Ship production is moving away from traditional ship building countries in the west to emerging markets where there is a need for ship design skills. We can now build upon our existing strengths and strategies and, through Wärtsilä Ship Design, further develop our overall capabilities to include design.”

The new Wärtsilä Ship Design orders

The Deepwater Engineering Survey Vessel design is for China Oilfield Services Ltd, and represents a 4300-dwt vessel capable of drilling operating at deep water for geotechnical surveys and geophysical surveys. To date, most of China’s oil exploration has been in relatively shallow waters, but there is now a need to probe deeper.

The Chinese state-owned Shanghai Salvage Company has ordered its Multi-Purpose Support Vessel design from Wärtsilä in order to carry out year-round tasks along the coastline of China. The key requirement is for multi-purpose flexibility since the vessel will be required to carry out a multitude of different operations, including salvage, offshore engineering services, diving and ROV operations, fire-fighting, anchor handling, ship supply, environmental protection, and route clearing.

The 4500-dwt Diving Support Vessel design has been ordered by India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), and will provide a stable platform for saturation and air-diving operations. In addition to diving operations and construction work, the vessel is to provide field support and will, therefore, be fitted with sophisticated fire-fighting and oil recovery equipment.

In Europe, Wärtsilä has completed an Emergency Towing Vessel design for the German company ARGE Küstenschutz. Because the vessel is intended for North Sea operation, the main criteria in producing this ultra-modern design have been manoeuvrability, and the capability of maintaining position effectively in harsh weather conditions.