He Baoxin

On the sideline of the Marintec China 2023, the reporter interviewed Norbert Kray, DNV senior vice president and general manager in Greater China.

Kray, who is also a Winner of the 2022 Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award, told the reporter that China has always been one of the most important strategic development regions of DNV,and the relationship with China has a long history. 2023 is the 135th year since DNV started business in China.As early as 1888, the 24th year after DNV was founded in Norway (1864),it appointed its first surveyor in China in Xiamen, China, and set up its first office in China to serve merchant ships traveling between China and Europe.

Kray stressed that the rapid development of DNV has benefited from China's reform and opening up.In the past 40 years, DNV is very proud and honored to experience the take-off of China's economy,especially participated in the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry and shipping industry, and witnessed the remarkable achievements of China's shipbuilding industry. At present, China is leading the world in shipbuilding capacity, new orders and handheld orders, and has achieved rapid development in complex ships and high value-added ships, such as ocean engineering, VLCS, VLCC, large gas carriers and large cruise ships. DNV is very proud to have been involved in many of such milestones.

Kray noted that over the past few decades, DNV has established an extensive service network in greater China, with more than 500 maritime professionals serving their customers in branches located in 20 cities.

Inrecent years, DNV has continued to invest in China, while continuously expanding the cooperation with customers. Every year, more than 20 projects are developed with customers, most of which involve decarbonization, energy efficiency improvement, design optimization and other technological innovation fields. DNV has also established the"Future Ship Joint Research Center"jointly with CSSC, and established a joint collaboration space with Atlas Corporation in Shanghai. In 2022, DNV set up a team of liquefied gas carriers and alternative fuel experts in Shanghai,providing strong support for China's two booming emerging markets, -- large liquefied gas carriers and new alternative fuel shipbuilding. Kray stressed that the establishment of the team of experts reflects DNV's commitment to the Chinese market. The energy and maritime industries are currently in transition, with LNG and other alternative fuels playing a key role. Its team will use DNV's global expertise and skills to contribute to this transformation.

Building this new team in China has brought DNV closer to the local market not only in distance but also in culture, to better support shipowners and shipyards. In addition to the previously established DNV Smart Center, the comprehensive technical service capability of DNV covers the two major themes dangling over the today's maritime industry, namely, decarbonization and environmental protection and digital cyber-security, which can better and more comprehensively serve our customers.

In particular, Kray noted that the Chinese team is, as part of the DNV global network, supported by DNV global expertise and technical experts,including those in Oslo, Norway, and Hamburg, Germany. As the maritime industry is moving eastward, Asia will play an increasingly important role in the transformation of the energy and maritime industries, and the DNV move reflects the preparedness for the transformation of customers.

Kray pointed out that digitization and decarbonization are the two major challenges the industry is encountering today. In the contact with Chinese customers, DNV deeply feels importance they have attached to the two strategic issues and their aspiration to strengthen cooperation.The DNV Smart Center in China will help the maritime industry in digital and decarbonization transformation. The smart center has offices in Qingdao and Shanghai,serving the entire Greater China region. Through DNV Smart Center,they can coordinate the global top expert team of DNV in the field of digitalization and decarbonization and cultivate local professional talent team in China, so as to better meet the transformation and development needs of customers in China, seek common development, and promote the transformation of the industry.

While focusing on digital and decarbonization transformation and developing an ambitious roadmap and action plan to seize the opportunity,we should also realize that the traditional risk control framework is weak in the process. The success of the transformation largely depends on the ability of the entire industry to identify and manage risks. The DNV Smart Center can help you to conduct a systematic analysis of the security gap generated by the digital transformation and energy transformation, and make up for its security gap, so that the whole industry will reap the successful transformation in the next 5 to 10 years.

Kray stressed that strengthening cooperation and exchanges with the industry to jointly coping with risks and challenges is the focus of DNV.Since 2020, DNV has cooperated with COSCO Shipping Group to support the construction of a smart ship data management center, to facilitate smart shipping and digital transformation and upgrading;cooperated with CSSC Dalian Shipbuilding on smart ships, and combined with the latest DNV smart ship specifications to develop the smart ready design scheme;conducted digital pilot cooperation with CNOO Consmarthull monitoring system based on digital twin technology and risk-based inspection (RBI); in the decarbonization field, supported Chinese customers in developing strategies and roadmap for carbon neutrality, to meet the latest decarbonization regulations, such as the action plan required by the existing Ship Energy Efficiency Index (EEXI)and the Carbon Emission Intensity Index (CII), and applied new alternative fuels to carry out new shipbuilding innovation project cooperation.

In 2021, DNV and container operator Seaspan established Atlas-Seaspan and DNV Joint Collaboration Space ("JCS") in Shanghai, taking the established multifaceted partnership to a new height. The JCS is established to continue to support Seaspan's current and future new shipbuilding projects in Asia and will further promote cooperation in new areas beyond shipping, such as renewable energy and research and development.