Category: Technology

German Navy - between quality and quantity

German Navy - between quality and quantity

Posted by | 22. dec 2015 | , , , | 7

Fleet shrinks to historic low Shortly before the turn of the year, the German Navy shrank by a further five units. Last week, two tankers, two speedboats and a minesweeper were decommissioned. This reduces the number of floating units in the German Navy to 62 - a new low in the history of the navy. - Kieler Nachrichten 21.12.2015 Kieler Nachrichten reports on the planned decommissioning of the aforementioned units, whose replacement is already planned but not necessarily visible on the horizon. In November, Inspector General Volker Wieker informed parliament in his "Report on the material operational readiness...

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German shipbuilding increasingly serves niche segments

German shipbuilding increasingly serves niche segments

Posted by | 12 Nov 2013 | , , | 1

On 11 November, the daily newspaper Die Welt published an interview with Herbert Aly, Managing Director of the long-established Blohm+Voss shipyard, in its local Hamburg section. Some passages caught our attention as they emphasise the changed conditions for German shipbuilding in general: "At the beginning of 2012, the ThyssenKrupp Group sold the traditional Hamburg shipyard Blohm+Voss to the British financial investor Star Capital Partners. The company, which was the most important centre of global shipbuilding at the beginning of the 20th century, then went quiet. The management team led by long-time Blohm+Voss manager Herbert Aly, 55, is now positioning the shipyard in the tough market with ambitious conversion projects and new ideas for superyachts...

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The harbour concept cannot come soon enough

The harbour concept cannot come soon enough

Posted by | 15 Oct 2013 | , , | 1

Last week, the time had come: what is currently the world's largest container ship, the "Majestic Maersk", moored at JadeWeserPort for the first time together with the "Eugen Maersk", albeit unscheduled. Nevertheless, operators and politicians expect this to send out a signal that emphasises the JadeWeserPort's ability to handle the world's largest container ships, regardless of the tide. Opened around a year ago and designed to handle 2.7 million containers, the port's operations have been sluggish, however. "Of course, the two ships are not the big breakthrough, because what we need are regular lines that...

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Something is happening...

Posted by | 23 Nov 2012 | , , | 1

Something is slowly happening in the maritime sector! On 9 November, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) announced that the Bundestag had decided "...to increase the funds for promoting innovation in German shipbuilding by one million euros. This means that the federal government will provide a total of 13 million euros in 2013 as part of the 'Innovative shipbuilding secures competitive jobs' funding programme...". One million euros is not a lot with a federal budget of 312.7 billion euros, but we are not complaining. But there is more - we stumble across the "Maritime Industry Focus" on the BMWi homepage, which surprises us with the following excerpt: "A strong, competitive maritime industry is of great overall economic importance for a foreign trade-orientated country like Germany. Maintaining and strengthening Germany as a maritime location is therefore one of the most important goals and fields of action of the German government's maritime policy." Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology: Sector Focus Maritime Economy Even if we are not (yet) convinced that the topic is as important to the Federal Government as it is presented here, it is worth reading the BMWi's brief profile of the maritime economy. There you will also find a reference to the National Masterplan for Maritime Technologies, the aim of which is "...to increase the presence, perception and competitiveness of German maritime technology on national and international markets." The Masterplan goes back to the decisions of the German Bundestag in March 2007 and March 2009;...

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