Before I start todays post, a few words for all the lovely ladies - Wish all of you a very very happy Womens Day
So now lets get back to the first question of my previous post.
When I was in IIT, I never had a very clear picture of the maritime world. I was under the impression that ship design and ship building was the all-in-all for a naval architect. But the reality turned out to be very different. The vastness of this industry is simply amazing. Just to name the major players.
(1) Oil Majors (like BP, Exxonmobil, Shell, Reliance, ONGC, IOCL etc.)
(2) Shipping Majors (like OMI, Teekay, Worldwide, Transatlantic, Interorient etc.)
(3) Classification societies (like American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritus, Lloyds Reister of Shipping etc.)
(4) Offshore companies (like Mcdermott, Technip etc.)
(5) Makers (Almost all fortune 500 manufacturing industries like ABB, Electrolux etc. have a coomplete section devoted to the maritime segment)
(6) Consultancy(Most of the consultancy biggies have a devoted maritime sector to cater to the needs of this segment)
(7) Merchant navy or manning companies (OMCI, Executive Ship Management etc.)
(8)Shipyards (Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Keppels, Cochin Shipyard etc.)
(9) Government agencies, P&I insurance groups, banking and finance, IMO related organisations and bodies like SOLAS(Safety of Life at Sea) and MARPOL(Marine Pollution).
(10) Private consultants.
(11) Research organisations.
All the players play the game with strong symbiotic relationship with each other.
Presently I work for a shipping major (ship-owners, who own ships) . So I will begin the list of the major players with the ship owners ( who the ship owners are, what they do, with whom they do business, what is the extent of their business......)
As the name suggests, shipping companies own vessels. The cost of some of these vessels can easily cross the 500 million USD mark and often crosses 50 million USD for a mid sized ship.The fleet can be as small as one ship and can extend to scores of ships (of different sizes and shapes) for the shipping majors . Well, now that they own ships, what do they do with these ships. Here comes the concept of international shipping trade and operations which in itself a very big area of concentration. The financial deals associated with shipping is beyond the imagination of many.
(1) Tankers are more linked with oil and other liquid cargo dealings (lets say jet-fuel, naptha, various petroleum products....list is really long). Shipping companies doing business with tankers share an inseparable bond with oil majors. I will discuss my understanding of oil majors in my next post and will limit to shipping companies for the moment.
The cargo analysis of the tankers is another hot topic in shipping and involves almost all aspects of management from supply chain analysis to high level financial deals. Running these tankers (any ship, in fact) on a day to day basis introduces the concept of merchant navy and technical management.
(2) Other kinds of ships include RORO Car carriers, bulk carriers, container vessels, LNG Ships, passenger liners and ferries. But since I am not very much into these ships, I donot have a very clear picture of the non-tanker vessels. But the names of the ships are a clear indication of the type of the cargo they are associated with.
The shipping majors either build (buy) their ships in (from) the leading yards of the world. Shipbuilding is one of the most intricate arts of mankind and the technical and management skills associated with it must deserve a complete independent section.
Will bring the next player into picture in my next post...
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