Ever-tighter environmental regulation is driving more shipping companies to seek external advice on how to improve the operational management of their vessels.
That is the view of Jakob Buus Petersen, co-founder of Danish outfit Vessel Performance Solutions (VP Solutions), which is aiming to tap that demand by launching a new office in Greece.
Establishing a branch in the world’s biggest shipowning hub is the Copenhagen-based company's first expansion move, the co-founder said.
“In the last couple of years, when we wanted to get new clients we had to do really intensive sales work,” Petersen told TradeWinds in a remote interview conducted at the company’s new Athens office.
“Since last year, the interest for our services has increased almost exponentially,” he said.
Ongoing talks at the International Maritime Organization to adopt short-term environmental measures — such the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index and a Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) — have focused shipowners’ minds, according to Petersen.
“CII will become the ticket to operate,” he said.
VP Solutions is banking on its founders’ decade-long experience in measuring and analysing the fleet performance of European clients, which currently include Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Tankers and Dorian LPG.
Petersen worked as head of vessel performance at Maersk before founding the company in 2014, alongside former Maersk colleague and fellow naval architect Kristian Bendix Nielsen.
Their work at Maersk came as the cost of fossil fuel soared, which it stands to do again with the upcoming introduction of a carbon levy.
“Interest in vessel performance exploded during that period as the fuel price went from $140 per tonne to as high as $700 per tonne,” he said.
At Maersk, his job was to improve the vessel performance system that the company had had for 25 years. “Building a new system on top of their existing one was a gift from heaven,” he said.
VP Solutions has hired a team of naval architects and programmers to develop its own software to gather and analyse ship data for energy saving purposes.
“It can take away a lot of shipping companies’ burden,” said Petersen.
Growing the business
To expand its footprint in Greece, a physical presence in Athens was deemed necessary and assigned to Eirini Arvanitaki, who will head the Greek branch as managing director.
Arvanitaki is a naval engineer who met Petersen when they were both with classification society ABS in Copenhagen.
“Having been on the shipping company side, I know how important it is to feel you get the support that you need when you go into a project like this,” said Arvanitaki, who started her career at the technical department of Athens-based TMS Cardiff and also worked as fleet energy efficiency manager at Maersk Supply Service.
“I am here to grow the Greek business and support our clients both commercially and technically,” she said.
