US class society ABS looks to be taking the battle for market share in the container ship market with its latest appointment in the sector.
Christoph Rasewsky, described as a “veteran container industry specialist” joined the class society in July as its new global container sector lead.
He is based in Hamburg the home of one of its largest competitors in the container ship market — Norway’s DNV.
The German city is the headquarters for DNV’s maritime activities following its merger with Germanischer Lloyd.
ABS said Rasewsky brings “extensive experience” in management consultancy for the maritime industry and is said to specialise in ultra-large container ships.
“He has advised on a wide range of services, bringing deep insight on areas including newbuilds, operational improvements, efficiency improvement measures, big data analytics, vessel benchmarking, life cycle cost analysis and savings potential,” the class society said.
Before joining ABS Rasewsky ran his own independent boutique consultancy OCEANS ONE based in Hamburg providing management consultancy expertise to owners of container vessels in the 10,000-teu to 24,000-teu segments.
He has also had stints with German liner giant Hapag Lloyd and the Port de Barcelona as well as previous roles with TECHNOLOG and Hamburg Port Consulting.
“ABS is the leading class society in the container ship market, and the first to class LNG-powered container ships and the only class working with methanol-powered vessels,” said Vassilios Kroustallis, ABS senior vice president, global business development.
“We support many of the very largest vessels in the global fleet as well as the biggest operators and have a proud record of innovation and technological advances.
“By appointing Christoph, we are underscoring our commitment to offering clients the highest levels of service and the latest thinking on technology and operations,” Kroustallis added.
From the voyage of the first container ship, Ideal X, in 1956, ABS says it has been at the “forefront of providing classification and technical services for container ships operating around the world”.
DNV has the largest market share in the container ship sector with 1,771 ships of just over 9m-teu capacity, according to the latest data from Clarksons.
ABS is in second place with 674 vessels of almost 4.4m-teu, with Lloyd’s Register in third place with 579 ships of 3.3m-teu.
