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Fleet joins online club to lure owners
By Keith Wallis, Hong Kong iMail |
| FLEET Management has become the latest ship-management company in Hong Kong to offer shipowners an online vessel condition-and-management system. The firm, owned by Noble Group, the Hong Kong-headquartered, Singapore-listed commodities trading and shipping company, is due to take its site - www .fleetship.com - live on April 3. Richard Elman, Noble Group chairman, told iBusiness that owners would have their own page that would give details of a ship's crew, including qualifications and licences, ship positions, classification surveys and operating costs. Previously, this information has only been available in regular paper-based reports. Mr Elman said: ``The website makes things more dynamic and means we can do it.'' He added that not only does the online facility increase transparency between owners and shipmanagers, but managers who fail to do it ``are going to lose business''. Fleet Management currently manages 47 ships, including 10 that were added last year. All the vessels are ``world class quality tonnage'' and the latest ships are all newbuildings. Mr Elman said the group's shipping business, which includes Noble Chartering in addition to Fleet Management, contributed about a third to total earnings of US$21.1 million (HK$164.5 million) last year. ``Shipping was very good last year,'' he said. Noble joins at least two other Hong Kong-based, ship-management companies - Anglo-Eastern and Wallem - that have both launched online vessel-management systems for owners. Anglo-Eastern Ship Management chairman Peter Cremers said rival ship managers have similar systems, but believed: ``Ours is the first to have an exclusive database which allows superintendents and owners to access past and present technical reports, audits as well as accounting reports and financial analysis for each vessel.'' The system also allows superintendents to upload photographs as inspections are being carried out to Anglo-Eastern's managed fleet of about 75 ships. Mr Cremers added: ``We expect this system to be of great benefit because it will allow our superintendents to check past records from anywhere in the world for any ship they are on.'' The password-protected system took Anglo-Eastern's own computer staff about two years to develop. The ship manager has equipped each superintendent with his own personal laptop and digital camera so they can add their own assessment to a ship's technical records. Reports covering drydocking, repairs, conversion work and other day-to-day operations can also be stored. The inspections cover a vast amount of details, including a general summary giving the last and present survey and the condition of the hull, rudder, main deck, ballast water, structure and engine. The technical report covers the hull, deck equipment, cargo, machinery, electrics, bridge and ratings, while a follow-up report details the work recommended for the deck and machinery. The dry dock report includes general comments about the yard being used, cost, staff, agents, surveyors, past and current surveys and details about the ship covering hull, rudder, anchors, propeller and maintenance, There is also a record of letters to the master about the ship's condition and the work to be carried out following the inspection together with correspondence between Anglo-Eastern and suppliers, classification societies and other organisations. Each owner has access to all inspection reports together with up-to-date account records that include weekly profit and loss, operating expenses, a quarterly review of crew, ship performance and quarterly budget and cost comparisons. Wallem Shipmanagement has been using its online system both as a management tool for owners and as a procurement hub for more than 18 months. Wallem managing director Gerry Buchanan said: ``We have been securely publishing full financial reports onto the web since the summer of 1998. This included true line item accounting and invoice images.'' Wallem general manager procurement M ark Haslett said: ``Because of real time reporting, owners can see the full picture on operating costs as it is today, not as it was at the end of last month. The Web was, and remains, the only logical step for us to make information available to our offices and to any of our principals or even to a superintendent travelling around the world.'' Keith Wallis |
| 10 March 2001 / 12:51 AM |
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