Overall, 2021 was a good year for the Norwegian classification society, which landed its best result on record when looking at the ebit-result.

The year was especially good for the maritime business area, Chief Executive Remi Eriksen tells ShippingWatch in an interview.

The maritime business area ended the year with revenue of NOK 7,464m (USD 850m), which is a decline by 1,2 percent, but after currency value adjustment, growth came to plus 1,9 percent last year.

”2021 was a good year and the best through all time … Maritime had an especially good 2021, we saw customer satisfaction increasing and we secured 30% of newbuilding orders, measured in tonnage,” Eriksen tells ShippingWatch.

DNV’s operating profit of NOK 2,646m in 2021 was, according to the company, the best result to date.

What was most significant, however, he says, was that a large amount – about one third – of the newbuild tonnage to DNV was for ships with alternative fuels and predominantly liquefied natural gas (LNG).

DNV Maritime CEO Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen has previously mentioned to ShippingWatch that the company sees LNG as the main candiate among alternative fuels for at least another 10-15 years. Eriksen confirms to ShippingWatch that the classification society is still of this opinion.

Booming shipping market

The shipping market, and especially the container segment, has experienced a red-hot market the last year and a half, and as such, the newbuild numbers have also increased.

According to DNV’s annual report, overall orders doubled compared to the levels seen in 2020 and reached a total of 2,042 ships – with the container sector growing the most, followed by dry bulk.

This market increase has had an impact on DNV’s bottom lines across business segments.

”Of the total orders placed in 2021, the container segment constituted 47% where DNV secured a 41% market share with quite a lot of the newbuilds with LNG as fuel.”

Eriksen tells ShippingWatch that he already sees the trend continuing.

”We can already see now that the boom is continuing this year. But in the smaller teu-sizes, from 15,000 teu and all the way down into the feeder segments. We also see that the demand for LNG vessels is increasing, and we expect that we will see some more demand for tankers during the year,” he explains.

Strategy change

2021 also marked a full year in operation with a completely revamped strategy.

Eriksen says that for 2021, the maritime business area achieved the goals set for the year, and that the plan is, of course, to keep moving forward with digitalization taking a big chunk of the focus.

”We are working on supporting our customers in making the hard decisions that they have to make going forward [regarding fuel, efficient vessels etc, -ed.]. We succeeded in having expertise in the correct areas in 2021 to aid our customers when making sound decisions when ordering ships.”

Going forward, he explains, DNV will keep its focus on helping shippers and charterers improve their transparency regarding their ESG footprint.

Specifically, DNV has created a fully digital technical solution where emissions data is collected to promote transparency, which will give both shippers and charterers a complete overview of individual vessels and entire fleets.

Eriksen states that this level of transparency is coming increasingly into demand from other players in the industry such as banks and insurers.

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