The Danish company Viking Life-Saving Equipment broke into the offshore market last year with numerous licensing deals with new customers. Since then, the market has proven to be less favorable than expected, due to the drastic plunge in oil prices which not only has paralyzed Viking's customers but the entire offshore industry from the major oil companies to the smallest suppliers.

"The offshore market has retreated a lot in the last nine months and it will definitely stay bumpy for a while longer. The consequence for us is basically that a number of oil fields are not profitable and this means that there will be a decline in the number of new projects we can serve as suppliers for. Meanwhile there will be shipowners in the offshore sector that will push some existing projects back. We know, of course, that when profits are under pressure you have to look at expenses and this is happening to a large extent for our customers right now," says Henrik Uhd Christensen, CEO of Viking Life-Saving Equipment in an interview with ShippingWatch.