Sliedrecht: IHC Merwede’s traditional focus on European clients has shifted dramatically in the past couple of years, with Asia to the fore, and plans to grow elsewhere notably Brazil and Australia.
Govert Hamers, president of the Dutch shipbuilder, tells Maritime CEO: “We have realized what we need to be positioned well after the crisis is over we wanted to have a worldwide presence, not just salesman flying every now and then, we want to have a number of regional headquarters with knowledge people and decision power who are close to the market.”
A lot in market development and product development has gone through IHC Merwede’s Singapore office lately. Part of the sales is coming with a recent tie up with local offshore player, Jaya Holdings – see related story at the bottom of this article.
In China the company has been active for more than 100 years already, but Hamers says, “Now we are further improving our operations there.”
The Australian and Brazillian markets are also being eyed. “Brazil will be an important place for our regional development. We are in the process of putting up a supporting office in Brazil for our project with Petrobas,” Hamers says.
On the shipbuilding downturn Hamers thinks the downturn is not over, with still too much overcapacity and prices still likely to drop further.
Nevertheless, the market segments IHC Merwede serves such as dredging, offshore construction, and mining, “they are doing relatively well,” Hamers says.
“In general, I don’t think the crisis in shipbuilding is over yet, but in our market segments, there are healthy activities,” he concludes. [08/05/13]
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