Abs Office News

The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is launching a global ABS Electrification Center in Singapore to support maritime decarbonization projects.Comprised of ABS engineers and technical specialists, the center will support a range of cutting-edge electrification projects for shipowners, shipyards and other stakeholders across the Asia Pacific region and around the world, ABS said.The center will also provide support for the electrification of harbor and coastal craft aligned to the initiatives from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Leaders of the Greek Shipping Industry met to discuss decarbonization, capitalizing on data and digital technologies and vessel automation at the annual ABS Hellenic National Committee meeting.“We have deep relationships across the Greek shipping industry, which reflects our extensive investment in serving the needs of ship owners and operators here. Not only is our office in Piraeus the largest ABS office in Europe, but it is home to our Global Ships  Systems Center and an extensive team of experts on call 24 hours a day to assist with whatever challenges they face,” said Christopher J. Wiernicki, ABS Chairman, President and CEO, who actively participated in the Committee program.ABS…

Classification society ABS to relocate its Northern European regional marine operations office from London to Hamburg, Germany. “This relocation is part of ABS’ ongoing effort to place our frontline decision makers closer to our clients and be more responsive to their needs,” says ABS President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki. Wolfgang Buttgereit, Regional Vice President of Northern Europe, will lead the Hamburg team, focusing local efforts on challenges unique to the area and drawing on the extensive network of ABS resources around the globe to provide prompt and comprehensive solutions. Buttgereit, a 21-year veteran of ABS, is returning to Germany – where he previously served as Manager of ABS Germany – from his most recent assignment as Regional Vice President of Southern China.

Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine Inc. has teamed up with Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of The Great Lakes Towing Company, Cleveland, OH to create a state-of-the-art marine service center to improve and grow their respective vessel repair and overhaul businesses in the Great Lakes Region. The long-term agreement, effective June 1, 2011 is the latest stage in the development of a global Marine Service Center network, which brings the expertise of Rolls-Royce engineers to customers around the world. Rolls-Royce has opened seven Marine Service Center in the last two years and the global network now includes facilities in 34 countries. Rolls-Royce is in the business of manufacturing and selling propulsion systems and machinery…

ABS has relocated the center of the class society’s survey and administrative activities for the United Kingdom from London to Newcastle. ABS Country Manager for the UK, Colin Brookman, has moved to the existing ABS office in the north eastern city. “With management of our UK activities in Newcastle, an expansion of our Glasgow office, and London as our Divisional headquarters, we will be better positioned to meet the needs of all of our UK-based clients,” said William J. Sember, President and COO of the European Division of ABS. Sember, noting the resurgence of Newcastle and Glasgow as major shipping centers, also announced the relocation of District Principal Surveyor UK/Ireland, Steve Watts, from London to Glasgow to increase ABS representation in the important ship management center.

Effective 1 May, ABS will introduce changes to its global engineering organization designed to improve service delivery to clients and reinforce technical capabilities. The new organizational structure is similar to the approach the society has used to administer its global survey services in recent years and is intended to provide better administration of its ship and offshore engineering services, more technical support to the engineering staff conducting plan reviews and promote greater technical consistency. The key component of this new organizational structure is the creation of Assistant Chief Engineer (ACE) positions within each operating Division, reporting directly to the ABS Chief Engineer Robert Giuffra in the corporate headquarters in Houston.

ABS has further strengthened its commanding presence in Greece with the announcement of two senior managerial appointments. Dimitri Kostaras has been named to the newly created position of Director of Technology & Business Development for Eastern Europe. He will be located in the ABS office in Piraeus and report to ABS Europe Regional Vice President Dimitri Houliarakis. The 10 year ABS staff member is well known to the Greek and international shipping community from his previous activities as Manager Engineering for the ABS Europe Eastern Region and from previous appointments in Busan, Korea, working on newbuilding contracts. “ABS has maintained a very close relationship with the expanding Greek shipowning community for more than 50 years,” says Houliarakis.

ABS has released the new, Version 3.0 of its ABS SafeNet Survey Status program to more than 1,000 ship and vessel owners worldwide. Chief Information Officer. There are a number of new features incorporated into the web-based application, many as a result of valuable feedback from existing users. These include the ability for the shipowner to delegate access to the complete survey database of one or all the vessels within its fleet to any number of additional users, including each of the ships. Each vessel can be granted on-board access to its own survey status without the need for any on-site installation or maintenance. Another key feature is the Fleet Planning facility…