Could you describe the history of Elomatic?
Henrik Bachér: Elomatic is a leading European consulting and engineering company, and a global provider of Cadmatic, the 3D ship and plant design software. The privately owned company was founded 45 years ago to serve the Finnish shipbuilding industry, and has since grown to provide multidisciplinary consulting, engineering, product development and project management services, as well as products and turnkey concepts in a wide range of industrial fields within the maritime sectors and on shore. Today, our team of 800 professionals serves customers from offices around the world.
Can you give an overview of the company’s Life Cycle Solutions?
Elomatic’s marine Life Cycle Solutions (LCS) provides a wide range of services for shipowners and other stakeholders within the maritime community. The assignments may be specific one-off studies, or comprehensive design and engineering projects. As the name indicates, they cover any phase throughout the vessel’s whole life cycle. In addition to standard naval architecture design and consultancy services, the services include sophisticated operability studies, structural and safety analyses, energy efficiency studies, and simulations to aid smooth operation and solve potential problems on board. Vessel upgrades and environmental retrofit support are also part of LCS services.
Why are environmental retrofits important to Elomatic, and what is key to a successful retrofit?
Elomatic has always integrated environmental thinking into its work. The stringent environmental legislation in the Baltic Sea region has, over the years, formed a natural basis for this approach. We have been involved in a vast number of environmental technology retrofits ranging from sulphur scrubbers, SCR plants and conversions of heavy fuel oil to LNG and fuel-saving solutions to wastewater treatment plant upgrades. A successful retrofit is based on a systematic approach including efficient preparation, design and planning. Elomatic was a pioneer in introducing laser scanning as a tool to form an exact input for the 3D retrofit design work. This also enables a high degree of prefabrication to minimise the off-hire period during the installation phase.
Why should customers choose Elomatic for their shipbuilding needs?
Our mission is to give our customers a competitive edge and make them more successful. Our philosophy has always been to take the customer’s lead. Identifying their needs and creatively finding solutions to their problems is our way of working. We call it ‘intelligent engineering’. Our experience and track record are proof that it works. Moreover, we have the unique opportunity to combine design and software development resources under the global Elomatic control and management to guarantee excellent quality of services and products.
How will the new ballast water treatment system convention affect your business?
The road for the convention to enter into force has been long and bumpy, the latest now being the outcome of MEPC 71. We have continued a limited number of retrofits, however. We have always tried to encourage our customers to act early; if you do your homework properly it’s more beneficial in the long run. We expect to pick up a larger share of the business once the deadline approaches. But there is advantage to acting early, since the design capacity on the market may get bottlenecked if decisions are late.
What plans does Elomatic have for the future?
We have a good workload and are still growing. The booming global cruise business offers many opportunities. There is also a ‘digitalisation hype’ within the maritime industry. To this end, we have ‘EloWise’, Elomatic’s information management product. Regarding environmental retrofits, we are focusing on enlarged scopes of delivery and strengthening our network in order to be able to provide more efficient tailored turnkey solutions. Not that we’re limited to retrofits – we work on a wide front and feel very positive about the future.
