ClassNK reports another record year

JANUARY 30, 2015 — Reporting its registration totals for 2014, ClassNK  says that for the fourth straight year it registered over 20 million gt in new tonnage.

At the end of December 2014, the Tokyo headquartered classification society had a total of 8,872 vessels on its register with a combined total of 232,871,435 gt.

Over the course of the year, 833 new vessels with a combined total of 21,466,272 joined the register. The continued growth comes in spite of a global downturn in the market that has seen newbuilding deliveries fall by an estimated 15% according to Clarkson Research Services. ClassNK registered a total of 548 newbuildings with a combined total of over 16 million gt, or more than 25% of all newly built tonnage in 2014 based on Clarkson’s figures.

Transfers from other societies reached a record 285 vessels in 2014 and included ClassNK’s first U.S.-flagged and German-flagged vessels. These successes follow ClassNK’s establishment of new Survey Operations Headquarters in New York and Hamburg to complement its existing survey headquarters in Tokyo and better serve clients in Europe and North America. Continuing trends from previous years, European shipowners, led by German and Greek owners, accounted for roughly half of all transfers to the NK register in 2014.

“At ClassNK, we strive to deliver the highest level of service as the only classification society offering 24/7 assistance 365 days a year and ClassNK’s growing register reflects our ability to meet the changing needs of the industry,” says ClassNK Chairman and President Mr. Noboru Ueda. In addition to the establishment of our Survey Operations Headquarters in Hamburg and New York last year, the acquisition of software leaders NAPA and Helm Operations has enabled us to widen the scope of our activities throughout Europe and North America to better serve the global maritime industry.”