The Shipbuilding Market – February Lunch Meeting

The February lunch meeting of the Texas Section was held on February 14^th at the Westchase Hilton. The meeting was very well attended with almost 80 people showing up to hear about the current state of the shipbuilding market. The presentation was given by Per-Christian Fett who is with the Houston office of Fearnley Consultants. Per-Christian gave a broad overview of the global shipbuilding industry and the trends. Fearnley’s data indicates a slight downturn in demand for all three major categories (bulk-carriers, container ships and tankers) following the record year of 2003. There was continued growth for the smaller categories such as offshore, LPG and ro-ro vessels. The outlook for the industry is still good with demand expected to remain at a high level for the next few years.

Lars Ronning, Section Chair (right), thanking February presenter, Per-Christian Fett of Fearnley Consultants. (click for bigger picture)

Prior to the start of Mr. Fett’s presentation, the Texas Section held its annual election of officers. Nomination Chair, Eldon Robison of Bureau Veritas, announced the nominees and invited additional nominees from the floor. The following individuals were elected to office starting their terms in September 2006:

Section Chair: Donald Burris, Atlantia Offshore

Section Vice-Chair: Harry Ren, Diamond Offshore

Section Secretary/Treasurer: Christina Wang, ABS

Member-at-large: Johan Wichers, Marin USA

Newly elected officers: (from left to right) Harry Ren, Donald Burris and Christina Wang. Not present – Johan Wichers.

The Texas Section introduced the award for Section Top Recruiter in September 2005. With the assist from SNAME HQ to collect recruitment data for 2005, Section Chair Lars Ronning presented Regional Vice-President, Peter Noble with the Top Recruiter Award for 2005.

Section Chair, Lars Ronning (right), presents 2005 Texas Section Top Recruiter Award to Peter Noble, Regional Vice-President.

Peter proceeded to give a brief report on the Mentor pilot-program he has initiated in the Texas Section. This pilot-program is designed to pair young professionals in our society with established individuals for knowledge sharing and networking opportunities. The goal is to extend this program to all SNAME sections.