After years in the wake of the global shipping crisis, global supplier of deck and cargo handling equipment MacGregor is transforming its business. President Michel van Roozendaal talked exclusively to HANSA about the strategy for the future
This strategy contains a transformation of the organisation to be more lifecycle-oriented and therefore more owner/operator-oriented. »That[ds_preview] is were the more relevant relationship is«, van Roozendaal says. The intention is to make it clear to investors that MacGregor has the ambition to have one third or more of the revenue coming from business with the actual operators. »Overall you make the operational characteristics of the vessel much more predictable. As engineering driving organization in the past, people were so much focussed on building beautiful pieces of equipment. The service was perhaps not really at the same level of priority that it deserves to be. And that is basically what I focussed on during the last 3,5 years«, the President emphasizes. »In the past, we sold the equipment predominantly to shipyards. To be lifecycle-oriented we will be able to add value to optimize the operational efficiency and not least lower the carbon footprint.«
In addition and in the context of digitalization, he sees that in the traditional maritime industry there is a lot of scope for beta-driven solutions. »We are participating in that. One of our recent innovations are fully autonomous cranes.« Van Roozendall expects the development to be a step-by-step evolution to autonomous shipping with focussing on the cargo handling as contribution from Cargotec.
One project, where the group is involved, is »Yara Birkeland«, which will be a fully-electric and autonomous container feeder vessel from 2022. MacGregor provides the mooring system, its sister Kalmar the cargo handling equipment. Cargotec has the objective to become a leader in intelligent cargo handling. »Another project is driven by local finnish operator called ESL. Our contributions are the autonomous cranes«, the President says.
In general, in the balance sheet of MacGregor the value of the equipment sales is larger than the one of the pure service. Van Roozendaal and his colleagues observed, that in the huge shipping crisis, many people have held back several maintenance investments. As supplier, MacGregor wants to put a lot of efforts in becoming a better partner for the customers. According to the manager, the service business is at a very comparable level to before the downturn. For him, that is »in itself positive«. Positive from his point of view is, that there is a relatively low scrapping level »and that means that operators will need to maintain the integrity of the assets«.
Roozendaal acknowledges, that some customers try to point out where MacGregor had challenges in the past. In a way that is okay for him, »in terms that we can learn. We don’t want to stay in our ivory tower. I am sure that there were elements where we have not delivered the best service.« A lot of these problems were supply chain issues in the industry. Volumes have come down so much that certain suppliers have focussed their attention elsewhere. »The whole supply chain is not that smooth than it was. We have had a few cases where we had to perform miracles in order to make sure that we are supplying on time«, Roozendaal expains.
Fur suppliers it is a challenge when people are saving money and are also trying to postpone investments, a narrow ridge. »Of course we have a wide range of competitors and also lower cost competitors, but we need to always carefully balance between what our products do for our customers and what they cost. We need to make sure that we don’t develop an engineering dream that is not relevant for our customers. However, you don’t want to compromise safety. You need to find the right balance that the equipment is fit for purpose and not over-qualified«, he says.
»Participate in all these markets«
Asked about potential future markets and the announced joint venture with Chinese shipbuilding group CSSC, van Roozendaal emphasizes the context, namely the planned acquisition of the Norwegian supplier TTS, who has several deep contacts to China. »In China in particular the desire of the government is quite clear to support the maritime industry and the way how we can participate is to be connected to the most relevant state-owned group of shipyards without limiting ourselves«, he says. China, Japan, Korea will all remain very strong shipbuilding countries, van Roozendaal adds. »We need to participate in all these markets, including China, but not just in China.« MacGregor is open for more cooperations, the president confirms on-going conversations. His company already has strong ties to Korea and Japan, as well as with shipyard industries in Europe. »There, maybe not so much the GT but the value is still very relevant. Therefore it is very important for us to stay there. As we have the ambition to be a global player and a leader, we need to have strategies that are specific to all the countries where shipbuilding and shipowning is relevant«, van Roozendaal concludes.
»Painful exercise«
Talking about the necessary restructuring, the president named the effects of the shipping crisis a »very painful exercise«. MacGregor adjusted the cost structure due to the reduced demand. 2015 already some job cuts were announced, 2017 another program was initiated with a downsizing of 10% staff. »That has at least so far worked out positively for us because as one of the few players in the market we have maintained so far a positive result«, the manager explains. Are more restructuring projects necessary? »We now look forward to see how the market itself will move forward and based on that, we will decide how we need to adjust our cost structure«.
From a geographical perspective, he does not expect any dramatic changes. However, with the acquisition of Rapp Marine in early 2018, the company expanded its footprint in fishery and research. »Another area we look at is blue economy, one example are floating windmills. And I guess there are many more areas, where we will expand, all connected to that blue economy.«
