Kvaerner’s Sea Launch project: a space Odyssey

Date: 03/12/1998

By Bruce Barnard

KVAERNER has proved that Europe can still compete in the world shipbuilding market if it concentrates on specialised vessels such as cruise liners and liquefied natural gas carriers.

It has also turned the Warnow Werft yard in the former Communist eastern Germany into one of Europe's most efficient and competitive builders of container ships.

But it is getting harder to protect specialised niche markets as order-hungry Korean yards cast around for new business, amid industry speculation that they are even considering a move into the cruise market, currently the preserve of Finland, Germany, Italy and France.

Kvaerner broke new ground with its Sea Launch joint venture with US aerospace giant Boeing and Russian and Ukrainian rocket companies, which will fire its first commercial satellite into space next September from a command ship and a launch vessel built at Kvaerner yards in Norway, Russia and Scotland.

During a recent trial off California, the mission control vessel Commander used satellite communications to remotely control the Odyssey launch ship, which weighs 64,000 tons, is 20 storeys high, 210 metres long and 120 metres wide, and was anchored three miles away.

A successful launch in the Pacific Ocean would boost Kvaerner's profile, but it would not lead to many repeat orders.

Kvaerner's shipbuilding operations are still turning a profit, but net income fell to 31.6 million ecu in the first nine months of 1998 from 128.2 million ecu in the same period a year earlier. Its combined order book is valued at 4.4 billion ecu, but a yard in Scotland and two in Norway are running out of work.