SUCCESSFUL CLIENT STORIES
84 company had designed ships that had been
and were being built in China. For you to
enter the Chinese market with a western
design partner, the partner has to have the
references to make the shipyard understand
and believe that this venture doesn’t involve
too many risks. So, the choice of a design
partner is a very complex issue and a
combination of things.”
Koskinen has interesting memories from the
negotiation process in China. “It’s common
to negotiate for 24 hours straight, sleep for four
hours, and then come back. The shipyard will
bully the owner over the contract. Similarly, the
shipyard will bully the design company and
haggle over the price they’re willing to pay for
the design. Chinese people will typically use
all the time you give them. That’s just how it
goes. Sometimes it means that you won’t agree
on anything, no matter how small, if there’s too
much time. It’s very different from the Finnish
way where you will try to solve the little details
quickly. In China, those little details can be
huge and a matter of principle. But that’s just a
cultural difference.”
“All projects proceed through trial and
error. At some point in the designing, we
decided that we wanted the ships to be LNGpowered.
That then became the basis of our
design, as we saw how the market changed
over the course of the two years that the
designing took,” says Koskinen, explaining
the reasons why they chose LNG-powered
ships. “The project went really well at the
time. Deltamarin had seasoned designers with
Viikki, ESL Shipping’s
first LNG-powered
handy-size bulk carrier
built at Qingshan
Shipyard in China.
(PHOTO: ESL SHIPPING / OLLI
TUOMINEN)