In addition, the Norwegian-headquartered company, recorded increased business activity in key shipping areas, such as Northwest Europe, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean, while segments, such as offshore were showing signs of recovery.
“It’s a multi-faceted picture, with a range of developments on a number of fronts,” said new CEO Leiv Kallestad, “but the over-arching message is one of positivity – the market, and our business, is picking up.”
Kallestad, who joined Optimarin from TTS in May, said the imminent deadline for IMO D2 ballast water compliance - 8th September, 2019 - is an obvious driver, but so too is the careful groundwork put in by a company that has been exclusively focused on BWTS for the past 25 years.
Kallestad said that Optimarin had recorded a 100% increase in sales in the first six months of the year, with uplifts across most geographical regions and ship types.
He noted that retrofitting was, unsurprisingly, where the majority of the ‘action’ was at present.
“The existing global fleet must comply with IMO and USCG regulations,” he explained, “owners can’t put these decisions off any longer as IOPP (International Oil Pollution Prevention) certificates are expiring, and that is stimulating activity.
“We’re seeing that in a much decreased lag-time between initial quotes and final orders, decisions that used to take many months, in some cases years, are now being made quickly, efficiently and confidently.
“There has been a natural inclination to defer retrofits for as long as possible, but in order to ensure compliance and avoid potential bottlenecks, shipowners have to get moving on their retrofit programmes now. It’s not advisable to wait until the last possible day, and I think awareness of that fact is growing,” he said.
The Optimarin CEO also said the business benefited from a track record in retrofitting, with strong partnerships with engineering companies, Goltens and Zeppelin working as a foundation to build market advantage. The company has now installed close to 600 systems worldwide, of which around 45% were retrofits.
Optimarin was also benefiting from after sales. Kallestad described the market as entering a phase of ‘normalisation’ whereby the sales process was accelerating and service activities increasing, as systems accumulate operational hours.