Big things are in the air at Dockwise. Since going public on the Dutch stock exchange last December, the heavy marine transportation specialist has been putting together an ambitious five-year growth plan for its traditional core business and two key bolt-on activities, topsides floatover installation and logistical management.
In the current uncertain economic climate, the company's urbane chief commercial officer Martin Adler is understandably reluctant to go into precise detail. Watch this space, he says. But he does reveal that Dockwise is looking to become a ‘billion-plus company' within five years and that nurturing ‘the right kind of relationships and partnerships' will be key to achieving that goal.
‘It's a very bumpy road for Dockwise at this point, bumpy in the sense that there are a lot of things happening at the same time in a market circumstance that is perhaps not optimal,' he explains. ‘We want to be a billion-plus company – I think it will be closer to a billion-and-a-half – in the next five years, and we have a plan to get there. But we need a bit of help. We need a more stable market circumstance; we need partnerships and relationships that support our business.
‘I'm a strong believer in partnerships because they make you more diversified, share risk and extend skills and intelligence networks. They drive relationships from a different angle. The trick is to get the right partnerships in place. You could have many bad relationships and partnerships or a few very good ones, and I believe in the second,' says Adler.
‘So we are very selective in forming partnerships. That sounds arrogant but it's not meant that way,' Adler declares. ‘It comes down to what is potentially the best partnership for Dockwise, and appreciating that the company has yet to achieve the kind of critical mass that will make people come to us. The management team is leaning instead on the networking relationships that they bring to Dockwise to create partnerships that the company had not previously considered.
‘We are working hard on that and in line with this strategy we are making fantastic progress.'
Adler will have learned a thing or three about networking in the oil & gas business during his lengthy tenure with Fluor and latterly as senior vice president of Stone & Webster. He joined Dockwise at its Breda head office in 2008 and as well as being responsible for global sales and marketing he oversees the company's offices in Houston, Rio de Janeiro, Busan, Shanghai, Singapore, Perth and Moscow. And he is not short of strong support and expert networking guidance from the top, with industry luminaries such as former Acergy boss Tom Ehret and Rowan Companies retiree Danny McNease serving as non-executive directors on the Dockwise board.
Adler says Dockwise is already a ‘totally different' company from the one that operated as part of the Heerema stable four or five years back. ‘Back then the company was relatively small, run by a few sharp professionals looking to become independent and step out of the mother comfort zone. Going public brings with it a lot of responsibility. Now we are on our own feet and in terms of people, intangible assets and also assets, there have been big changes. And I think change is good; it keeps you sharp.'
A key growth area in the short term, Adler believes, is use of the company's vessels for topsides installation by the floatover technique. Making that happen requires a lot more by way of in-company skills and capabilities than just ‘doing the trick', he says, adding that he is now satisfied the company has all the appropriate skills and capabilities - in areas such as project engineering and management, procurement, risk management, financial control and communications – firmly in place. ‘All this knowhow is needed to be successful and make money on a project.'
Market share is increasing in this sector and Adler sees plenty of upside. He says continued development of Dockwise's floatover expertise – especially in the 10,000-25,000t topsides and integrated deck range – has helped differentiate it from the competition to the extent that it is now being asked to perform studies and participate in the very early phases of projects. He cites as an example the approximately $100 million contract the company has with Russia's Vyborg shipyard to employ its T-class vessels and the Black Marlin in the transport and ‘floating-floatover' of the 19,000t topsides built in Korea for two Arctic class drilling/production semisubmersibles destined eventually to serve on Gazprom's giant Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea (OE April 2009).
‘Today we are pursuing projects that are very challenging technology-wise and people are coming to us because they know it's our field,' Adler notes. ‘Whereas we started say ten years ago with 5-6000t floatovers, we are now talking about 30,000t, 40,000t and even 50,000t topsides – and with air gaps of over 30m you can imagine that stability takes on another dimension.'
Heavy marine transportation remains Dockwise's core business but with more and more competition arriving in the sector from China and elsewhere the company may have its work cut out to defend its current 70% market share in this sector. ‘Being a leader is always difficult, and staying on target is a challenge, but we will find ways to keep our market-leading position, perhaps even improve it,' says Adler. ‘Whether it's transporting jackups or semis, we are good at that. And the heavier or more complex these structures are the better for Dockwise because we have the expertise and that's where we differentiate. We are a niche player, a quality brand in very high-end markets and the plan is to stay that way.
‘We are ambitious and we want to do more than just the transportation – getting involved in engineering, procurement and so on. And we are at that stage where we talk with various oil companies to become their preferred contractor to perform an EPIC portion of work. We are getting closer to them directly instead of being a subcontractor, and that's our ambition.'
The third leg in the growth strategy – logistical management – is a longer term initiative but Adler sees huge market potential in it and believes his company may hold many if not all of the aces. Basically it involves optimising the logistical flexibility and opportunities presented by the Dockwise fleet – among them the world's largest semisubmersible transport ship – for module transportation and installation on major onshore projects such as LNG terminals, refineries and petrochemical plants.
‘The fact that many such projects are today being built or planned in remote areas, and will get larger over time, convinces us that in this business there will be a fundamental change from stickbuilt to modular construction, or at least a balance between the two,' notes Adler.
‘Here we believe clients can benefit from access to a diverse fleet of 20 vessels, not just one or two, and many of our vessels lend themselves to multi-tasking. If you can manage a fleet of 20 vessels, you can also manage the sequence onboard of 20 to 50 modules, and I think that is an ace card. Then if we would find a partner with wheels who can help us to get the modules on the concrete we would be a one-stop shop. That's the strategy we are going for,' declares Adler, giving his clearest hint yet of one of the potential new business relationships that may be under discussion.
‘The short-term heavy marine transportation business objectives and then our longer-term projects like logistical management will help us stabilise the business and get more predictable, more sustainable,' Adler concludes. ‘That's what the shareholders want to see from Dockwise: "backlog, backlog, backlog".' OE
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