HERNIS Asia has made good progress in the first 9 months of 2009 despite the challenging external environment. Most markets and segments have held up better than expected. However, the oil & gas segment is significantly down compared to last year. Just a few new projects have been seen coming into the market.
The overall performance is helped by early steps taken to improve productivity by sharing insight and pursuing new opportunities and by switching resources to aftermarket and the onshore segment. Our key priority the first 9 months has been to improve our relations with our agents and customers by developing strong partnership. One of the key actions taken to do so has been to establish a project management department. Another is the newly signed service agent agreement with Dan Marine in China.
Going forward, our approach is to build up the pipeline of new prospects and to focus more on the aftermarket and the onshore segment capabilities by a leverage effort through our distribution channels. In addition, we are aiming to strengthen the presence of our agents in growth areas, such as Vietnam and Indonesia. On a longer term, we are assessing the advantages of establishing an assembly and test department in Singapore in order to strengthen our presence in the Asian market further.
Prospects HERNIS Asia expects that its market will continue to be affected by reduced demand and the impact of financial constrains, especially within the oil & gas segment, but it is always difficult to predict the depth and duration of a recession. However, the expectation is that the overall order intake for the year will continue to grow and that the prospect for 2010 will be broadly similar to 2009.
Events
For HERNIS Asia, there are 2 more major upcoming events this year – the Customer’s Appreciation Dinner - which will be held at the Marriott Hotel on November 6th and Marintec 2009 in Shanghai, China on Dec. 1-4 where HERNIS will be present with our own booth as one of the Norwegian Maritime Exporters exhibiting on the Norwegian Pavilion.
