Finland firm looking at joint ventures for ship design, operation software

Bangalore, Feb. 26: 

The Finland-based ship design software company Napa (Naval Architectural PAckage) is looking for joint ventures and business partnerships from Indian engineering companies to provide basic services in ship design and ship operation software in the country.

The Finnish company writes software solutions for shipyards and ship operators for design and operation of ships and works on safety and energy efficiency of vessels.

Talking to Business Line recently, Mr Juha Heikinheimo, President of the Napa group, observed that most shipyards in India were present in the latter part of the process and “we can provide initial assistance in a joint venture.”

Three stages

Ship design and ship building is done in three stages - conceptual, basic and detailed – and according to Mr Heikinheimo, most Indian shipyards work on the detailed design and operations segment while work in the conceptual and basic levels are outsourced.

“There is a growing marine industry in India and we have a lot of potential customers.

According to Mr Heikinheimo, the fuel consumption of ships would reduce by about eight per cent on using Napa's solutions and several companies were now beginning to realise the benefits of this and, hence, sees a huge opportunities in the Indian market as well for their solutions.

Napa has a presence in India — the country serves Indian entities such as Mazagaon Dockyard, Bharti Shipyards and L&T in designing and building naval and commercial vessels and also has an establishment here from where it provides ship design services to its global customers.

To increase workforce

Mr Heinkinheimo said that Napa plans to increase its workforce in India in a move to develop India as its global platform to provide its ship design solutions. It intends to hire from top notch naval architecture universities here, he said.

Napa's largest customer base is Korea, followed by Japan and China, and with India providing a good geographical location, “it won't be long distances to neighbouring countries so we have plans to develop India as global base to other commercial areas,” Mr Heikinheimo said.

sushma.un@thehindu.co.in

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Finland firm looking at joint ventures for ship design, operation software