Rapp Marine Wins Two New Contracts in China!

Rapp Marine has been chosen as the supplier of advanced equipment packages for two new oceanographic research vessels for the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, GMGS, and Polar Research Institute of China, PRIC.

"The contracts were awarded in a highly competitive market against strong international competition. The choice fell on Rapp Marine since we can offer the best technological solutions, we have extensive experience with these types of deliveries, and because we were able to offer competitive terms", explains CEO Mr. Helge Vatnehol.

The award reaffirms Rapp Marine's leading position for advanced research equipment in the international market as a whole, and in particular the Asian market, where the company has won most of the contracts allocated in recent years.

The deliveries are highly advanced technologically and wholly developed in Bodø, where most of the detail engineering will also take place. Production will be from the new factory in Serbia.

"We have worked long and hard to land these contracts, so this is a joyful occasion" declares Ms. Tove Pettersen, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, adding that:

"Most maritime nations are working on plans to build ocean-going research vessels and we are involved in exciting processes for a number of similar projects, apart from which we also see an increasing demand from the fishery sector".

Rapp Marine is currently delivering systems for eight similar vessels, and thanks to this process and earlier deliveries, the company has built up a solid knowledge base both for operation and use of the equipment, as well as its design and production. All this puts Rapp Marine in a unique position to offer advice and guidance to customers and offer optimal solutions for the operations they plan to conduct.

"These contract awards may be extremely gratifying, but we will continue to depend on our ability to conclude more orders to ensure sound, profitable continuing development. We are very confident that we can do that, and there are many exciting contract awards in the months ahead that we are working really hard to secure," promises Vatnehol.

"This is a great compliment to management and the strong professionalism that has evolved within Rapp Marine Group and particularly here in Bodø," says Board Chairman, Mr. Bjørn Hesthamar.

Rapp Marine:

- The principal owners are Tromsø-based investors Nord Kapitalforvaltning AS.
- Rapp Marine is a leading global supplier of advanced deck machinery for shipping and oil industry customers worldwide. Formerly trading as Rapp Hydema, the company has garnered more than 100 years of experience developing deck machinery and equipment, including proprietary and innovative fishery winches, cranes and cargo-handling systems for commercial workboats for more than 40 years.
- Rapp Marine is today one of the world's largest supplier of specialty cranes and other deck machinery for deep-sea research vessels.
- The company unveiled its new and highly modern mechanical workshop in Serbia in 2014.
- The Head Office and Technical Division are situated in Bodø, Norway. There are also sales, service and production activities in 17 other locations around the world, including offices in Seattle, WA, USA and Peterhead, SCT, UK. Currently Rapp Marine employs a workforce of 317, 66 in the corporate hub in Bodø.

Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (GMGS):

- The GMGS order is for an Oceanographic Research Vessel.
- The vessel will engage in surveillance, research and advisory services. Onboard are laboratories and workstations used to collect the data that is analyzed by researchers and scientific advisors.
- GMGS comes under the auspices of the China Geological Survey (CGS), Ministry of Land and Resources. It is a huge national research institution working on planning and implementation of research at the national level.
- GMGS employs a staff of 800 people.
- GMGS partners with other research institutes, both nationally and internationally, including projects with USA, Germany and Russia.

Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC):

- This vessel is an ice-breaker of 122.5 meters length overall.
- It is the first ice-breaker to be built in China.
- A research team from PRIC will operate the vessel in the Southern Ocean, with a view to supplying China's Antarctic Zhongshan Station.
- PRIC was founded in 1989 as a non-profit organization reporting directly to the State Ocean Administration.
- PRIC is also the only organization in China that has specialized in polar expeditions. Today they operate the Xue Long, a vessel that will work together with the new ice-breaker to supply and assist researchers at the Antarctic Zhongshan Station.
- PRIC has 124 employees, 41 are research staff, 34 are the maritime crew. Other teams work in support and manage the operations.