Wärtsilä signs first Global Customer Agreement

Wärtsilä Corporation, Trade press release 6 May 2005 at 10:00 UTC+2

Wärtsilä Deutschland GmbH and Reederei Blue Star GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, have today signed a Global Customer Agreement to cover a substantial part of the maintenance and operation support of a number of ships in the Blue Star fleet.

Under this agreement Wärtsilä will provide regular inspections, all maintenance planning and work, all spare parts, along with operation support and regular reporting for the main engines, generating sets and all relevant ancillary systems in the ships’ engine rooms. Wärtsilä is also responsible for contract management and global coordination of these activities. Wärtsilä will apply modern remote monitoring technologies and condition-based maintenance principles to secure reliability and achieve long-term savings.

Initially, the agreement covers a series of nine 2550 TEU Blue Star container vessels. Delivered from Korea in 2003–2004, the vessels are each powered by a seven-cylinder Sulzer RTA72U-B main engine of 21.5 MW output, and four diesel generating sets with a combined output of 6.5 MW. The initial ships’ machinery covered by this agreement has an aggregate power of 252 MW.

The agreement is valid for a period of five years, with options to extend it for two additional five-year periods. As it is a frame agreement, it has flexibility for more vessels to be added at a later date.

This is the first Global Customer Agreement to be signed by Wärtsilä for ocean-going vessels. This type of agreement is specially designed to fit the specific requirements of vessels that are trading globally in a liner service. The services are provided at fixed agreement fees, which offers additional customer benefits, such as operation cost predictability and additional performance guarantees. It draws upon the extensive global resources of Wärtsilä, its service specialists and the reconditioning expertise in the Ciserv group, as well as the wide experience of Wärtsilä in long-term service agreements. Based on customer requirements, such agreements are not restricted to Wärtsilä and Sulzer engines, or other Wärtsilä products.

Reederei Blue Star is a German shipowner founded in 2002, which currently owns and manages a fleet of 25 modern container ships with a further 9 on order. It is a fully-owned subsidiary of P&O Nedlloyd BV, and its container vessels are time-chartered to P&O Nedlloyd.

Wärtsilä Corporation is the leading global ship power supplier for builders, owners and operators of vessels and offshore installations. Wärtsilä has a global service network to take complete care of customers’ ship machinery at every lifecycle stage in more than 60 countries. Wärtsilä is a leading provider of power plants, operation and lifetime care services in decentralised power generation.

For more information about Wärtsilä please visit www.wartsila.com

Media contact:
Marit Holmlund-Sund 
Public Relations Manager, Ship Power 
Wärtsilä Corporation 
Direct tel: +358 10 709 1439       
Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425
e-mail: marit.holmlund-sund@wartsila.com

or

Dan Pettersson
Manager, Marketing Communications, Service
Wärtsilä Corporation
Direct tel:: +358 10 709 2214
Direct fax: +358 10 709 2422
e-mail: dan.pettersson@wartsila.com

or

Andreas Wiesmann
General Manager, Global Customer Agreements
Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd
Direct tel.: +41 52 262 22 92
Direct fax: +41 52 262 07 31
e-mail: andreas.wiesmann@wartsila.com