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Tersan will continue to focus on purposebuilt, technologically sophisticated vessels for its clients, providing them with innovative solutions in the design, sales, and engineering stages.
“Our quality and price have played vital roles in helping us gain a bigger market share.”
Why did Tersan move into the building of passenger and fishing vessels and away from cargo vessels and tankers?
The economic crisis that all shipping companies and shipyards in Turkey faced in 2008 and the balance of the supply and demand chain falling apart to our disadvantage caused us to move away from the cargo vessel and tanker sectors and pushed us to discover the potential in northern Europe and Scandinavian countries. After 2008, we focused on producing tailor-made, purpose-built, and technologically sophisticated niche vessels and worked on developing new business opportunities. As a result of our business development activities, we secured our first niche fishing vessel order from a Norwegian fishery company. We recently signed our sixth vessel contract with the same company, our 100th new building project.
Tersan exports its vessels to markets across the global and has a considerable presence in the European and North American markets. Which regions and countries are Tersan’s focus?
We are mostly focused on the Scandinavian, Russian, and North American markets. Given that we offer optimum quality and price balance, ship owners from Norway, Iceland, Russia, Canada, and Denmark prefer Tersan. Logistical advantages, time zones, and cultural similarities also help us establish new partnerships with these countries.
Hybrid solutions in Tersan’s new vessels have proved effective in lowering emissions, fuel consumption, and noise. Can you describe the primary technologies behind Tersan’s hybrid vessels?
In accordance with the demands of ship owners and end users, we are increasingly applying new technologies to our products, especially to meet requirements such as lower fuel consumption, operational costs, and emissions. Apart from hybrid vessels, we also offer 100% electric-powered ferries. In fact, Tersan was one of the first shipyards to build 100% electric vessels. These ferries are charged at the automatic charging stations at both piers of the ferry route they operate, and they can sail to the other pier without using any additional energy source and charge the batteries again during the loading and unloading of the vehicles. We also equip these ferries with autonomous navigation systems to reduce fuel and energy consumption. These types of ferries evaluate factors such as weather conditions during the cruise, including separation and docking maneuvers, and perform the course with minimum energy. During loading and unloading, instead of holding the ferry to the pier with propellers, which is the conventional method, the vacuum system on the pier holds her up. The energy stored in the batteries of these ferries also meets the targets of zero-exhaust emission since the energy is sourced from hydroelectric power plants. Apart from the battery technology, we apply waste heat recovery systems, permanent magnet synchronous motors, direct drive main panels, variable speed machines, and other new technologies to almost all of our vessels. We also incorporate regeneration technology into the vessels. Using this, we can store the invert energy generated from cranes and winches during the unloading and direct the converted energy to the consumers on the vessel. We work closely with our solution partners to apply renewable energy applications and closely evaluate the results of our applications.
The Turkish shipbuilding industry is on par with European companies in terms of quality and Asian companies in terms of prices. How has Tersan benefited from this position?
Our quality and price have played vital roles in helping us gain a bigger market share. We have focused on purposed-built, tailor-made projects as we can meet all the expectations of the ship owners from European and Scandinavian countries. We aim to maintain this position by satisfying our customers’ expectations and ensuring high quality and on-time deliveries. We also provide flexible solutions to our customers in each and every step of the shipbuilding process, from designing and engineering to delivery. Apart from our performance, political stability and financial strength also play a significant role in maintaining the standing of the Turkish shipbuilding industry. ✖
What role does technological innovation play in Numarine’s line of yachts?
Technological innovation in the yachting sector did not truly exist until we started in 2001. Everyone was building boats in the same way that they were doing in the 1960s—we were in the dark ages of production. In 2001, when I started Numarine, I felt we needed to do things differently, and our differentiator had to be lower prices than our competitors, the main European brands. At this time, vacuum infusion was something extremely high tech that only race sailing yachts were utilizing. The technology is environmentally friendly, as it emits 99% less styrene gas into the environment. I saw that the environment would be a key issue and selling point in the coming years, and the technology produces a light and strong product, so we invested heavily in developing the technology. We were the first shipyard in Europe to produce everything with vacuum infusion; by the time many other companies switched and started doing vacuum infusion, we were leading the pack. Another of our key technologies are lithium ion batteries, which we introduced two years ago.
How does your new yacht, Adonis, implement even more advanced technology?
Adonis is our collaboration with Furrion Design, a Hong Kong-based technology company that created Angle AI. It also does a great deal of work integrating AI into household appliances. Adonis mixes these two aspects of Furrion with yachting. It is wonderful—as one walks in, a smart camera recognizes them and sets the mood to their preferences, changing the music and learning their preferences. Sailors can ask about the weather in a certain location and request that the yacht navigate there. The yacht will take them there, and en route it will ask if they want to visit a restaurant. Then, it can select the best one. The temperature of water in the shower can be adjusted via voice recognition. In the future, this will all be standard. However, when it comes to extremely high-tech solutions such as Adonis, I am slightly cautious, as it is still extremely new and untested. If our boats are to sail all over the world, we need to ensure they are safe and can be serviced.
How do changes in taste drive Numarine’s technology and yacht line?
10 years ago, speed was a selling point, though this has changed. Now, people want to be able to navigate quietly so that they are comfortable and can sleep during navigation. This is why our lithium ion batteries are popular as the technology is quieter. It is one of the reasons why our XP line has been successful, as the yachts are quieter and roomier.
We used to face many challenges when we were new into the market and were learning; however, it has been 18 years, and we have produced close to 150 boats, so production-wise we do not face many challenges. On the marketing side, producing in Turkey and selling worldwide still has its challenges. Turkey had a fantastic image up until five or six years ago—when I went to the GCC or Europe before, customs were extremely positive and processed us even without a stamp. However, we have lost that prestige over the last five years due to international politics. It is becoming harder to sell such an expensive product to a global customer from Turkey.
Over the next 12 months, what are your plans and objectives?
We have a new 45-m Explorer, which is our biggest project and one of the most exciting. It will present many challenges for us, though it will also bring many rewards because once it is out there, it will be the only boat of that size with those amenities. I do not know what the global economy or politics will bring in the future; however, we are focused on our growth plans. ✖