Speed Date Starts New Offshore Wind Collaboration
Danish shipping company Niels Winther & Co. and their British colleagues Clarkson Port Services – a division of the listed Clarksons Plc. – have begun collaborating about supplying a new concept for the offshore wind sector in Britain. The concept is marketed internationally and involves a range of harbour-related activities, including agency, stevedoring and consultancy. The idea for the collaboration was fostered last year when the two companies met at the OWIB.
The Offshore Wind International Business2Business event – a kind of speed dating event for the offshore wind sector – is an annual gathering of Danish and foreign suppliers and producers in the offshore wind sector. Here the sector’s players can meet and discuss opportunities for collaboration, present new products and generally encounter colleagues from a global industry. The event turned out to be the beginning of a close collaboration between Niels Winther & Co. and Clarksons Plc.
“Niels Winther & Co. and Clarksons turned up for the international event OWIB and had a brief, informal meeting where they discussed how a new concept could be realized. Since then they’ve intensified their collaboration, and this story is the best example of what the OWIB aims to achieve: new contacts that result in new orders”, says Offshore Center Danmark‘s manager Renewables Morten Holmager.
Fifth OWIB
The OWIB will be on for the fifth time on 9 November, and so far participants from ten countries have decided to take part. Last year 640 meetings were held in one single day and, according to feedback from the participants, 2,200 contacts were made. 200 people are expected to attend this year. As last year, the two wind turbine manufacturers Vestas and Siemens Wind Power, the energy companies DONG Energy and Vattenfall (both the Danish and the German division) will be present; this includes also a wide range of Danish and foreign turbine manufacturers and sub-suppliers.
Borders
Two Chinese turbine manufacturers are going to attend on 9 November, which means that this year’s international event for the offshore wind sector will be visited by people from ten countries. This is only in a couple of months, but the number of participants has already surpassed last year’s number, and so it looks like the OWIB will easily break all former records.
Holmager: “The partnership between Niels Winther & Co. and Clarkson Plc. illustrates that the best way the offshore wind sector can make use of its competences is when it happens across borders. Different countries possess different competences and, through joining forces Niels Winther & Co. and Clarksons Plc can bring about a unique product that’ll obviously attract international attention.”