100 Years Hamburg Ship Model Basin
Mr Vopel,
Ms Dörr,
Dr. Aly,
Mr Friesch,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very pleased to see all of you here and to be here with you to celebrate your "hundredth" birthday. The fact that the Hamburg Ship Model Basin has reached this venerable age truly deserves to be celebrated.
For in 2013, it has become what might have been envisioned back in 1913: one of the worlds most renowned, and now also the oldest, research and development facilities for shipbuilding. The experts are in Hamburg and their expertise is in demand all over the world. As I see it, this anniversary is thus also one of the highlights of the year for our city.
Standing the test of time for an entire century requires an ongoing pioneering spirit and, one might say, seaworthiness. Your employees, your engineers, all truly live the tradition of shipbuilding. They conduct research and development, their eyes on the horizon, reaching beyond the current status of technology.
I am convinced that the Hamburg Ship Model Basin has been as successful as it has been for a hundred years most of all because it is a vessel that is both stable and agile. It focuses its vision on what is ahead, on the unexpected. And on that which will be needed in the future. It unites tradition and change, stability and renewal. It builds on experience, while it develops the technical foundations for the future requirements of the industry.
What are ships going to look like in the future? There are many ideas about this, and many questions. How does a ship have to be, if it is going to use as little fuel as possible? How does the bow need to be shaped, or the screw? Or what new propúlsion systems need to be developed and what will they be named?
How will marine technology structures like offshore platforms or floating cranes or systems to prevent oil accidents look like in five years, or in twenty? What kinds of ships are best for constructing offshore wind farms?
Scarce resources, expensive fuel, environmental awareness and new legislation drive new developments and research work. Which technologies will be needed, and how can money be earned with them?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Of course, I am well aware that these are questions you have already been considering for a long time. For that matter, you have already found answers to many of them.
One thing is clear, however: It is important not only to know what is technically feasible. We also need to know what is economically viable and most useful and profitable for the owner. A successful maritime industry is not conceivable without theoretical research and applied development.
Hamburg is the headquarter of numerous maritime research institutes, including non-university facilities. There are few cities that can boast such a dense network of engineers, technicians and scientists working on the design and optimisation of ships. One of the hubs of this network is the Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt, the Ship Model Basin. But we also have certification companies like Germanischer Lloyd and numerous engineering firms, as well as the shipbuilders at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg.
Maritime service providers play an important role in Hamburg. They contribute business volume of more than two billion euros to the gross domestic product. The Hamburg Senate will continue to support and promote the maritime service providers in the future.
As a key member of the Maritime Cluster of Northern Germany (abbreviated MCN), the Hamburg Ship Model Basin is part of a close business network involving the members of the maritime industry here in Hamburg. It represents both the industry and research in the steering committee, and there is a good reason for this: It is well-informed regarding the needs of the maritime industry and can help the MCN to develop in line with these needs and contribute to the further development and linking of expertise at the Hamburg location.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ship types have become more sophisticated in the course of time. By now, ships have attained sizes that when the Basin was founded one would not have thought technically possible, let alone feasible. Again: Who knows how ships will look a hundred years from now? Pure size is only one topic, draught another. Of course, this doesnt apply only on the shipyard but in the pub as well. But it does apply to ships, and we must have this in mind.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We in Hamburg can only influence the global economy to a limited extent. But we can create the best possible conditions for the healthy development of the maritime industry and cargo handling.
And the Port of Hamburg plays a key role in so
doing. Not only is it the backbone of the Hamburg economy and that of the metropolitan region, but the entire economy profits from it, and not only ours. It is extremely important as a gateway to overseas, also for Bavaria, Baden Württemberg, Austria and the Czech Republic. It serves as a port for all of Central Europe.
It is therefore essential for us to recognize challenges and bottlenecks early on, even in the seaward connection of the Hamburg Harbour.
The Port of Hamburg is currently again in second place among the European container ports. To make sure that this doesnt change, we will continue to develop it as the economic driving force of the metropolitan region, so that we can continue to compete internationally over the long term.
Ensuring our compétitive position also involves the deepening of the navigation channel of the Lower and Outer Elbe.
At the end of 2011, the European Commission approved this plan, as aligned with the European guidelines on environmental and nature protection. In the past months, this project has overcome important hurdles; then, however, a new one was erected.
I am convinced, however, about the fact that the claims against the deepening of the Elbe will be dismissed. The deepening will ultimately be confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court. If the European Union says that the deepening of the Elbe complies with European law, it is not really plausible that, in the final analysis, the German Federal Administrative Court will say that the EU was wrong.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A relatively new and significant economic factor in the metropolitan region, and one of the subjects that is extremely relevant for the future, is the energy turnaround and Hamburg and North Germany are centres of this very field.
More than 100 Hamburg companies already generate five billion euros in sales per year with renewable energies. 14,500 people work in Hamburg in this field. In the Hamburg metropolitan region, this figure is 24,700.
And development in the market is extremely dynamic: 10,000 megawatts of power are to be produced off the coasts of Germany by 2020 with offshore wind energy alone; by 2030, this figure will be 20,000 to 25,000 megawatts.
According to serious estimates, more than 21 billion euros will be spent worldwide by 2013 for offshore wind facilities. The opportunities are also correspondingly good in the offshore wind energy field for maritime suppliers, for example, in the development and construction of constructor vessels.
If, ladies and gentlemen. As things are progressing at present, the energy turnaround in Germany will not be "finished in time if this word is appropriate at all for a process that is perpetual and dynamic.
Both the business and the political communities need to think and act long-term, if they are to be well prepared for rough seas in the future, too. The Hamburg Senate, and I personally, consider the energy turnaround to be the greatest challenge of all in regard to industrial policy. And we in Hamburg, and beyond it, for example, in Berlin, will work to make it succeed.
Enough on these two topics. I do not want to dig the Elbe too deep or produce excess voltage in energy. Testing ships, however, I am sure, is a business with a future.
Automobile companies use test tracks to test new models until they are ready to go into mass production. They drive through the countryside in camouflaged prototypes. But shipbuilders simply cannot do anything like this with their enormous freighters or cruisers. And so the vital field tests for new ships take place in water tanks at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin. The ships hulls are towed, or driven with electric motors and specially made ship propellers with a diameter of 25 centimetres, manufactured in a special metal shop according to original designs.
Technicians travel along on an instrument stand at the edge of the tank and collect data, such as on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the hull. This tells them how this model will later be able to travel so safely on the seas as a container ship, and at the same time as efficiently as possible.
Anyone who builds a new airplane invests a great deal of time and money in research and development in the field of aerodynamics. If a new ship is built, extensive hydrodynamic research would take too long and be too expensive. How progressive a new ship is therefore depends on what has been developed and tested beforehand. And this is the work of the shipbuilding research facilities.
As I have previously mentioned, the Basin is a leading institute in worldwide shipbuilding, especially in the optimisation of container ships, but also for many other types of ships. Its technical facilities are among the largest and the most effective all over the world. In cavitation testing and ice technology, it has set several milestones in the past hundred years: the first cavitation tunnel in 1930, the large ice tank in the 1980s, and in 1989 the HYKAT, one of the largest cavitation testing facilities anywhere in the world.
The HSVA has one of the largest and technically progressive multi-purpose tanks of its type. It is three hundred meters long and sixteen meters wide.
Since 1990, numerical studies have been playing an increasingly important role as well, alongside the testing facilities. The Basin is vigorously pressing ahead with the establishment of the so-called numerical tank. With the help of computer simulations, it can be used to visualise and calculate the flow on the ship and propeller. The Basin also leads in the development and application of computer programs for shipbuilding.
In the development of ships, stability is always of concern. And what makes a ship stable? In shipbuilding, the term refers the ability of a floating body to float upright, or if the body should list to become upright again by itself.
In the physical sense, a ship is stable if a positive force must be exerted to push it farther under the water or to rotate it around its axis. The bodys reaction forces counteract these.
And what makes companies stable? The Basin works closely with universities and is constantly developing new forecasting methods, testing processes, and testing equipment always in close collaboration with the people who will later be using the ships. It sees itself as an intermediary between the universities and industry. Leading shipbuilders all over the world are aware of its know-how and rely on its expertise in having their models tested there. I am personally convinced by the idea that networking ensures stability.
The Basin profits a great deal from its close relationship with shipbuilders in Hamburg, Germany and Europe. When a new ship is built, they like to have its data checked here. Both the market and the Basins business sphere have become more and more international in recent years. This means, on the one hand, new technical challenges and, on the other hand, a new competitive situation.
German shipyards are under growing pressure from the Asian competition. A number of companies have been forced to close P in recent years. Most recently, this past November, Germanys oldest shipyard was hit by severe problems. The shipbuilding testing institutes are most active in the countries to which most shipbuilding production has moved. These are primarily Korea, China and Japan. Ship developers and designers are profiting from the growing international shipping more than ever, especially in Hamburg.
The testing institutes in Europe continue to be an intense centre of knowledge for the ongoing development of ships. Leading institutes work in various specialisations, except in Hamburg, in the Scandinavian countries, and in the Netherlands.
In the past decades, the Basin has received an increasing number of research contracts from foreign shipowners and shipyards. In 1963, contracts from abroad only amounted to fifteen percent of all research objects. Today they are approximately seventy percent. Recently, for example, the large, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, 18,000 container ships, built in Korea for Maersk, were thoroughly tested and optimised here.
The Korean shipbuilding group STX is also among its customers. A while back, the company had aerodynamic tests carried out here for a freighter with a capacity of 22,000 containers. This is considerably more than what was previously the largest ships 18,000 of the Danish shipping company Maersk. Trial runs with the model were generally satisfactory. Built in Asia but simulated in Barmbek-Nord.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Hamburg Ship Model Basin was dismantled after the war and then rebuilt in the following years under Prof. Günther Kempf and after 1955 under Prof. Hermann Lerbs. From the very beginning, the Hamburg Ship Model Basin and the City of Hamburg have been reliable partners. Partnership ensures stability.
The City of Hamburg has repeatedly participated in major investments in the testing facilities. One example in recent years was the construction of the demonstrator for the side wave generator, which we supported.
The Hamburg Ship Model Basin is a financially successful company. In the last ten years, it has developed from a non-profit institution, fifty percent of whose contracts consisted of sponsored research projects, into a highly efficient, profitable service provider.
The partnership that exists between us is not one-sided, of course. The City of Hamburg also profits from it. For the maritime industry as I have already mentioned is extremely important to us.
I am very pleased, and very proud, that we have a company like this in Hamburg. Thanks to the Hamburg Ship Model Basin, we have stable ships, stable relationships, and a stable economy. Happy birthday to you!
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.