New GL Office in Taipei: Focus on Taiwanese Market

Taipei, 21 November 2008 – With a festive gathering of representatives from Taiwanese shipping industry, classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL) inaugurated its new commercial office in Taipei yesterday. More than 90 percent of Taiwan’s shipowners are located in Taipei. „The ever-rising number of customer requests calls for more commercial and business support from our side“, said Martin Chen, Germanischer Lloyd Business Development Manager Southern China&Taiwan, at the inauguration of the new premises.

With the new office, GL commits to the maritime development in Taiwan with its strategic location along East Asian trade routes, strong manufacturing base and developed economy. “The new office in Taipei will serve shipowners in Taiwan relating commercial and business matters. Now we can provide on-site regional support in Taipei. Establishing the office is an important step in our strategy of supporting the shipowners in this area even better and faster in the future”, added Chen who will be in charge of the office.

Already operating an office in Kaohsiung, Germanischer Lloyd thus offers regional as well as international support in Taiwan. The society employs five experts in Taiwan serving shipyards, maritime supply industry and shipping companies. So far a total of more than sixty vessels were built in CSBC Corporation Kaohsiung and Keelung classed with GL. The spectrum of services of Germanischer Lloyd in Taiwan includes newbuilding supervision, ship in service inspections, ISM, ISO and ISPS certification, quality management certification and approval of workshops / shipyards.

A major work share of a classification society deals with the technical safety of ships on a worldwide level. GL conducts safety surveys on board of more than 6,700 ships with about 76 Mio GT. With a staff of 5,000 employees, engineers and other experts GL maintains a global network of 208 offices in 77 countries.

Germanischer Lloyd press release