Auramarine’s 50 years anniversary interview with CEO John Bergman
Auramarine’s CEO John Bergman was interviewed by Blue Communications’ Rohini Lakhani at Posidonia 2024 in Athens earlier in June. Read here the interview, where John reflects a bit Auramarine’s 50 years, our current position and where we are going.
R: John, how are you today?
J: Hi Rohini, thanks I’m fine. How are you?
R: Good. Very good.
J: Excellent.
R: How are you finding Posidonia 2024?
J: I find it extremely nice. It’s really, really a lot of visitors, a lot of customers and there’s an excellent mood, an excellent feeling here. So, really nice.
R: Wonderful. And how are you finding interacting with customers? Anything new to announce?
J: Well, we have actually many meetings with the customers and we’re very happy about that. And we are able to create new contacts and new leads all the time. Additionally, we are extremely happy to announce today, that we have, we are ready to deliver the first press release regarding a full methanol system, for a cruise vessel TUI Mein Shiff 7. And we are very excited about it and happy to share with all our customers and our cooperation partners.
R: Wonderful. So, John, what do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the shipping industry today?
J: Well, the shipping industry has committed to go green until 2050. And I think that’s a really, really big challenge. It’s going to be a long journey, it’s a journey where we need to advice people. We need to find solutions together. And let’s say there will be a multitude of solutions which are needed. So, those are the interesting things. Now on the next upcoming future.
R: And how do you see the future of alternative fuels in the industry?
J: Well, the alternative fuels are definitely coming and they’re coming with a great speed and rate of change is accelerating all the time. And I believe, that we will see a multitude of fuels like methanol, ammonia, biofuels. It will be a combinations of all these alternatives.
R: A multi fuel future.
J: A multi fuel future, definitely. Absolutely.
R: How would you say we should accelerate the industry’s decarbonization?
J: Well, what we can do is we are actively involved in, in the development of technologies and systems. Capable of running these fuels and making sure that we enable the multi fuel approach for the ship owners and operators. I think that is the one second big thing. Secondly, we need to be able to understand the fuel supply, logistics and supply chain and also to be able to understand the green corridors which are being built around the globe. And that where the transition will start, we believe. And it will continue from there.
R: So, lots of collaboration.
J: Lots of collaboration is needed between, let’s say, owners, designers, the fuel supply parties, port authorities. And that will be a cooperation which we have ahead of us in the future.
R: In all of this, what do you see as Auramarine’s role?
J: Well, I see Auramarine’s role really, as being, the company who is the front runner in consulting and creating new systems, incorporating systems like we’ve done with, for example, with Meyer on Royal Caribbean cruise lines and TUI together on the Mein Schiff 7, where we jointly created the methanol fuel system the luxury cruise vessel. So, these are really, I think the way to go. So, lots of knowledge and cooperation is needed there.
R: Thank you. John, it’s Auramarine’s 50th anniversary this year.
J: That’s correct, yes.
R: Congratulations!
J: Thank you very much.
R: That’s a huge milestone. Are there any reflections you have over last couple of years or aspirations looking forward?
J: Well, if I think about the history of Auramarine, we have always been the pioneers in creating new systems and being the front runner in the fuel handling systems. And this is certainly what we have seen. And also in the previous few years with the methanol systems being developed, with the biofuels being developed in the 1990’s, the first time. And this is certainly what we see in the future. So, we want to really celebrate our 50th anniversary, in September this year, we’ll have a big party and, also in September will be the launch of ammonia system in the SMM exhibition in Hamburg. So, there I want to invite all our customers, our cooperation partners and design companies to join us for the ammonia system launch and to celebrate together with us the 50th anniversary of Auramarine.
R: Very exciting. Can you tell me a little bit more about integrating alternative fuel handling systems on vessels?
J: Sure. Actually, this is an interesting topic as we just published a white paper about this, where we talk about integrating the different automation and ship management systems as well as the methanol handling system to one unit or one entity. And there we really have experience also from the current ongoing projects where we have done this and we want to share our advises and share our knowledge with our upcoming customers, with the ship owners to discuss this and to make the future projects successful.
R: And one more question on that. What are you hearing from the ship owners and operators some of the biggest challenges that they are facing?
J: Well, actually, integration is one of the biggest challenges. As there are so many systems which you have to integrate into one safe system. And you need to understand all the time that you’re staying with inside the regulations and rules and you’re always making sure that the crew is absolutely 100% safe and sound.
R: Thank you.