Classification society Germanischer Lloyd has enjoyed steady growth since ownership passed to local businessman Gunter Herz two years ago. Today it classes 6,582 vessels of 74m gt, employs 4,436 people at more than 200 offices spread across 76 countries and conducted 22,000 surveys it conducted during the course of last year. 'We are a very international society and in fact the majority of our employees work outside Germany', says Dr Hermann Klein GL Executive Board member. 'Only 1,658 employees work in Germany, with the remaining 2,778 at our overseas offices. In fact, 63% of our workforce is of other nationalities.' This internationalism seems completely understandable in light of the fact that the society has opened four new offices in the past three months: one each in China's Yangzhou and Fuzhou and the same for Italy's Venice and Naples. 'China continues to boom and Italy's fleet in service is growing as more owners enter the market and more vessels call at Italian ports,' says Dr Olaf Mager, GL director for corporate communications.
展开▼
