Ugo Salerno
Chairman & CEO, RINA
"We are living in a fast-changing world. Our business is linked to the way we live our lives and will be completely changed through advances in technology. It is challenging, but if we can develop to lead the changes, the world will be open to us."
For me the top contracts for the year are the ones which open new markets and opportunities for us, rather than those that are simply the largest. This includes the Terraform contract for the technical due diligence of a global solar portfolio of 1.4GW and a contract with Tokyo Steel, which expanded our work on materials overseas. The oil industry rewarded us with success in a downstream framework agreement from Eni for the asset integrity management of their refineries – a first for RINA and a win against established competitors in this market.
During the final quarter of 2017, we made the decision to change our organisational structure to increase our focus on vertical markets. The change has been very well received within the organisation and there is real energy and motivation behind it. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, I am reasonably optimistic for some recovery in the oil industry. The price appears to have stabilised and this is increasing confidence in the market. There are many wells that are reducing production as they reach the end of their life and operators are beginning to change their investment planning to compensate for this. In addition, the energy sector is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of our enviroment. Looking ahead, the star for our Energy business unit will undoubtedly become renewables. However, RINA will continue to support Oil & Gas projects with an innovative and sustainable approach. With work we have done in the UK, we have opportunities to be highly successful in this area and compete in worldwide markets. In the IJGlobal - Infrastructure Journal and Project Finance Report, in the first six months of 2017, RINA was ranked number one Technical Advisor for the number of deals. We will improve and build on this in 2018.
The new organisational structure will help increase focus within the Certification business and open new opportunities for greater efficiency and growth. We expect T&I to remain constant. In Industry, we hope for recovery in Space and Defence sectors. In Materials, we are forecasting a growth of more than 10%.
For our long-term growth, we have working groups in two areas: digitalisation and securing our position in the changing energy market. Renewable energy is becoming easier to produce at lower costs and its practicality is increasing due to advances in energy storage systems. We are looking at smaller companies around sustainability with the right competencies and geographical footprint that may help us.
RINA already has competencies and experience in digitalisation. As well as increasing our own efficiency, we will be able to offer our clients services that leverage digitalisation providing solutions that they would not have even imagined possible. We are in the right place to build a platform as the value from AI is realised through the interrogation of the large volume of data. In marine, for example, ship owners already trust us with their data. If this data is pooled anonymously, owners will gain advantage through greater performance data of different vessel types on which to base strategic decisions. I believe digitalisation, and technology such as drones, will change the way companies like the RINA work and we want to be on the forward edge of this change.