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The first Digital Edition of RINA Hellenic Advisory Committee organized by Spyros Zolotas and the RINA Hellas team, hosted several leaders within the Greek shipping community, who discussed about the challenging but resilient and successful 2020, digital solutions, remote surveys, Cybersecurity and the alternative fuels.

The Committee Chairman George Youroukos, Owner of Technomar Shipping Inc., in his opening speech highlighted some of RINA’s significant achievements in 2020, such as a further increase of classed fleet and he underlined the quality of added value services which offer a competitive advantage to its client. Mr. Youroukos announced that his company has decided to bring 11 more ships under RINA class.
Ugo Salerno, Chairman & CEO of RINA, in his opening presentation commented that RINA team has shown resilience. The mantras were health and safety of people, with the use of massive and immediate smart working. RINA, thanks to the strong digital competences, successfully achieved business continuity with the use of remote inspections and audits and new services (e.g. Biosafety Trust Certification).
Nello Sulfaro, Managing Director of RINA, referred to the global strategy for all business units that is grounded on competence to serve the clients with a specific focus on sustainability and decarbonization across all markets. Regarding the Marine unit, the efforts will be focused on further developing services to support decarbonization, strengthen digitalization and remote surveys. He presented the figures RINA’s development for 2020, starting with the revenues that were 4% higher than 2019.
Paolo Moretti, CEO of RINA Services, presented the Marine Business that reached 50 million gross tonnage and over 7150 vessels. He focused on the new additional voluntary Class Notation “Remote” and the recent opening of the Piraeus Fleet Operation Center. The Piraeus office is growing rapidly, and RINA is investing on its team, with the establishment of Massimo Volta, Deputy Executive Vice President and Senior Director EMEA, Konstantinos Papalexopoulos, Marine Operations Director and Antonis Trakakis, Technical Director Marine.
Spyros Zolotas, Senior Director Marine, Southern Europe and Africa Area, thanked the members for their continuous support and presented in more detail the brand-new RINA Piraeus Fleet Operation Center, which supports shipowners 24/7, and updated the Members on the latest news about Remote Surveys. During 2020, RINA carried out about 1900 remote inspections. He added the importance and the developments of RINA on digital solutions with the Kiber Helmet.
Antonis Trakakis, Technical Director Marine RINA, referred on the roadmap to 2030 and beyond. He also presented the relative projects RINA Greece is working on, such as achieving highest efficiency with LNG as fuel and the reduction of propulsive power, that could achieve compliance with EEDI phase 3 without the use of alternative fuels. It was also highlighted, that natural gas can accommodate very well a progressive introduction of hydrogen in the future fuel mix, therefore it is not just a bridge, but the starting point of a decarbonization process”.
Enrico Carrara, Senior Technical Director RINA, gave an overview of Cyber Security and explained how to cope with it in order to be ready for 2021.
Michela Schenone, Marine Digital Solutions Manager, discussed about the digital transformation. She presented RINA’s digital services on remote inspections, “chat the with expert”, RINA IHM tool and RINACube Electronic Log Books.
A lively open discussion followed for all the above topics, with the closing remarks of Mr.Youroukos and Mr.Salerno and the wishes from all for a brighter new year 2021.