The start of a new decennium is an appropriate time to look back at the one that just ended. The ten years from 2010 through 2019 saw major changes for the ICE Group; we steadily invested in our business, we took on design of more complex ships such as drill ships, FPSOs, gas carriers and wind turbine installation vessels, we reactivated our cruise ship design activities and we expanded into new geographical markets.
We successfully overcame challenges such as the downturn in the offshore oil & gas industry, problems for our clients in Brazil and Japan and a generally depressed marine industry economy.
In 2019 we were unable to use our full design and engineering capacity, mainly because several expected contracts were postponed. We nevertheless established a new branch office in Croatia and rather than making any of our technical staff redundant we invested in in-house projects and training in new software to be ready for upcoming projects.
In my pre-Christmas briefing to all employees I reviewed ongoing work and prospective contracts for 2020. Already in the second week of the New Year we are starting work on two of the new contracts I listed. I am confident that others will follow, including multi-year contracts that will keep us busy in 2020 and well into the new decennium, provided we continue to keep our customers satisfied.
I am grateful to our clients and other business associates for their trust in ICE, and I thank our employees for their dedication and hard work. I wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Steinar Draegebo
Chairman & Chief Executive
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