Our steadfast focus on exceptional and timely product development, strong client and industry relationships, highly efficient services, and effective talent development and learning capabilities has guided our decision-making and investments. As a result, we continue to grow and to perform at world class levels as the safety conscience of the industry.

Through 2021, our focus on industry fundamentals allowed us to grow our classed fleet to 279 million gross tons (m gt); secure the number one position in orderbook share; maintain our industry leadership across the entire global offshore market; and continue to guide the industry in safety and retain our position as the top performing Recognized Organization (RO) since 2017 in the three most active port State regions, with a record zero port State detentions in 2021 – a truly exceptional performance.

Our ongoing dedication to being recognized as the marine, offshore and energy industry technology authority saw us partner with leading industry players in groundbreaking international joint development projects (JDPs), positioning ABS as a leader in the future of classification and the recognized technology leader in our increasingly digitized and data-driven world. We demonstrated this leadership in many ways, such as through a landmark 3D modeling collaboration resulting in the first commercial vessel in U.S. history to be produced and ultimately constructed using only 3D models in design and construction. 

Other industry technological milestones were passed when we shared our additive manufacturing (AM) expertise in a JDP that successfully fabricated, tested and installed functional AM-created parts on board an oil tanker at sea, and when we supported development of the world’s first fully remotely controlled commercial tugboat.

Our commitment to lead the industry and support our clients with advanced analytics and intelligence to facilitate decision-making was underlined when we launched the ABS Global Simulation Center in Singapore and applied our advanced multi-physics modeling and simulation expertise to introduce a pioneering new SIM-based Energy Efficiency Evaluation (EEE) Service to support shipowners with evaluating their vessel decarbonization options and assessing new concepts in design, engineering and operations.

We are well positioned and continue to make the right investments in our people, our systems and technologies to drive and shape the future of class. We continue to make significant investments in digital technologies to advance the cause of safety and operational excellence in tandem with the industry’s decarbonization and sustainability ambitions while moving us toward a more condition-based approach to class. 

A key element of this was developing the industry’s most comprehensive suite of remote surveys, which saw nearly 150 percent year-on-year growth. We successfully piloted 360-degree cameras on board that provided visuals back to our team in the ABS Decision Support Center (DSC) to make class decisions in real time, and we completed an important systems integration allowing any computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to now link directly to the ABS MyFreedom™ Client Portal for survey, compliance and maintenance reporting, which offers clients a path to receive class credit for executing approved planned and condition-based activities. 

Rich new functionality and enhanced capabilities ensured ABS My Digital Fleet™ was further established as the industry’s only risk management platform that seamlessly integrates data to provide real-time insights for driving sustainable operations and reducing operational risks. Through the ABS My Digital Fleet Alliance program, we collaborated with some of the world’s leading digital developers to give our clients access to trusted intelligence and technology providers with integrated insights on one unified platform.

Recognizing early on that the clean energy transition requires teamwork, cooperation and sharing of expertise, ABS built on our position as a founding member of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping by joining leading flag States and classification societies to launch the Maritime Technologies Forum (MTF) in 2021 to facilitate the safe testing and adoption of new technologies and help shape global regulation. We also supported formation of the Blue Sky Maritime Coalition dedicated to achieving a commercially viable net-zero emissions waterborne logistics sector for North America. 

In 2021, we expanded our global sustainability client support by opening the ABS Shanghai Sustainability Center, adding to our existing network of centers in Houston, Copenhagen, Athens, Singapore and London, and we launched our third Sustainability Outlook, offering a global view of the value chain and the innovative carbon-reduction practices in play today. 

At the same time, we continued developing new tools and strategies to help shipowners decarbonize their fleets, such as offering our SUSTAIN-1 notation attesting to a vessel’s alignment with key elements of the ESG requirements outlined in the United Nations’ (U.N.) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also launched new sustainability reporting and assurance services to help service providers demonstrate to clients their commitment and progress toward sustainable operations.

In the offshore sector, ABS led the formation of a working group comprised of leading companies and regulatory authorities to focus on developing best practices to address the safety challenges of the aging global floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) fleet, and we expanded our safety-focused guidance to support operators looking to extend the operational life of floating production installations. 

Our expertise with floating offshore energy platforms has informed our work with floating offshore wind installations, and, in 2021, we helped the growing sector make inroads into this key clean energy source around the world. ABS accepted Portugal’s Windfloat wind farm into class – a world first and another industry milestone. We went on to class the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Scotland and provided verification services related to the first U.S. project offshore Rhode Island.

We also reinforced our longstanding technical support of governments around the world, including working closely with the U.S. Navy on development of ship acquisition programs for autonomous operations and for a wide range of auxiliary ships and support vessels. We continued our pioneering work with the U.S. Military Sealift Command (MSC) to implement the ABS condition-based program and cybersecurity notations for the MSC fleet and utilized our modeling and simulation expertise for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program for evolving the design and use of advanced nuclear reactors.

In Singapore, the Maritime and Port Authority again renewed its research, development and innovation partnerships with ABS, continuing a wide-ranging relationship that covers such diverse areas as decarbonization, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance, cybersecurity and additive manufacturing. ABS also introduced a pioneering digitalization learning program in a collaborative effort with SGUnited, a Singapore government organization dedicated to skills building and education of the country’s youth, where ABS is providing hands-on training in the modeling and simulation of systems. 

These diverse and exciting achievements demonstrate the strength, capability and vision that have long been the hallmark of ABS and continue to define us today.

In 2021, our subsidiary, the ABS Group of Companies, Inc. (ABS Group), continued to deliver the kind of industry-leading performance and solutions that have built a reputation for excellence – surpassing six years without a lost-time incident in 2021, and winning recognition from Forbes and Statista as one of America’s Best Management Consulting Firms. 

ABS Group supported clients around the world with cybersecurity services from its centralized Industrial Security Operations Center. Continuing its long relationship with the U.S. government, ABS Group also aided the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in their initiatives for enhanced digital safety and sustainability.

At the same time, ABS Nautical Systems® (NS) continued its global leadership in digital transformation assistance by adding 460 vessels to its client list in 2021, bringing the total vessel user count to over 4,000, while continuing to enhance the features of NS eLogs™, the first electronic logbook solution on the market offering the complete suite of The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) books that seamlessly integrate with NS Enterprise.

None of this would have been possible without the skill and spirit of our people, who are also affected by this time of change. We understand how digitalization and decarbonization have introduced a requirement for hybrid skillsets, thinking and mindsets. Historically, talent has been defined as the sum of age, experience, skills and training. However, today’s redefined talent equation couples technology and people with continuous learning models to develop leaders who have systems and design thinking skills as well as a convergent mindset and greater strategic perspective centered around technical feasibility, economic viability and social sustainability.

That’s why, throughout 2021, we continued our investments in people – delivering more than 90,000 hours of new or enhanced training for our employees, transforming our continuous learning program for surveyors, auditors and engineers and building our talent pipeline through our Aspire rotational program for newly hired graduates. 

Across ABS and ABS Group, in all that we do, we remain focused on our cornerstone values of safety and integrity, serving our members and clients with the professionalism and commitment they expect and deserve.