JANUARY 28, 2013 — ABB has won a long-term service contract from Star Cruises for preventive maintenance of all ABB equipment onboard SuperStar Virgo for the next five years. The approximately US$1 million contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2012 and commences in January 1, 2013.

Star Cruises operates seven vessels between the ports of Singapore, Port Klang (Malaysia) and Hong Kong. Star caters to Asian passengers as well as to North Americans, Europeans and Australians interested in Asian destinations. Its energy saving program has given Star Cruises a best-in-class status in the cruise industry.

"A lot of effort and time has been put into coordinating several small service providers to do the maintenance of Star vessels," says Mikael Mattsson AVP Marine Operation, Star Cruises. "Through this service agreement, ABB becomes our sole service provider for equipment such as rotating machines, switchgears, transformers, drives, automation etc, considerably optimizing the maintenance process".

"The market is looking for ways to increase safety and uptime of vessel operation, while extending the lifecycle of their assets and making costs more predictable," says Heikki Soljama, Head of ABB's Marine and Cranes business. "ABB has responded very successfully to this demand with a wide range of service agreements that provide security to our customers' operations and business. In ABB, this has been the basis for building long-lasting and trusting relationship with ship managers and ship owners".

The service contract covers periodic maintenance visits scheduled when they least disturb SuperStar Virgo operations. A long-term approach to maintenance and reduction in the variable costs caused by maintenance-related actions make budgeting more predictable. Additionally, the contract ensures effective communication and transparency between Star ship-management and ABB engineers.