February the 3rd, 2024 – The Croatian company Inelteh has equipped the globe’s largest cruise ship with all of its marine electronics.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, constructed in a shipyard in Finland and boasting 20 decks, more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges, 7 swimming pools and 6 slides – the world’s largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, has been a media sensation for days now, as HRT Radio Rijeka reports.
Environmentalists are also quite rightly talking about the sheer damage that will be caused to the planet by Icon of the Seas, warning that the liquefied gas ship emits harmful methane into the air. With that being said, the company that owns it, Royal Caribbean, says that Icon of the Seas is 24 percent more energy efficient than the International Maritime Organisation’s requirements for modern ships, and that that should stand for something in the grand scheme of things.
While the ecological component of this gigantic vessel will certainly continue doing the rounds among environmentalists and the vast majority of other people, the interesting thing for us is that there’s a Croatian connection. One extremely important part of this enormous ship was carried out by Croatian ingenuity, more specifically Rijeka-based engineers from the Croatian company Inelteh, who created the marine electronics for the Icon of the Seas. It all started back in 2020 and 2021…
“For Icon of the Seas, we worked on a part of the equipment related to water penetration and level measurement in the tanks. These systems carry a European certificate, which refers to the performance of the device, as well as the protection of human life at sea. The second part we worked on was signalling that warns us of critical situations, such as fire, ship abandonment and so on,” revealed Jezerko Crnić, the director of the Croatian company Inelteh.
This isn’t the first large ship that Inelteh has equipped with its complex marine electronics either, and contracts have been signed for two more large ships, according to HRT Radio Rijeka.
In order for this story to succeed, back in 2017 and 2018, with the project in Pula (Scenic) in mind, they started certifying certain devices. That experience made the Croatian company Inelteh more than ready for this project a few years later.
The Croatian company Inelteh is otherwise a company founded back in 1990, With persistent work and specialisation in the maritime and shipping industry, they have brought themselves to the position they are in now, as was explained by the enterprise’s director. He emphasised that through his own development and production over a number of years, the company is gradually becoming more recognisable.
Back in 1998, they were present at a large fair in Hamburg for the first time, where they exhibited their products, and they still do that today. In addition, a series of presentations they made at large global companies, along with persistent work over a number of years, resulted in them being recognised as potential collaborators.
Much like the vast majority of other companies, among the biggest problems they face is finding qualified staff, and Crnić stated that today the situation is such that they simply either look abroad or go to another company.
“We’re currently sufficiently equipped, but now we’re looking for several graduate engineers. Normally, we’d like them to have some experience, but we’ll just have see what the situation is on the market”, he explained, before noting that they still have certain projects going on outside of Croatia, and they are currently in major negotiations with Fincantieri for some cruise ships.
