Germanischer Lloyd

Merged with DNV GL in 2013. 

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"Germany's Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has stopped verifying safety and"Germany's Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has stopped verifying safety and environmental standards for Iran's biggest shipping companies, a letter from the company showed, the last big European classification society to pull back as sanctions heat up. Without verification from such bodies, ships are unable to call at international ports. The move follows similar decisions in recent weeks by British classification society Lloyd's Register, France's Bureau Veritas and Norway's Det Norske Veritas to halt operations in Iran as Western powers pile pressure on the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear programme, putting companies that still trade with Iran in the firing line. In a letter sent to U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) dated June 15 and seen by Reuters, GL said it had stopped offering services to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC). 'It is of the utmost importance that we maintain our good reputation,' GL said in the letter. 'Therefore, we have pursued the decision to cease rendering services to the Iranian companies mentioned... 'UANI, which includes former U.S. ambassadors on its board and is funded by private donations, had said GL's cover for IRISL was in violation of EU sanctions. UANI, which seeks to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons, had also pressured Bureau Veritas before the French firm stopped its Iran cover... Mark Wallace, UANI's chief executive and a former U.S. ambassador, welcomed GL's decision. 'The shipping industry is now set to help deny the Iranian regime critical access to global trade and seaborne crude oil exports,' Wallace said in a statement. 'GL is absolutely correct in stating that working with the Iranian regime is badly damaging to a corporation's good name and reputation,' he added." (Reuters, "Iran feels heat as Europe ship classifiers halt work," 6/18/12)

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Germanisher Lloyd is a consulting and classification firm that deals mainly with the maritime and energy industries. GL "developes new tools, methodologies, standard and recommended practices to solve technical questions qhile reinforcing high safety and quality standards" (Company Website). Their main business fields are ship classification, oil and gas, and renewables. In 2009, the company's revenue reached 686 million euros (Company Website). 

GL maintains three offices in Iran, two of which are in Tehran and the other at the port of Bandar Abbas. The two Tehran offices are "country offices" and the Bandar Abbas location is a "station"  (Company Website).