Pelagus Transforms Marine Spare Parts Supply with Global On-Demand Manufacturing Network

Published 03/08/2026

What began as an internal initiative at Wilhelmsen has evolved into Pelagus, a platform-based manufacturing network connecting more than 25 OEM partners across the globe. VP Engineering Scott Harding spoke with Maritime Gateway on the sidelines of Singapore Maritime Week — held in one of the world's busiest transshipment hubs — about the company's strategic pivot, the challenges of building trust with established OEMs, and how geopolitical disruptions are reinforcing the case for distributed, on-demand production.

From Single-Site Experiment to Platform Model

When Wilhelmsen first sought to address its spare parts challenges through additive manufacturing, the company launched a single site in Singapore. The rationale was straightforward: 3D printing could fabricate components on demand, proximate to where vessels operate, thereby reducing the delays and expense inherent in traditional supply chains.

A single location, however, could not adequately serve a global fleet. Expanding the model across multiple company-owned sites would have demanded substantial capital outlays for equipment and facilities. Wilhelmsen ultimately chose a different path — rather than building additional capacity, it leveraged existing but underutilised manufacturing infrastructure already spread across the additive and conventional manufacturing sectors. The outcome was Pelagus: a network that routes engineering data to available production capacity wherever it is required.

The Strategic Pivot to OEM Partnerships

The most transformative decision in Pelagus's development was not a technological milestone but a fundamental rethinking of its customer base. During its initial operational phase, the company served Wilhelmsen directly — identifying needed parts, digitising them, producing them on demand, and delivering them to the fleet. While the model functioned, its growth ceiling was defined by the requirements of a single shipping operator.

Approximately eighteen months ago, Pelagus executed what Harding calls a critical shift. Although Wilhelmsen possessed both the operational pain point and the commercial motivation to address it, the company determined that Wilhelmsen was not the optimal primary customer. The central issue was intellectual property.

Original equipment manufacturers hold the design drawings, CAD files, and deep engineering knowledge of the parts they produce. By partnering with OEMs rather than ship operators, Pelagus gained direct access to that expertise rather than reverse-engineering specifications from physical components on a case-by-case basis. The approach also meant that solving the challenge for a single OEM opened the door to every vessel worldwide equipped with that manufacturer's hardware.

Today, Pelagus collaborates with more than 25 OEM partners, with Kawasaki Heavy Industries — one of Japan's largest industrial conglomerates spanning shipbuilding, heavy machinery, and energy systems — serving as an early anchor customer. The company manufactures parts and sells them to the OEM, which in turn distributes them to ship owners and operators through established commercial channels. Rather than disrupting the OEM's route to market, Pelagus enables these manufacturers to continue serving customers they might otherwise have stopped supporting.

Targeting the Legacy Portfolio Gap

Pelagus has deliberately focused on a segment that most OEMs have quietly abandoned: the legacy portfolio. Once a product line reaches the fifteen-to-twenty-year mark, manufacturers typically redirect engineering talent and production capacity toward new product launches. Demand for older components becomes intermittent and difficult to forecast, rendering ongoing support commercially marginal. The grey market — unauthorised suppliers offering parts of uncertain quality and provenance — typically fills the void.

The scale of this gap is amplified by the aging profile of the global commercial fleet, which UNCTAD and other maritime analysts have tracked trending upward in recent years, meaning more vessels remain in service longer and require reliable access to parts for legacy systems.

Harding is candid about the opportunity this presents. For OEMs, Pelagus offers a mechanism to continue meeting customer commitments without diverting resources from newer, growth-driving products. For end users, it provides access to properly specified, quality-assured components rather than grey market alternatives of questionable reliability.

An Application-Led Approach, Not a 3D Printing Company

Despite its origins in additive manufacturing, Pelagus is explicit that it should not be categorised as a 3D printing company. The firm adopts what Harding describes as an application-led methodology, selecting the manufacturing process based on each part's geometry, material specifications, geographic location, and specific requirements. By Harding's estimate, additive manufacturing accounts for approximately thirty to fifty percent of output, with conventional CNC machining and casting comprising the remainder.

"We are not trying to shove 3D printing down everyone's throats," Harding says. "Conventional manufacturing is still good enough for many applications, and often it is the right answer. CNC machining is responsive, agile and widely available."

Additive manufacturing does offer a distinct edge in low-volume casting applications. By 3D printing sand moulds instead of investing in traditional tooling, Pelagus can reduce minimum order quantities to a single part — an advantage particularly suited to legacy portfolios where demand is sporadic and unpredictable. Tooling investments shelved indefinitely while awaiting infrequent orders are, in Harding's words, simply wasteful.

Trust as the Primary Barrier to Adoption

While the underlying technology has reached a high degree of maturity, Harding identifies trust and the organisational frameworks that govern it as the principal obstacles to wider adoption.

"A lot of our OEM partners are the biggest name brands in the industry, with reputations built over tens, sometimes hundreds of years," he says. "For them to build trust in Pelagus, in our manufacturing quality controls and our assurance processes, that is probably our biggest challenge. They have internal change control procedures, their own supplier quality assurance frameworks. Qualifying Pelagus, and sometimes our manufacturing partners, takes time."

On the question of whether additive manufacturing meets classification and regulatory benchmarks, Harding challenges the underlying assumption. The technology has already been certified for deployment in nuclear submarines, commercial aircraft, and space applications. Within the marine sector, both DNV and ABS have published additive manufacturing guidelines — including the B203 and ABSAM standards — which define requirements for material testing, non-destructive evaluation, and process controls. The standards exist; the open question, in Harding's view, is whether organisations possess the internal resolve to complete the qualification procedures necessary to apply them.

Geopolitical Disruption as a Catalyst

Disruption to shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption routinely passes — has underscored the resilience argument for localised manufacturing. Pelagus maintains suppliers and customers in the Middle East, and Harding is unequivocal that supply chain shocks of this nature reinforce the rationale for distributed, on-demand production.

"When these routes are held up, it only increases the voice for localised manufacturing," he says. "It is not always the answer. But in these geopolitical conditions, you need to have the availability so that when those situations arise, you can call on an alternative supply chain."

On delivery timelines, Pelagus commits to a four-week lead time for repeat orders across a broad spectrum of parts and technologies. Cast components can be delivered in as little as two weeks, while CNC-machined parts sourced from a local workshop can be ready within days.

India as an Emerging Opportunity

Looking ahead, Harding identifies India as a market with substantial untapped potential, both as a manufacturing base and as an end-user destination. While the company's current OEM customer base is concentrated in Europe, Japan, and Korea, India's network of dry docks, ship repair facilities, and an expanding shipyard sector represents a natural fit for on-demand parts supply. India has also been steadily increasing its participation in global ship repair, with several facilities along its coastline positioning themselves as cost-competitive alternatives to established regional hubs.

"There is great manufacturing competence available in India," he says. "And from a customer perspective, the demand is clearly there."

Source: Maritime Gateway