2009 WORLD YEARBOOK
SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION
Ship Repair
Market Weathers the Storm ... for now
Gulf Copper's Galveston yard has recovered fully from Hurricane Ike with completed jobs including steel renewals in two oil tankers, several rig conversions and upgrades, and the drydocking of numerous derrick barges and construction vessels.
TEN Moves Repair Schedule Up to Capitalize on Projected Rebound � ASRY Sails in '09 Powered by Record '08 � Drydocks World-Dubai expands yard space with new FPSO Quay
Despite a decided downturn in the world economy, ship repair and conversion projects and prospects remain relatively buoyant worldwide. Maritime Reporter surveyed industry leaders to discover some interesting projects. Navantia's ship repairs and conversions centers are located close to the Straits of Gibraltar (C�diz-San Fernando shipyard), the Atlantic coast (Fene-Ferrol shipyard), and the Mediterranean coast (Cartagena shipyard) and on the main shipping routes between the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Europe. The Navantia's centers report that 2009 is going well, so far, and that all of the business milestones set out for this year are being met. Repairs, conversions and routine maintenance continue to be carried out and the level of repair activity and dock occupation is matching that of recent years. While the company reports that it is too complicated to forecast the results of the second half of the year, considering the global economic crisis, it remains positive and projects to maintain
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the level of activity that it has had in the past. The most interesting repair carried out so far this year, in the C�diz-San Fernando shipyard, was that of the Ramform Vanguard, a seismic research vessel from Norway's PGS. An important upgrading project was carried out, with respect to the installation of an additional azimuth propeller to provide the vessel with more navigational speed and more lifting and drag capacity for the seismic prospecting cables which it carries. The project was completed ahead of schedule, which resulted in Navantia receiving the corresponding bonus from a satisfied owner. In the Fene-Ferrol shipyard, Navantia and BP Shipping have signed the European Shiprepair, whereby all Atlantic and Mediterranean repairs of BP's fleet will be undertaken by the three shiprepair centers of Navantia. Two repair projects of the vessels British Falcon and British Unity, both owned by this company, were being carried out at press time. Bahrain-based Arab Shipbuilding and
Repair Yard (ASRY) is reportedly set to ride out 2009 powered by its record breaking 2008. Both chairman, H.E. Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij AlKhalifa and Chief Executive Chris Potter are upbeat about the yard's performance this year following sales in 2008 breaking the $200m barrier for the first time. "ASRY is now debt free for the first time in its history,'"said Shaikh Daij, "and we have a strong cash flow. The shipyard is now competitively priced, offers a quality service and we are now getting much closer to our customers." In 2008 ASRY had sales of $207.5m, repairing a total of 133 vessels and offshore craft; 119 in drydock and 14 alongside. ASRY's customer base is traditionally split between vessels owned by Arab operators and the international shipping market. Last year saw 72 vessels repaired from the international market, valued at $112.30m, and 61 vessels from the Arab market, valued at $95.2m. A total of 20 vessels came from the Saudi Arabia market, 17 from Bahrain and 13
from Kuwait, with the latter bringing in the most in terms of revenue. KOTC is the yard's No.1 customer and repairs to the company's VLCC Al Samidoon was one of the largest single the repair jobs carried out by ASRY in 2008. Leading the way in the international market was Greece with 19 vessels, Norway with 17 ships, the U.S. with 10 vessels and Brazil with nine ships (which the yard reports were the most profitable). Up until mid-March 2009 the yard had repaired a total of 42 vessels, 24 from the international market and 18 from the Arab market. "We are receiving a high level of enquiries, but the actual value of individual contracts is down on last year," said Mr. Potter, noting that the start to 2009 was not bad, but that February was tough. The average vessel repair contract in 2008 was $1.56m. In looking at 2009, Mr. Potter said that he 'would be happy if the yard could achieve the same level of sales as in 2007 ($170m), but it was too early to make a call on that at present.'
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