Page 25: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1996)

Far East Update (Continued from page 21)

Since June 1995, when a bribery scandal broke,

Petroleum Shipping, which operates the Exxon international fleet, has drydocked four of its tankers in other Singaporean yards. The bribery case resulted in Cees van der Horst of

Petroleum Shipping convicted of fraud by a U.K. court and being sentenced to three years in prison. After the scandal, many oil majors appeared to avoid placing repair contracts with

Keppel, which resulted in a lack of orders in the second half of 1995.

Kvaerner Ships Equipment (KSE), part of

Norway's Kvaerner Group, is reportedly plan- ning to move its headquarters from Tranby,

Norway, to Singapore. The reason for this move includes the development of a number of new worldwide maintenance contracts signed with various shipowners, including its latest with

Sweden's Wallenius Lines. KSE believes

Singapore is a better location from which to han- dle such contracts.

The repair industry in mainland China appears to be strengthening. Quingdao Beihai is cur- rently completing a new 28,000-ton lifting capac- ity floating dock — 755.9 x 144.3 ft. (230.4 x 44 m) — which will be ready for use in October. The unit has been designed in cooperation between the shipyard and the Shanghai Design &

Research Institute, Shanghai. Meanwhile, the first floating dock of 30,000-ton lifting capacity — measuring 738 x 141 ft. (225 x 43 m) — is in place at the new Da Dong Shipyard on Cho Mung

Island; the new shipyard venture being a joint venture between Hudong Shipyard and the local

Cho Ming government. The shipyard is sched- uled to open for repair operations this month.

South Korea's Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) is reportedly planning to proceed with the build- ing of a new $100-million shipyard in Vietnam, in a joint venture with the state-run Vinashin

Group.

The deal stipulates that construction of the new yard will be completed by January 1998. HMD will hold a 70 percent stake in the new yard, which will be built on a 990,000-sq.-m. green field site. Details of the yard's location, dock capacity and workforce have not yet been released.

In what is the first significant move by HMD to diversify its increasingly expensive ship repair and building facilities away from its home base,

HMD said it must begin to search for lower cost centers around Asia for ship repair work and the building of less sophisticated, smaller tonnage.

In 1995, HMD handled 425 vessels, of which 410 were repaired and 11 constructed for domes- tic owners. Of the total, 77 percent of the repair work was carried out for foreign owners, the rest for Korean shipping lines.

According to M.S. Byun, senior manager,

Overseas Sales Department, HMD, the average contract value at the yard, located in Ulsan, has dropped. Today it stands at around $450,000 to $600,000 per job. The number of vessels repaired at HMD decreased for the first time in three years, but Mr. Byun reported that this was insignificant and the figure compared well with the 300 vessels repaired in 1990.

There have been some developments at the

Netherlands' Sigma Coatings, Uithoorn. Sigma has signed an agreement with Philippines' Mata

Marine, part of Singapore's Keppel Group, for the stocking and distribution of marine coatings within the territory. Sigma Coatings has also announced that a license agreement has been signed with Taiwan's Yung Chi Paint and

Varnish Mfg. Co. Ltd. for the manufacture and marketing of the marine product range of Sigma

Coatings within the territory of Taiwan.

June, 1996

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