Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1997)

MARINE

SOFTWARE

ASSOCIATES

IMSA

CUSTOM WINDOWS

APPLICATIONS

Designed To Solve Your Most

Important Business Software Needs. 157 Highway 654

Mathews, LA 70375 (504)532-2512 * FAX (504)532-2571

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Microsoft

SOLUTION PROVIDER

SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION UPDATE

Chand Corporation

Software for the Work Boat Industry

TRIP MASTER P'111^ MA INT

Qualify, Quantity Issues Abound

Maintenance Management and

Scheduling System That Incorporates

Material Control Capabilities.

CHAND CORPORATION

Office and/or Boat Software. Boat to

Office E-Mail and Data

Transmission.

Circle 240 on Reader Service Card

The Ship Repair & Conversion exhibition in London last month provided a forum not only for com- panies to exhibit their wares, but to air their grievances on what ails the industry.

Ship repair and conversion busi- ness has battled many of the same issues found on the newbuild side, namely the problem of too much capacity — much of it coming on- line from developing countries — which is helping to keep prices arti- ficially low.

Circle 215 on Reader Service Card Maritime Reporter/Engineering News

Boat & Barge Tracking, Dispatching,

Daily Log, Billing, Crewing, Safety,

Financials, Material, and More.

A cooperative association of software developers with complementary marine design products. 15 Jenkins Court

Suite 200 ^gmffftk

Durham, NH 05824

Tel: 605-868-3544

Fax: 605-868-3566

Astilleros Espanoles: Moving

Forward With Quality

Spain's Astilleros Espanoles group serves well as a microcosm of the changes sweeping the world ship repair and conversion indus- try. By the end of 1998, the tradi- tional European shipbuilding and repair powerhouse must proceed with plans to privatize and get all of its yards profitable, all the while implementing drastic capacity reductions. At the same time, the yard is faced with a price-driven, cut-throat competition repair and conversion market.

According to Astilleros

Espanoles, the main problem in running a profitable ship repair and conversion operation is the result of unregulated shipyard capacity expansion. "Everybody is busy, but prices are still depressed because the market is still unbal- anced," said Astilleros Astander executive Angel F. Diaz-Munio. "If we have to be ruled, the rules have to be the same and equal for all."

In order to comply with the EU- mandated capacity reduction pro- gram, Astilleros has had to ban

Astander from conversion work, allowing only repair jobs for the yard. Meanwhile, the Astano yard is limited to offshore work. While subsidy matters, and particularly the passage of the OECD agree- ment, are viewed by the group as critical to creating the mythical level playing field, Astilleros believes that worldwide capacity reduction is just as crucial of a link to restoring balance to the repair and conversion markets, and the heart of restoring profitable pric- ing levels.

While up front pricing is, of course, important, Mr. Diaz-

Munio said that the whole spec- trum of the job — completed cor- rectly and on schedule — is vital to determining the real cost of a job.

Despite the challenges, the group as a whole and the Astander yard specifically have maintained a very positive level of work, depending on loyal customers and focusing on jobs where high quali- ty and high technical solutions have priority over price. "It is difficult to compete with the up and comers on price," said

Diaz-Munio. "To expand our markets, we must find the cus- tomers who are more interested in quality, safety and price." This stance is proven on the yard's ref- erence list for the six month period from May to October 1997, a list which includes 33 vessels, ranging from chemical tankers from JO

Tanker and Storli, to a reefership from Norbulk Shipping and a LGC ship from Hanseatic. In a typical gn Software

NavCad from HydroComp, inc. arine es

FlagShip from Proteus Engineering

FlagShip is a complete ship design system, including hullform design (FastShip), structural design and opti- mization (MAESTRO), stabili- ty, powering, maneuvering, seakeeping, ship- yard cost estimating and interfaces to CAD and ship production programs. FlagShip is based on time-tested, best-in-class applications, which are in use by more than 1,000 designers in over 30 countries around the world.

General Hydrostatics (GHS) from Creative Systems, Inc.

Widely recognized as the most advanced and produc- tive trim/stability/strength software. Specialized ver- sions are available for ship operators, for salvage engineers and for small craft designers. Includes efficient modeling for all types of complex vessels, and the abili- ty to analyze them both afloat and aground.

NavCad offers an integrated platform to predict resistance and power, and to determine optimum propeller parame- ters. With NavCad each aspect of a ship's performance can be evalu- ated for virtually every type of displacement hull, semi-displacement and planing craft, river barge train, catamaran and auxiliary- powered sailboat.

ShipCAM97 / CAD-Link97

NC-Pyros97 from Albacore Research Ltd.

Integrated ship production for Win95/NT. ShipCAM97:

Fairing and lofting including frames with cutouts, plate expansion, shell expansion and inv. bending. CAD-Link97: AutoCAD 13 based 3D structural modeling as easy as 2D drafting plus weight & CG. NC-Pyros97: NC- code generation from CAD drawings.