Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2017)

Jose Carlos Alvarez,

Astican & Astander

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News interviews

Jose Carlos Alvarez, Managing Director, Astican &

Astander, a global leader in ship repair and conver- sion, for his insights on the market today.

By Greg Trauthwein

Please share with us your view on ‘the market’ today.

First it is important to say that the main business of Astican is repair and the off-of Astican is repair and the off- shore business, where as the main focus of Astander is the conversion business. We e conversion business. We being, but (there are are suffering as a consequence of the market for the time being, but (there are bright spots) speci? cally the ? shing vessel ? gures are quite good. Spe-te good. Spe- ci? cally, Astander recently carried out an important conversion version (Photo: Greg Trauthwein) project for a Canadian ? shing company, so the turn- over ? gures for Astander (in 2016) are quite good.

The turnover ? gures for Astican will be more or less ‘OK’.

You have been in this business for more than a

Request for Quotation for the quarter of a century. How is this market the same

Dry Docking and Routine Maintenance/Repair or different from previous downturns?

Of the University of Hawaii’s R/V Kilo Moana – 188Ft LOA, I have lived the ups and downs in the marine business for 26 years, and perhaps this crash is a bit 88Ft Beam, 25Ft Draft, 2547 LT Displacement, deeper than previous ones. For me, the key to staying

SWATH Design. a? oat, the most important thing to manage this crisis,

Due to Ship’s Schedule, only Shipyards located in is to be ef? cient and to manage your costs.

Hawaii, West Coast USA, and Guam will be considered.

Obviously your business is capital intensive. How

Work to commence o/a 15 February 2017. do you manage investment in facilities, equipment

POC for detailed RFQ - M. Banas and people when times are tougher?

Now is the time for investment. Yes, we 808-956-0690 or 808-436-9226, need to be ef? cient and to manage costs, but we also [email protected] must keep our eye on the future and the inevitable

Proposal Closing Time and Date turnaround. The key is to make clever investments.

For example, at Astican we are investing in a new 1530 31 January 2017 Hawaii Local Time deepwater pier (21 to 25 meters) to serve the offshore community, speci? cally thruster removal on the big- gest rigs and drill ships. This will be ready in 2017. In addition Astican is lengthening its drydock to make it

Panamax size.

Last year in Hamburg SMM 2016 was held, the world’s largest and arguably best maritime exhibi- tion in the world and a perennial bellwether for the industry. I saw a strong show with many visitors.

What did you see?

Overall it was good, depending on the sec- tor. It is very clear that the oil and gas industry re- mains under pressure. On the other hand, the cruise and ? shing sectors are booming, which is good for us as we are well positioned in both sectors. The ? sh- ing ? eet in particular is a strong growth sector, with investment in new vessels, investment in new equip- ment and facilities. This should be a growing area for the coming two to three years.

www.marinelink.com 41

MR #1 (34-41).indd 41 MR #1 (34-41).indd 41 1/9/2017 3:25:17 PM1/9/2017 3:25:17 PM