Strategic Marine expands shipbuilding capacity

Source: Shipping on line

Australia’s Strategic Marine has confirmed its emergence as an international shipbuilder by expanding the capacity of its Singapore facility and officially opening its new yard in Mexico.

The company has doubled the size and capacity of its shipyard at Tuas in Singapore by leasing a 3,000m2 open area adjacent to its existing facility and erecting a 1,200m2 covered area which is expected be operational by August this year.

The increased capacity will allow Strategic Marine to make an early start on the six 40m crew boats it has announced it will build ‘on spec’.

Two of these vessels have already been ordered by Australian marine service company Samson Maritime in a contract worth US$9.8 million.

The aluminium utility vessels, which have seating for 50 rig crew and 10 crew members, are scheduled for delivery in May and July next year.

Work is already under way to lay a 75m x 22m concrete slab on the new site, which will then have a marquee-type shed erected as a temporary measure, with a permanent shed on the newly leased site to be constructed next year.

The expanded yard is expected to employ an additional 80 welders, fabricators and shipyard workers on top of its existing 120-strong workforce.

Meanwhile, Strategic Marine’s shipyard at Matazlan in Mexico has officially been opened with a keel-laying ceremony for the first vessel to be built at the facility.

The Western Australian shipbuilder entered a joint venture with Mazatlan-based Servicios Navales E Industriales (SENI) late last year after winning a US$11.89 million order to build two 52m aluminium crew boats for Arrendadora Ocean Mexicana (Bluewater Marine).

Bluewater Marine will use the vessels to service its Pemex supply contract in the Gulf of Mexico.

Work on pre-fabricated modules for the first two crew boats is well under way and now that the keel has been stood in the company’s newly constructed shed, the modules can be hoisted into place.

The two boats are scheduled for delivery in the middle of next year, by which time work will already have started on two more 52m crew boats which the company is building on spec to meet burgeoning demand from the offshore oil industry.