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Tug contingency without sufficient coverage
Aspiring to operate a tug contingency along the Norwegian coast, but without sufficient hardware coverage, is a bit like playing tennis with a racket without strings. Instead, the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) is playing with words and paying lip service to astonished politicians asking questions every time a vessel is in distress.
Coastal Express –
first class, but not financially
To most tourists visiting Norway, the Coastal Express service from Bergen to Kirkenes is the ultimate coastal journey, taking passengers through some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the world. To the operators, however, the service is becoming a financial quagmire; last year, they lost around NOK 500 million with no light in sight at the end of the tunnel.
A new costumer in Esbjerg: “Sylt Express” from 2005 at its first docking. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen
Denmark: doing more at home
The Danish repair yards have had a very good year in general in 2005, and as far as the first months of 2006 are concerned, the tendency is very much the same. A steady stream of ships has been coming in for repairs.
Fredericia to do three large conversions for Maersk Supply
Fredericia Skibsværft will do a lot of blue paintwork this year, a lot of work in the very special blue paint manufactured by J. C. Hempel and only sold to one customer: A. P. Møller-Mærsk A/S.
Søby shipyard takes
a great step into the future
The shipyard in Søby on the Isle of Ærø has taken a major step into the future – and a major step toward staying in the market and serving the ship sizes of today. An investment of close to DKK 30 million is a considerable amount of money for a relatively small shipyard.
BLRT Grupp receives
special orders
BLRT Grupp, a group of multiple subsidiaries, continues in all three of its former directions: shipbuilding, ship repairs and manufacturing of big metal constructions. The group also succeeded in getting a public contract – the conversion of the multi-purpose ship “EVA 316”.
LTH-Baas stresses mobility
LTH-Baas has been successful with its mobile work teams providing on-the-spot repairs, but the company is also taking part in bigger projects.
SRC is building tankers
SRC – Ship Repair & Conversion – began with mobile work teams but have now concluded an agreement with the MNP Group engaged in shipbuilding on the construction of six tankers for Svithoid Tankers.
Cruise vessel “Freedom of the Seas” in the building dock. Photo: Jouni Saaristo
The best situation ever
in Finnish shipbuilding
Only a year ago, the future did not appear too bright for Aker Yards Finnish shipyards. However, in the course of the last year, things changed completely. It seems likely that the Finnish shipbuilding industry has never been as successful as it is today.
Redelivery of patrol vessel
The situation at the Uki Workboat is quite satisfying, even if more orders could be fitted into the production schedule. Normally, exports account for some 50 per cent of the output of Uki Workboat shipyard in Uusikaupunki. Due to large domestic orders, the share of exports at present is 35 per cent.
Germans consolidate
amid caution over future 
Much that was insecure in 2005 is now more consolidated as German shipbuilding emerges from another bolstering year – a time in which, for the first time in years, the number of newbuildings delivered came respectably close to the number built by foreign yards for German owners.
Orders to Riga coming in steadily
Riga Shipyard works at a steady pace without complaining about neither overload nor lack of work. After many years, the yard has now received turn-key shipbuilding orders.
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Ships built at Tosmare
already under way
Tosmare Shipyard has quite a number of orders for springtime repairs in sight; two road ferries finished last year, are already under way.
Baltija has a full portfolio
Baltija Shipbuilding Yard has completed a series of tugs and will not undertake the construction of new ships for the time being, as there are sufficient commissions for basic projects – hull sections and superstructures of container ships.
Laivite continues trawler repairs
Laivite Ship Repair Yard has taken the course of building itself up into a Group. Greater independence in the work of the divisions allows them to show a higher level of initiative and also find commissions outside of the Group. Meanwhile, the Laivite Design Office, the pride of the Yard, has also become an independent undertaking under the name of JSC Baltik Ship Design.
Metal-consuming commissions
at Western Shipyard
Western Shipyard in Klaipeda is extending the margins of its capacity – news of commissions biggest in the history of the company are continuously being received. This Lithuanian Group uniting 19 undertakings in its turn belongs to the Estonian Group BLRT Grupp.
Employers sharing
a common interest
The Association of Lithuanian Shipbuilders and Repairers is ready to alleviate the common concern of their 26 member companies – the labour force leaving for the West.
 One of the most advanced vessels ordered last year is a multi-purpose service vessel of the UT767CD design for Island Offshore, Ulsteinvik, from the Aker Langsten yard.
Norway: Oil-fuelled blessings
The Norwegian maritime technology cluster has been enjoying its own version of the global shipbuilding boom in 2005. Newbuilding projects of NOK 17 billion (EUR 2.15 billion) were concluded, basically driven by the high energy prices and the current expansion of the world’s oil exploration capacity. But the global boom has also benefited Norwegian builders like the Kleven Florø yard, which brought home orders for 40,000 DWT chemical tankers.
New challenges for Poland
When Szczecin Shipyard was proclaimed bankrupt, one of the vital reasons for this was serious difficulty in mastering technology and delays when building a complex chemical tanker prototype for a Norwegian shipowner. Today, the successor of the fallen shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard New, is not afraid of challenges, however, such as building complicated vessels full of state-of-the-art equipment and solutions.
St Petersburg takes the lead
in Russian shipbuilding
According to statistics by CESA, 106 civilian ships, totalling 908,000 GT and 990,000 cGT, were built in Russia in 2005. This corresponds to 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent of total volume of ships built in the world that year. This places Russia tenth in the ranking of the world’s biggest shipbuilders.
Yantar handling both military
and civilian commissions
Shipyard Yantar is the only shipyard in Russia building military surface ships. This does not, however, mean that they do not handle civilian vessels.
Enthusiasts revived
abandoned plant
Shiprepair Baltic Ltd. is located on the opposite shore of the well-known major shipyard Yantar in Kaliningrad and is not as well known. It seemed rather surprising that it was possible to restart a plant that had not been operational for years, but all that it took was enough will and enthusiasm. And Shiprepair Baltic Ltd. (Sudoremont Baltica) apparently has plenty of that.
Swedish yards look back
at a good 2005
The number of Swedish sites for newbuilding of larger vessels has shrunk to two: Landskrona where the works on an offshore vessel soon will begin and Karlskrona, where innovative and state-of-the-art naval vessels continue to leave the assembly hall. In the ship repair sector, facilities are expanding, competitiveness increases and 2005 was a healthy year with well-filled order books.
“Herakles” –
made famous
by coffee
Although the cargo steamer Herakles served the Finland–Sydamerikalinjen (AL) for 14 years, it is one particular voyage that made her famous with the whole Finnish people. She brought the first cargo of coffee to Finland after the war.
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