The Normandy laid up at Fredericia with the Dueodde from Bornholmstrafikken in the dock. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

DENMARK:
All well on the Danish scene
The Danish repair scene reflects the historic high market for all types of ships. The repair yards are almost fully booked and are looking towards a steady stream of ships heading for repair. The need for repair shops is also fuelled by the tight port state controls.

Karstensens Skibsværft:
Biggest newbuilding delivered
Karstensens Skibsværft in Skagen has just delivered their largest newbuilding ever. It was hull no 400, which is the patrol vessel Knud Rasmussen for the Danish navy. The patrol vessel is the first of two identical units and is also the first non-fishing vessel newbuilding delivered from the shipyard.

Hvide Sande: Gigantic repair job on veteran vessel
Hvide Sande Skibs & Bådebyggeri has again this winter underlined that the shipyard is highly skilled in both the old-fashioned craftsmanship of handling wooden ships as well as building very modern high-tech aluminium ships.

The 8,661 DWT Global Carrier had a major overhaul done at the Tallinn Shipyard. Photo: Alexander Zaborsk

ESTONIA:
The BLRT Grupp expands
around the Baltic
The BLRT Grupp, which has grown out of the Russian-Baltic Shipyard and celebrated its 95th anniversary last autumn, has been undergoing significant expansion. In addition to its 32 subsidiaries in Estonia, joint ventures have also been set up with McGregor and Norway’s Fiskerstrand Verft, and recently the group acquired the Turku Ship Repair Yard in Finland.

SRC returning to its roots
Ship Repair & Conversion, a small company founded at the beginning of the century, has already branched out into shipbuilding operations and running a metallurgy plant, but is now returning to its ship repair roots.

LTH-Baas: at sea
and in a rocky cave
LTH-Baas offers repair services en route and in ports, covering the whole range of vessel contingencies. In addition to performing repairs at sea, the company has worked at the Muskö naval base renovating the Swedish hotel ship af Chapman.

The cruise vessel Independence of the Seas at the outfitting quay at Aker Yards Turku shipyard. PHOTO: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

FINLAND:
Exceptional workload
delays deliveries
In January 2008 the value of the vessels on order at Aker Yards’ Cruise & Ferries business area totalled EUR 7 billion. At the Finnish shipyards there were three cruise vessels and six ferries in the order book by the turn of the year. Due to the overheated situation in the shipbuilding industry, the deliveries of several ferries are late.

New orders to UKI Workboat
UKI Workboat in Uusikaupunki has a good workload until the end of year 2010, even though the shipyard has capacity for more orders. The shipyard has recently received several significant orders.

Helsinki turns to refurbishment as market cools down
The overheated situation in Finnish shipbuilding is rapidly cooling down as newbuildings are being delivered and no new orders have been received. But there are also other projects than newbuildings that are interesting for Aker Yards shipyards in Finland – especially the growing market for refurbishment services.

The small but versatile Anne Sibum, one in the SSW Shipyard Super 1000 series.

GERMANY:
Shipyards stay on a roll
At the start of the year, the German shipbuilding association VSM admonished home shipowners for continuing to buy so many of their ships in Asia and the Far East instead of in competent home yards.

Repair yards benefit
from shipping high
German repair and conversion yards continue to benefit from a buoyant shipping sector, tackling a wide range of work from feeders to cruise ships.

The Fox Luna, under construction at Riga Shipyard for Swedish owners to be completed in Norway. Photo: Kirill Kapustin/Riga Shipyard

Tosmare Shipyard:
Focus on quality not quantity
After downsizing its territory and selling off the excess, the Tosmare Shipyard has become compact and is trying to maintain its flexibility in offering smaller ship owners a suitable price-quality ratio.

Hull blocks for cruise ships ordered by Turku Aker Yards. Photo: Darija Sashenko

LITHUANIA:
Baltija Shipbuilding Yard:
Building ship blocks in series
The Baltija Shipbuilding Yard continues to carry out metal-intensive hull jobs, with the hulls then built up into ships at the parent company – Odense Steel Shipyard – as well as other large shipbuilding enterprises.

Western Shipyard
in Norwegian cooperation
The Western Shipyard company, which forms part of the BLRT Grupp, is becoming increasingly involved in the activities of its Estonian parent company. The group’s ship orders have already been concentrated in Klaipeda, including construction of the ferries for the Saaremaa Shipping Company.

Most yards are small and located in rural areas, like Kvina Verft near Flekkefjord, about to complete the Normand Ferking. Photo: Dag Bakka Jr

NORWAY:
Shipbuilding in Norway
at an all-time high
This year there will be on the average two delivery ceremonies every week, if the 108 vessels contracted for 2008 completion are keeping their schedules.

Download: Full lists of Norwegian orders and deliveries in 2007.

Assembly of the bulbous bow on the container vessel Cala Pigafetta. Photo: Izabella Maruszczak (SSN)

POLAND:
Second privatization
of newbuilding shipyards
The privatization taking place at Polish shipyards – especially at the two largest shipyards Stocznia Gdynia and Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa (SSN) – is likely to cost the Polish taxpayers a fortune. The financial state of both companies is so bad that the government has again had to put in money in order to find new investors.

Shipyard Yantar covers a huge area, the yard has the size of a small city, and some of the buildings are over a hundred years old. Photo: Madli Vitismann

RUSSIA:
Kremlin programme
to salvage civil shipbuilding
The Russian Government intends to drag the shipbuilding industry from a deep and lengthy crisis with the aid of these two tugs: creation of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and implementation of the Federal Target Programme for Civil Maritime Shipbuilding.

Severnaya Verf:
not just for navy ships
The United Industrial Corporation (OPK) is planning to establish a compact shipyard at one of its shipyards in St Petersburg. The advantage of Severnaya Verf compared to Baltiysky Zavod is its location, as it facilitates expansion. Severnaya Verf was founded two years before the First World War, while Baltiysky Zavod dates back to the post-Crimean War period, 1856.

Extension of fishing vessels – one of many projects at Ö-Varvet. Photo: Ö-Varvet

SWEDEN:
Broad competence
on a growing market
The Swedish repair yards constitute a very busy sector in Swedish industry today and have been doing so for quite some time. Practically all the yards SSG has spoken to have full order books and the nature of work is very wide. The Swedish yards show a broad competence on a constantly growing market. Several yards are making large investments in equipment and are extending and modernizing buildings and facilities and are also looking for new staff.

Busy times at Kockums
Kockums AB has taken over the workshops at Muskö. It means, among other things, that the yard’s resources for maintenance have increased and it is of vital importance that they are finally represented in the Stockholm area.