The first six months of the year have been busy for ASRY with very high occupancy rates across all the docks, the outcome of the second quarter ASRY had its best set of results, which broke previous records for sales and repairs. There has been a high demand during the first half of the year for all the yards services, not only from the shipping industries, but also from the oil and gas sector.
During the second quarter of the year there were 56 vessels booked along with 39 repairs completed.
Sales revenues were up by 140% over the same period as last year. Contract values per vessel for repairs have also risen in line with these increases. The first six months of this year have seen a total of 103 contracts placed with ASRY. These have ranged from the traditional VLCCs and ULCCs to the more sophisticated and complex repairs to Offshore Drill rigs and work over barges along with bulk carriers, chemical carriers, LPG carriers, and offshore support vessels.
Some owners have already confirmed bookings for their vessels into 2008, emphasizing that it is becoming essential for owners to plan for their dockings and get the yard the want.
The large number of contracts won over the first six months occurred because 218 specifications were received, resulting in 43.4% success rate compared to the 32.4% rate last year. The dock occupancy rates have been high with the Graving Dock achieving 100%, likewise the two floating docks have seen increases in occupancy, with 98.3% for Floating Dock Number 2 and 98.9% for Floating Dock Number 3. The number of UL/VLCCs repaired during this period has remained consistent with last year.
The International markets had a busy period with 40 vessels booked for repairs, whereas the Arab markets also saw their market share increase to 34 vessels. There was also a spate of multiple dockings from a number of owners.
During the first half of the year, over 2.2 million dwt of vessels were repaired by ASRY with 45.95% coming from the Arab Market and 54.05% from the International Markets.
ASRY’s New Twin Slipway
The construction of ASRY’s new twin Slipway is in progress. The two Slipways, each have a total length of 1,673 ft. (510 m.), a dry berth length of 837 ft. (255m.), equipped with 360 tons of pulling capacity. With a total budget of $20 million, work commenced in February, 2007 with the main construction contract of $13.5 million being awarded to Ahmed Mansour Al-A’ ali Co BSC. The dredging operation for the Slipways’ deep end was completed earlier in the year. Since then, a huge cofferdam, isolating the site from the sea, has now been constructed, allowing earth excavation work to proceed to its upper end where the cradles will be hauled out. ASRY is currently building the specialist steel cradles using more than 2,000 tons of steel, and after completion should be capable of berthing a total weight of 9,000 tons each.