Deal Revives SA Shipbuilding

According to reports, there was a buzz of excitement at Dormac on Friday when the keel-laying ceremony for a oil bunker barge commissioned by Smit Amandla Marine signalled the revival of the shipbuilding industry in South Africa. Dormac's empowerment partner, Palisa Investments, owns 25.5 percent in the company, which procures almost 100 percent of its goods and services from black economic empowerment companies. Pim Zandee, the former chief executive of Smit Amandla, said the specialist marine services company, which is the biggest oil bunker supplier in the Durban harbour, chose Dormac to build the bunker barge as it wanted to prove that the work could be done in South Africa. The barge is due for delivery in September or October next year. Officials said Dormac would focus on a niche market of vessels that included bunker barges and tugs, and then grow from there. Source: Business Reports