Chris Potter News

Last last year Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY) appointed Nils Kristian Berge acting Chief Executive  to succeed Chris Potter. As ASRY is a driving force in the key Middle East ship repair and offshore markets, Maritime Reporter spent some time with Berge for his insights on the ship repair market in general, as well as ASRY specific initiatives for the coming year. You replace Chris Potter, who obviously had a long and notable career. What are the top challenges and advantages going forward? Chris did a great job over his six years as CE of guiding the company to the next level.

ASRY, a ship and rig repair yard in the Arabian Gulf, has appointed Nils Kristian Berge, the current Commercial General Manager, as Acting Chief Executive, to succeed Chris Potter, who leaves the company in October 2013. The ASRY Board of Directors confirmed the transition has been planned for several months in order to ensure a smooth and seamless transfer of responsibilities. Shaikh Daij bin Salman Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ASRY commented, “With new expansions and diversifications now completed and integrated at the yard under Mr.

By all accounts, Bahrain-based ASRY (Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard) is managing to buck the trend of falling revenues and create an optimistic story for the Middle East ship repair industry. It is also resisting the regional trend of falling revenues and increased losses with a 6% increase year-on-year in revenues as well as staying profitable, according to the yard. The secret to the yard’s success is actually no secret at all and has been reported previously in these pages.

Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (Asry) CEO says repair of the tankship was found not to be viable Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (Asry) chief executive Chris Potter told 'Gulf Daily News', "It was felt that the cost of repair would be much more than the cost of the vessel." He said the vessel could be broken apart in Bahrain and then taken away. "We could also have ship-breaking experts coming to Bahrain to examine the vessel and decide on breaking it up." The tanker, which suffered an explosion after a fire in March, had at one point threatened Bahrain's coastline. It arrived in Asry last month in convoy with the help of three large tugs. The cause of the original explosion is still unknown.

The 2004-built, 25,268dwt Liberian-flag chemical tanker Stolt Valor, has arrived at Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard (ASRY) for repairs, following a fire and explosion in one of her cargo tanks while transiting the Arabian Gulf on 15 March this year. Stolt Valor arrived at ASRY in convoy with the three large tugs: 1,797grt Anchor Handling Tug/Supply vessel Caribbean Fos, owned by Greece’s Five Oceans Salvage; the 450grt tug  Pacific Typhoon, owned by Swire Pacific Ltd and the 1,290grt Anchor Handling Tug/Supply vessel Lamnalco Mesite, owned by Smit Lamnalco Ltd, Cyprus.

Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY) signs a long-term contract to repair Maersk vessels on preferential terms With 35  years experience in the shipbuilding and repair business, ASRY will repair Maersk ships operating in the Persian Gulf as required. In 2011 the yard repaired nine Maersk ships. Commenting on this agreement, Chief Executive Officer, of the ASRY Group Chris Potter, said: "I am very pleased to welcome Maersk company in the growing list of our customers."

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard Co (ASRY) has turned in a profitable first quarter of 2012 despite the continued shipping recession and increased competition in the region. As of the beginning of May ASRY was running at close to capacity and had work in hand for the next 12 weeks. This, says CEO Chris Potter, is quite some achievement in a region which already has plenty of repair capacity, even before two major new repair facilities opened for business recently in Qatar and Oman.

While small in stature at just 760 sq. km. with a population of 1.2 million, the Kingdom of Bahrain, an archipelago in the Persian Gulf just east of and connected by causeway to Saudi Arabia, seeks to grow its stature in the world marine market to become a global maritime and logistics center by 2030. The Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard Co. (ASRY), which is central to this success, last month celebrated several key milestones, including the anniversary of its 35th year in business and the opening of its new 1.38km Repair Quay Wall…

While Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard Co (ASRY) is an established power in the ship repair business, it had traditionally not engaged in the business of ship and boat building. “The very simple answer, really, is that we have found there is more money to be made repairing ships than building them,” said Chris Potter, Chief Executive Officer, ASRY. ASRY is, however, capable, and is building a series of four new tugs for itself on its large slipways, with the lead vessel, as yet unnamed, due for delivery by the end of 2011.

As Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard Co (ASRY) celebrates its 35th Anniversary, this week the company officially inaugurated and opened for business its new 1.38km Repair Quay Wall. The official inauguration of the new Repair Quay Wall is not just a significant event for ASRY but also for Bahrain’s fast growing maritime sector and economy, and is a strong signal of the yard’s intent to enter more vigorously the business in the offshore and rig outfitting niche. Since starting life in October1977 as the Middle East’s first shipyard designed specifically for the repair of Super Tankers…

Tanker operator, BW Fleet Management, expanded its Fleet Repair Agreement with ASRY’s Bahrain yard. The new repair agreement was signed by Morten Steen Martinsen, managing director of BW Fleet Management and Chris Potter, CEO of ASRY, in April in Bahrain. The Norwegian company, which operates out of both Oslo and Singapore, manages a fleet of more than 90 vessels operated by BW Gas and BW Maritime, and the ASRY repair agreement involves those crude oil tankers, product tankers and LPG carriers that trade to the Arabian Gulf, giving guaranteed dock space and fixed rates.

Bahrain-based Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co (ASRY) is set to ride out the global economic storm in 2009 following its record breaking year in 2008. Both chairman, H.E. Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al-Khalifa and Chief Executive Chris Potter are upbeat about the yard’s performance this year following sales in 2008 breaking the $200m barrier for the first time. “In the past year or so we’ve put new policies in place and these have paid off. In 2008 the Bahrain shipyard had sales of $207.5m, the best year in its history, and repaired a total of 133 vessels and offshore craft; 119 in drydock and 14 alongside. ASRY’s customer base is traditionally split between vessels owned by Arab operators and the international shipping market.