Onex Elefsis Acuires Elefsina Shipyards
Greece-based Onex Elefsis Shipyards announced that it will allocate up to $400 million, over a 15-year period, to purchase and finance the operation of the Elefsina Shipyards, west of Piraeus.The Greek shipyard said that the US investment firm Chatsworth Securities has agreed with it to make an investment, as part of efforts to save the complex from bankruptcy.Onex Elefsis will acquire the second biggest Shipyard in Greece, through Greek Bankruptcy Law and rehabilitation plan that is expected to be approved by the Greek Courts within 3-6 months.Also, the Company is working on alternatives with the Greek Government and Creditors to re…
Can Shipping Help Greece Ride out the Storm?
Greece is considered to be the world’s first ship-owning country in terms of tonnage. The Greeks are known to control 17.7% of world fleet and gaining share except in crude tankers. Even recession in the dry bulk market has not had much effect on the Greek-owned fleet with the fleet size touching 5,226 vessels last year with a total DWT of 334 million. For debt-laden Greece, shipping – a key element of Greek economic activity since ancient times – is considered a knight in shining armor at this crucial juncture. Most Greek shipping companies are family owned businesses which have been in shipping for many decades, even over a hundred years.
Complex Steel and Cofferdam Repairs Carried Out Afloat
Hydrex has an in-house Research & Development department that can take care of the engineering aspects of an operation. In this way turnkey solutions can be offered for complex hull and other repairs that require the construction of specific equipment. All the projects are engineered and carried out in close cooperation with the customer and any third party suppliers. R&D evaluates the feasibility of an underwater repair, continue through design and construction of customized equipment and go all the way through to successful execution of the repair or replacement and subsequent follow-up.
Permanent On-site Collision Damage Repair in Greece
In July Hydrex mobilized a team of diver/technicians to Syros, Greece, for a complex repair operation on a 118-meter, 8550 DWT chemical tanker. The vessel had suffered large cracks in her hull plating as the result of a collision. She was not allowed to sail any further. Hydrex proposed a permanent on-site repair using an open top cofferdam. This would enable the fully laden ship to continue her journey. The tanker was berthed in Egypt when another vessel struck her portside hull. This caused a large hole, severe cracks and dented plating.
Tsavliris Salvages Collided Vessels in Aegean Sea
On July 4 Tsavliris Salvage dispatched its salvage tug Megas Alexandros from her Piraeus salvage station, to the assistance of bulk carrier Katherine (17,255 GT, 28,711 DWT), laden with 26,400 MT of hot briquetted iron, following collision with bulk carrier Baru Satu (9,978 GT, 16,190 DWT), in the Kafirea Strait, Aegean Sea. As a result of the accident, the M/V Katherine was rammed by the bulbous bow of the M/V Baru Satu penetrating her cargo hold no.5, (which flooded) locking the two vessels together.
Three Vie To Buy Shipyard
Greece received three bids for the sale of a majority stake in Hellenic (Skaramanga) Shipyards, one of 10 privatizations the development ministry has planned for 2001. "We have three bids, but one bid has no letter of guarantee. It's important that we have two bids that are good. They are what we were expecting," Deputy Development Minister Alekos Kalafatis said. Germany's biggest shipyard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW)-Ferrostaal AG and Greece's Neorion Shipyards subsidiary Elefsina Shipyards submitted binding bids, he said. An expression of continued interest, without a letter of guarantee, came from France's Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN).
