| Fisheries: $3m FLOATING DRYDOCK OPERATIONAL |
Can repair ships up to 3500 tonnes and 76 metres long
Elenoa Baselala
The idea of having a big slipping dock for ship repairs has been floated for many years. But it has now become a reality with the purchase of a floating dry dock by IMEL (Industrial and Marine Engineering Limited), a division of Carpenters South Pacific.
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High and dry... local ship Mystique Princess at IMEL’s dry dock.
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The dock has a capacity to repair ships of up to 3500 tonnes and 76 metres long.
Bought at a cost of F$3 million, the floating dock named “Naiqasiqasi” by the Tui Suva was purchased from Okinawa, Japan, and brought to Fiji by a tug boat over a 25-day voyage.
The dry dock has proved to be a worthwhile purchase for the company.
Since it began operation from the Suva Harbour in mid-March this year, IMEL has had nine local and overseas ships coming in for repair works and about 26 more are booked for the year.
“The idea of having a floating dock has been floated for a number of years by various companies.
“But it has not been able to come to fruition because of the huge costs involved,” Amendra Singh, IMEL’s accountant, told ISLANDS BUSINESS.
“At the moment, we are the only company that has the capability to repair big local ships as the Fiji Ships and Heavy Industries can only repair ships of up to 600 tonnes.
“Having something like this is good for Fiji and also for foreign ships that travel in our region.
“There are over 300 Asian ships that fish in our waters and they would not have to go back to their countries for repairs as this could be done here in Suva.
“We are cheaper than Australia and New Zealand because our labour costs are five times cheaper.
“Our turn around time is four days—we repair all ships within four days.
“Coming to us saves them about US$30,000 a month,” Singh said.
The dock has four “pillars” about 27 metres apart and two 12-tonne cranes. Inside the pillars are engine rooms.
Located at the bottom of the pillars are tanks, which like a submarine are filled with water so they could sink and enable a ship coming in for repairs to dock.
Once, the ship is in the dock, divers will push in timbers at the bottom to secure the ship.
Seeing that the ship is secure, water will then be pumped out of the tanks floating the dock and leaving the ship high and dry and ready for repairs.
IMEL has always repaired ships in the past, however, the arrival of the floating dock has seen the improving of the technical expertise of their workers.
“We have also increased our workers from 55 to 80,” says Singh.
“These are very highly skilled workers. At the moment, we have only one shift for the workers but we would like to increase this to two.
“We are targeting overseas markets and would be very happy to see our South Pacific Islands neighbours bringing in their ships to us for repairs.
“After, we have done our repairs, an independent Lloyds supervisor checks the work done and certifies them before they are dispatched back to the owners.”
Kept steady with seven big anchors, Singh assures they are environmental conscious.
“All our waste is collected in a big container which is then transported to land where it is disposed off,” he says.
The MV Westerland was the first local “big” ship that IMEL repaired after it hit a reef in Savusavu.
“If it wasn’t for the dock, the ship would have had to go on a three-week trip overseas and it would have been costly for the owners. We also had the Mystique Princess on our dock. We have not done any marketing but the response so far from companies have been good,” Singh says.
The charges range from F$6000 to F$11,500 depending on the size and tonnage of the ship.
While ideally shipowners are advised to book a month before coming in for repairs, Singh says they also accommodate emergency slipping as was the case with MV Westerland.
Foreign-owned ships that have used IMEL’s facilities are Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese shipping vessels.
Meanwhile, South Sea Slipway is another local company that has been repairing ships.
Smaller than IMEL’s floating dry dock with the capacity to take vessels of up to 320 tonnes, the slipway has been in operation since December 2003.
The slipway has a cradle length of 27 metres, maximum breadth of 9.5 metres and maximum draft of 3.8 metres.
Company’s Dave Lucas said that while their market is mostly fishing vessels, they have in the recent past slipped two luxury vessels.
”The slipway has operated almost to capacity since we started.
“However, there has been a downturn recently, due mostly, I think, to decreasing margins in the fishing industry.
“We are considering lengthening the cradle to take slightly larger vessels, but this is still in the planning stages.
“One of the main challenges has been maintaining full bookings on the slipway, due to the fact that many vessels wished to slip on a seasonal basis, that is if the fishing season is not up to expectation, everyone will want to slip at the same time,” Lucas says.
South Sea Slipway Limited is a joint venture between Solander (Pacific) Ltd, a local fishing company, and South Seas Engineering Ltd, a local ship’s engineering firm. They are able to carry out ship, engines and shaft repairs.
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