MANAMA: The Arab Ship and Repair Yard Company (Asry) had its best year in 33 years of business last year. The company saw sales rise by 19 per cent to more than $143 million. The value of repairs completed came to $166.9m, again an increase on the previous year. Due to the extremely high demand throughout the year, all the docks were kept fully-occupied with all facilities working at full capacity.
There were 145 vessels repaired, ranging from Ultra Large Crude Carriers through to a large number of offshore rigs and vessels, a company spokesman said.
There were also major upgrade and conversion contracts on a number of offshore heavy lift crane ships and barges, again demonstrating Asry's range of expertise and skill in undertaking complex and sophisticated repairs to a broad range of vessels.
Turnover on vessels repaired in the yard increased during the year and of those vessels docked during last year, 24 vessels were in the 70,000 to 350,000dwt range, with 12 over 175,000dwt, with the remaining 121 vessels below 70,000 dwt.
There were 24 vessels which had along side repairs making a total tonnage of over 6.70m dwt repaired during the year.
"As with the previous year, the demand for all Asry's facilities have been extremely high throughout the year and as to be expected, with a record set of results, the Graving Dock and two Floating Docks were kept very busy all the time with continuous contracts from owners all around the world," a spokesman said.
"This constant high demand for dock space looks as though it is going to continue throughout the rest of this year, based on contracts already placed for the first quarter of this year and with confirmed booking well into the fourth quarter.
"This demand for dock space will be eased by end of the second quarter of this year when the new twin slipways are scheduled to be operational," he said.
"Each, with a dry berth length of 255m and a capacity of 5,000 tonnes, are ideal for accommodating offshore service boats, large tugs and supply vessels. Their vertical curve design also facilitates new building activities at its upper end.
"Vessels with drafts up to 4.5m can be easily slipped up under normal daily tidal conditions. The slipways are equipped with all required shore facilities and are serviced by two 15 tonnes and 80 tonnes crawler cranes with ample reach.
"Adjacent to the slipways is a 100m pier for along side repairs which can accommodate two double banking vessels.
"Targeting vessels of the 30 to 80m length, the slipways will enable Asry to free about 20pc of the capacity of its existing larger docks for receiving larger vessels thus providing a significant boost to the yard's sales," he added.
Graving Dock No 1 had an occupancy rate of 97.54pc during the year whilst the demand for the two floating docks remained high with Floating Dock No 2 having an occupancy rate of some 99.45pc, again up on 2006 and Floating Dock No 3 achieving 96.71pc.
"Asry has been very fortunate in having strong support from local owners in the Arabian Gulf area as well as from the International markets and a large number of owners have had multiple dockings in the yard throughout last year," the spokesman added.
"There were some 62 vessels booked from the Arab markets and 83 from the international markets, some of them involved major repairs, which was completed last year."
