UAE offsets company Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), one of the leading Middle East shipbuilding and repair yards with a list of customers straddling both military and civilian sections, is looking forward to handling a wider range of products following an agreement it signed recently with Britain's Halmatic.

Set up in 1996 as a joint-stock company with an initial paid-in capital of Dh178 million ($48.5 million), its shareholding structure underwent a change in March 2001 and the company is now owned 30 per cent by the Newport News Shipbuilding of the US, 10 per cent by France's Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN), 18.5 per cent by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government and 41.5 per cent by UAE nationals who were offered shares priced at Dh10 each through an initial public offering (IPO).

Among ADSB's customers are the UAE Navy, the UAE coast guard, Adnoc and its subsidiaries and local operators of tug boats, barges and offshore supply and support vessels.

The agreement with Halmatic will enable ADSB to build and market Halmatic-designed vessels for Gulf customers.

Halmatic, a division of Vosper Thornycroft, is one of the leading designers and builders of vessels using glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and advanced composite materials.

The company is recognised worldwide for innovation in GRP and composite technology and has one of the broadest ranges of vessel designs of any company in that field. The agreement gives ADSB access to the British company's product range for construction in Abu Dhabi.

Halmatic vessels being considered for construction at ADSB include military and coast guard patrol vessels, military fast attack craft, rigid inflatable boats, search-and-rescue vessels and various other commercial and military designs, ADSB said in a statement.

The vessels to be locally built could also include products from other Halmatic divisions and partnerships including high-performance boats from Cougar.

ADSB has been operating in the Mussafah Industrial Area of the UAE capital since 1996. The company's business activities include the construction, refit and repair of a wide range of naval and commercial vessels built from steel and aluminium.

ADSB's product range has been expanded following the latest agreement to include the construction of GRP and advanced composite vessels.

A major shipyard facility expansion now going on at ADSB will increase production capacity by more than 400 per cent. The first phase of the expansion is fully completed with the second phase on target to complete by the end of 2001.

The company is now finalising plans for additional expansion to provide dedicated, state-of-the-art production facilities for GRP and composite vessels.