Top-performance figures for 2004 have encouraged Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (Asry) to prepare for an expansion in the near future.

The company reported its net operating income could reach $92 million for the year compared with $87 million in the previous year. The 2004 figure was described as a record for the yard, which became operational in September 1977.
The company’s facilities and workmanship enabled it to repair or accept for repairing as many as 130 vessels during 2004, making it one of the busiest shipyards in the region. Many of the ships booked for repairs were very large crude carriers.
First steps towards an expansion have been taken with the company board approving dredging of a channel 1,500 m long, 500 m wide and 15 m deep in the eastern zone between Asry and the iron pellet-making company Gulf Industrial Investment Company at Hidd.
The channel work is being taken up to prepare for any future expansion, the board said.
Reporting on the third quarter of 2004, Asry said it registered a seven per cent increase in business and sales over the previous quarter. Some 28 vessels were in the yard for repairs and refurbishment during the third quarter and 30 per cent of the craft was of tanker class with the majority being very large crude carriers. The yard was also kept extremely busy with other classes of vessels ranging from LPG carriers, livestock carriers through to RoRo vessels, dredgers and general cargo carriers.
“During this third quarter over a hundred specifications were received from owners around the world with a contract award success rate of 26 per cent,” a company spokesman said. “Dock occupancy rates during the quarter reflected the high volume of business with the Graving Dock achieving over 94 per cent occupancy. Similarly the two floating docks have been on a par with the previous quarter with rates in excess of 87 per cent for dock number 2 and 95 per cent for dock number 3.”
Asry was successful in securing a significant contract from Kuwait Oil Tanker Company for the building of a new service boat. “This contract is the first in a new business for the yard, which it hopes will expand and is now actively talking to a number of other clients about similar projects,” the spokesman said.
Some of the vessels at the yard for repairs in the third quarter were: Red Sea Marine Services’ Al Madinah, 88,726 dwt; Tanker Pacific’s Brilliant Jewel, 247,471 dwt; Livestock Transport and Trading Company’s Al Kuwait, 39,266 dwt; Unicom Management Services’ Tropic Brilliance, 154,970 dwt; Vela International’s Suhail Star, 301,862 dwt; Dynacom Tanker Management’s Progress, 238,898 dwt; KOTC’s Gas Al Ahmadi, 47471 dwt, and Al Badiyah, 35,643 dwt.
Other owners had vessels repaired, some with multiple vessels. The owners included UCO Marine Contracting, Oasis Ship Management, National Marine Dredging, NPCC, Transocean Services Srl and Marine Technical Services.
The company reported that the demand for blasting and painting remained high with some three quarters of a million square metres of quality painting undertaken during the third quarter.
The yard completed over 3.1 million sq m of painting for the period from the beginning of January 2004 to the end of September 2004, whilst the demand for steel work also remained high with some 5,643 tonnes completed during the period.
The yard also undertook 17 boiler repairs during the quarter with a total of 42 by the end of September, up nearly 10 per cent on the same period in 2003.
Asry, owned by Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq and Libya, says it has the facilities and skills to compete on equal terms with the premier ship repair yards of the Far East, Europe and the USA.