Passing trade

Regional traffic provides a steady workload for west Mediterranean repair yards.

Location gives Barcelona’s Union Naval Barcelona (UNB) a solid market, explains technical commercial manager Julian Saez. There is plenty of traffic into Barcelona, Valencia and Tarragona, and the nearest alternative drydocks lie in Cadiz and Gibraltar to the south, or Marseilles to the east.

UNB has been fully occupied for the last couple of years, and at the end of July had a healthy forward orderbook extending into November. Occupancy for the panamax dock stands at 100 per cent, or more if double dockings are taken into account.

The acquisitive Spanish shipping and towing group Grupo Boluda bought UNB in May, which could have positive implications. It has already installed container guides on two vessels owned by group company Naviera Pinillos, and Boluda owns a large fleet of towage and offshore vessels. It has recently been linked with the forthcoming sale of Trasmediterranea.

As cruising grows in the Mediterranean UNB is actively targeting this market. Barcelona is fast developing as a cruise hub, putting the yard in a good position to dock vessels between cruises. It is also promoting use of the dock as an alternative to wet dockings

Bazan Carenas at Cartagena is experiencing a good local market this year, but is finding international competition very strong, particularly for steelwork. The yard worked on 31 ships to end July, including 17 drydockings, with the vast majority of its work coming from Spanish owners.

Crosscomar 2,000 is confident of the demand for docking services in the south, and is planning to introduce a panamax or aframax floating dock at Algeciras port. The company does not have any docking facilities at present, and carries out repairs afloat.

France

After another round of downsizing and restructuring in the mid to late 90s, the repair industry in Marseilles seems to have stabilised somewhat. The port offers tremendous repair facilities, with ten graving docks to VLCC size, and the main contractors are keen to emphasise their capabilities in the fields of general and mechanical repair. Both CMR and Marine Technologies have exceptionally well equipped shops for steel and mechanical work and there is a large pool of highly skilled labour on hand.

It is now two years since CMR was taken over by Marinvest, an investment vehicle owned by owners of the Mediterranean Shipping Company. CMR has repaired 28 vessels so far this year. Significant jobs include hatch cover reinforcements to increase loading capacity on a pair of CGM container ships.

Marseilles’ other main contractor, Marine Technologies was formed in the mid 90s following the demise of Sud Marine, and has grown to employ around 110 men. It offers the full range of repair services, and is particularly strong in the mechanical field.

Sud Moteurs was also launched after the demise of Sud Marine in 1994, but has focused exclusively on engine repair and reconditioning work. The company employs 70 skilled engineers. Repair activities are authorised by almost all the major engine builders.

Travofer, the smaller of Marseilles main contractors, had a Fr20 million ($3.25 million) job on US navy command ship USS Lasalle in Toulon, but commented on the generally slow market.

Italy

As in France, the Italian repair sector has re-structured and contracted over the past decade, and those involved all report a reasonably steady market, in spite of strong price competition from the east.

Cantieri Navali Fratelli Orlando has been booked to capacity and is now expanding its repair facilities at Livorno in order to capture more work. The first stage involves extending an existing 250m berth by 150m. This will free up space alongside its 350,000 dwt graving dock which will be used to house a new 40,000 dwt floating dock. The new berth should be complete by end 2000, and the dock will be in place by end 2001.

Genoa, arguably Italy’s leading repair centre, has the infrastructure and experience for the full range of repair work from standard drydocking to complex conversions. At the time of our visit there were four ships in drydock and several alongside for repair.

San Giorgio del Porto (SGdP) has a good forward workload through to October – November, reports manager Emilio Pedrocchi. After three or four months working on smaller general repair contracts, business is picking up and some bigger jobs are starting to come through.

Caim Servizi, part of the Zamponi group, also reports a steady orderbook for general repair work and is developing on several fronts.

In ship repair, the key to success lies in rationalising workload in relation to staff levels, and to this end Alessandro Zamponi has started the 50/50 joint venture company Aurora with the local dockers co-operative Compania Unica, which has a larger pool of skilled repair labour among its members.

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