Coastal to build offshore vessels

Coastal Contracts Bhd in Sabah, Malaysia, will focus on building oil and gas (O&G) logistics vessels to capitalise on the current high crude oil prices and increase in O&G exploration as well as production activities. The company was currently working to secure the supply of machinery and equipment for the building of anchor handling tugs, platform supply vessels and offshore support vessels (OSV).

The shipbuilder is also in talks with a view to venture into fabrication of offshore-related structures and is looking to expand its capacity to undertake shipbuilding, ship repairing and offshore structure fabrication simultaneously. With its acquisition of a 52-acre site in Sandakan, Sabah, Coastal could be looking to do just that. The land cost the company RM2 million, three times larger than the company’s existing shipyard in Sandakan, and could be developed into a shipbuilding and repair facility.

Coastal currently has an order book worth RM200 million and RM300 million for 2007 and 2008 respectively. The company has signed two memoranda of understanding with the Yayasan Sabah Group that could turn out to be a catalyst for securing contracts for shipbuilding, offshore-related steel structure fabrication and vessel chartering.