Sealink in shipyard expansion

Sealink International Bhd, a shipbuilder and operator of offshore support vessels based in Miri, Malaysia, will expand its shipyard for ship repair services in view of the lack of such services in the region. The company’s ceo and group managing director Sam Yong said the company would spend RM50mil for the expansion, which would take three years to be completed.

He said as part of the expansion, a slipway would be designed specifically for ship repairs and is expected to be completed by the second half of next year. He maintains that demand for ship repairs was expected to be robust because every vessel needed a major docking once every five years according to major international classification societies? requirements. “Presently, major underwater repair works on our vessels are performed by other shipyards and there is a waiting period for repairs of weeks or even months at times” said Yong.

“With the completion of our slipway designed specifically for ship repair, we no longer need to queue at third party shipyards for underwater repairs and this would increase the utilisation of our vessels. Sealink would also accept vessels from other shipping companies for repairs,” Yong said.

He said the ship repair business was a neglected area of operation because most shipyards were not equipped to undertake major underwater repairs on vessels.

“Currently, our bigger vessels are sent to Labuan, Singapore or Batam for major underwater repairs and these shipyards are very busy and there is a long queue. Furthermore, vessels have to travel a long distance and the voyage will cost vessel owners a considerable sum in terms of fuel and down time. With the completion of our repair facility next year, we will be able to improve the utilisation rates of our vessels as well as other vessel owners in this region,” Yong added.

The company?s shipbuilding annual capacity would also increase to 25 vessels from the present 17 vessels after the completion of its shipyard expansion. Yong said the company, which also provided its OSVs to major oil companies for their operations, was on-track to achieve its targeted fleet size of 40 vessels by 2010. Currently Sealink operates 31 OSVs comprising a mixture of multipurpose vessels, barges, landing crafts, supply vessels and utility vessels.