Davie Quebec gears up for newbuildings

When Davie shipyard located in Levis, Canada, went into receivership this time last year, the outlook for the old yard was bleak. However, the new Norwegian owner, Teco Management AC, a company new to the shipbuilding industry, has turned the yard around and is on the brink of securing a shipbuilding order.

Renamed Davie Quebec, the shipyard is gearing up to build the first of two sophisticated, pipeline-laying ships that will ply the North Sea. The Vik-Sandvik designed OCVs were ordered by Norwegian company Cecon, a relatively new player in the Sub-sea oil exploration business, at a cost of $132.6 million each.

“The shipbuilding market is really good. There are lots of opportunities right now,” said Gilles Gagne, a longtime Davie engineer and now chief executive officer of Teco’s Canadian subsidiary. In addition to replacement of existing fleets around the world, the offshore oil industry is in full expansion, Gagne said. “We’re getting lots of inquiries to build assets in that field.”

Under the terms of the deal announced last week, Davie Quebec will build two 130-metre-long offshore construction vessels that will be used to construct, maintain and install offshore, undersea infrastructures for the oil industry. Capable of carrying 100 pepole and various industry materials from flexible pipes and umbilical installation rig equipment to remote-operated mini submarines and 28-metre-long cranes with a lift capacity of 250 tonnes at a depth of up to 2,500 metres.

Work on the two-ship contract began last week with a recall of 40 to 50 maintenance workers and mechanics to clean and inspect mothballed workshops and equipment. Orders are also now being submitted to suppliers for the equipment, steel and engineered parts like the cranes, engines and propulsion units needed to build the two sister ships simultaneously.

By August, the cutting of steel to build the hulls is scheduled to begin. At that time, the yard will employ 600 workers and maybe more. Delivery of the first ship is scheduled for April 2009 and the second ship in August 2009.