Sarawak shipyard ready for more

One of Sarawak’s most prominent shipyards, Yong Choo Kui (YCK) Shipyard is now ready to take more specialised orders from the oil and gas industry from around the world. Executive director Daniel WY Yong said the shipyard had now received the demanding Nipon Kaiji Kyokai (NHK) certification for welding procedures.

“This is another milestone for us. This certification is now mandatory globally to ensure not only the high quality but safety of any vessels,” he said. “To us, it means we have taken another proactive step to upgrade our quality and safety standards to meet the demands of our international clients,” Yong told reporters after witnessing the presentation of the certificate, here today.

On new projects, he said it had received quite a number of inquiries from potential customers. In September 2006, the yard delivered the 45 metre 870gt divers support vessel ?Atla? to Mumbai-based Epsom Shipping.

Currently, the shipyard is building two tugs costing $4 million each for an Iraqi company. One is scheduled to be delivered in June 2007 and the other, the following year. YCK Shipyard is capable of building about 10 vessels of various designs and purpose per year.