Strategic Marine building on speculative basis

Australian shipbuilder Strategic Marine is building eight aluminium crew boats on a speculative basis. In a move which is expected to boost its revenues by over $40 million, the company will build six 40-metre vessels at its Singapore shipyard, and two 52-metre crew boats at its new Mexican yard at Mazatlan.

Western Australian marine services company Samson Maritime has already ordered two of the new 40-metre crew boats after signing a contract worth $9.8 million. The two utility vessels, which will be delivered in May and June next year, have top speeds in excess of 25 knots and will be used by Samson Maritime to service its clients in the resource-rich Pilbara region.

Strategic Marine Director Ron Anderson said the company had decided to build ?on spec? because with four shipyards up and operating worldwide it had the added capacity to meet buoyant global demand from the offshore market.

“Offshore vessels come third in terms of vessels on order globally, behind tankers and cargo ships, making up about 15% of the international shipbuilding industry’s business. What?s more, crew boat demand far exceeds supply,” Anderson said. “Our Singapore yard has specialised in building crew boats since opening in 2005, having received orders for almost 22 of these types of vessel.”

He said the company had developed a great deal of expertise in the course of building a range of crew boats for its customers, while also evolving a series of highly specialised manufacturing process and techniques. “We have built eight out of nine 40-metre offshore utilities on order for repeat Malaysian client Syarikat Borcos Shipping, with the seventh vessel being delivered to Borcos seven weeks ahead of schedule, which is very unusual for the industry,” he said.

The Singapore yard is also expected to deliver three 22.1-metre crew boats to Dutch client SMIT International by the end of this year, as well as four 31-metre crew boats to Indonesia’s Baruna Raya Logistics early next year.

The Mexican yard opened earlier this year after winning a $13.35 million contract to build two 52-metre aluminum crew boats for Blue Marine’s Pemex supply contract in the Gulf of Mexico. Work on the two speculative vessels with the same specifications will get under way early next year.