Last year proved to be an extremely successful one for Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY), with turnover up by 50 per cent on the previous year.

In total, more than 104 vessels were repaired in the yard, with 18 vessels being more than 175,000 dwt and 17 in the 70,000 to 175,000 dwt range.

Throughout the year dock occupancy remained high, with the graving dock achieving 97 per cent occupancy and the two floating docks achieving 86 per cent and 92 per cent occupancy.

Steel work repairs increased with a total of some 6,734 tonnes of steel renewal being carried out, an increase of some 52 per cent on the previous year.

This increase was due partially to the major conversion which was completed on the Abouzar 1200 derrick barge, which was converted to a deep water pipe lay barge, utilising more than 1,200 tonnes of new steel.

The main market for ASRY is the world wide tanker fleet and during the past year a number of owners have placed their ULCCs and VLCCs with ASRY. Those owners who have undertaken multiple dockings have included the Vela Corporation and Bergesen, while others also included the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC), Wilh Wilhelmsen, Dorian (Hellas), Andros Maritime, SembCorp, Saudi Aramco, Olympic Shipping and Eastern Power of Singapore.

The demand for repairs to the chemical and gas carrier market continued to be a source of steady business for the Yard throughout the year, with the main customer being Norway's Odfjell ASA. In all, seven chemical carriers were repaired at ASRY for this company, including the Bow Eagle, Bow Viking, Bow Puma, Bow Lady, Bow Flora and the Bow Cedar, along with the NCC Najran. In addition, repairs were carried out on a further three chemical carriers and three LNG carriers.

This year has seen a continuation of the high work load, according to the company, with the Yard being at full capacity for the first two months of the year.

The New Year saw two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) from Saudi Arabia's Vela Corporation being drydocked: the Mirfak Star (301,542 dwt) and the Polaris Star (301,542 dwt). These were then quickly followed by the Hamal Star (301,550 dwt), which was the tenth vessel to be repaired for Vela Corporation by ASRY over the past year.

The work load continued throughout January with the VLCC Al Awadah (284,553 dwt) arriving from KOTC.

During January, three jack-up rigs were repaired for Saudi Aramco. Other repairs during February included the Peter Maersk (84,999 dwt) for Moller and Germarfin's tanker the Westa (40,293 dwt), Petrobras' bulk carrier Muriae (133,752 dwt), Zodiac Maritime's Hyde Park (38,892 dwt) along with Gearbulk's bulk carrier the George Lyras (35,730 dwt).

Current indications are that this work load is expected to continue well into the second half of this year, making it another busy and successful year for ASRY.