"Damen" Galaţi sets afloat ship worth EUR 20 million, built for a Croatian customer

Marilena Dinu,

GALAŢI

Galaţi Shipyard yesterday set afloat a ship which cost approximately EUR 20 million, which it will deliver to its Croatian customer Brodospas in October 2009. According to Kees de Ruiter, director of the Damen Shipyard in Galaţi, the ship in question is an anchor handler, which can also be used for tugging and carrying supplies, this being the second in the three orders to be completed this year, for the benefit of shipowners in Croatia and Italy.

"Ships were made in cooperation with "Damen Shipyard Gorinchen", part of the "Damen" Group, unit that made the project and the main equipment, with the construction being completed entirely in Galaţi. The ships have a can serve many purposes, such carrying crews and supplies to and from sea drilling and production platforms, tugging/moving sea drilling platforms, executing anchor handling operations for undersea pipelines, putting out fires and occasional recovery of oil products", said Kees de Ruiter, the director of the Damen Galaţi shipyard. Mr. de Ruiter said that ships are equipped with advanced integrated monitoring alarm and automations systems.

"The ship is 67 meters long and 15 meters wide. The maximum traction capacity is 120 tons, and the volume of recovered oil products is 200 cubic meters", added Kees de Ruiter, the director of Damen Galaţi.

The "Damen" Galaţi shipyard, owned by Dutch "Damen Shipyard Group", reported a turnover of approximately EUR 15 million in Q1 2009, similar to that of Q1 2008, after delivering five ships to companies in Germany and Holland.

The shipmaker stands by its EUR 100 million turnover forecast for 2009, as the shipyard expects to deliver 27 ships, of which it has already delivered seven. "We are negotiating other contracts that would ensure our continuous activity. It is a known fact that building a ship takes around three years. We now have orders that will keep us busy until 2011, even though we are currently working at a lower capacity than last year" said Kees de Ruiter.

Still, "Damen" Galaţi announced it will layoff 215 employees, of its direct staff. "This is the number of people we want to lay off for now. If we were to go back on our decision, we will focus on indirect employees" added Kees de Ruiter. "Damen" Galaţi posted losses amounting to EUR 12 million in the last two years.