Nakilat has world-class expertise to ‘meet shipbuilding industry needs’

Welding works at the NDSQ. PICTURE: Jayan Orma. Inset: Nugent. Picture: Jayaram

By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter

The local shipbuilding sector has the ability to deliver “to the highest standards of the requirements of the industry,” particularly in the naval defence market, a maritime expert said yesterday at the pre-show press conference of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference (Dimdex) 2014.

AMI International market analyst Bob Nugent was referring to Nakilat, which he described as “a wonderful facility.”

Nugent said the naval defence market in the Middle East “is a booming industry,” adding that the phenomenon “has drawn a lot of attention from this year’s Dimdex exhibitors.”

“The ability of the local shipbuilding industry to deliver to the highest standards of the requirements of regional navies is something that’s definitely changed,” Nugent stressed.

Nugent observed that Nakilat’s shipbuilding direction “has moved to simple construction to more complex construction.”

“I’m not trying to steal their thunder, but Nakilat will tell you that as they go up that tier of sophistication, they may even go towards building something naval, which demonstrates how you can start building from the simple to the more complex building,” Nugent told Gulf Times.

This observation was reinforced by Nakilat Damen Shipping Qatar (NDSQ) managing director Jan-Wim Dekker, who said NSDQ is capable of building highly-specialised amphibious vessels like submarines.

But he was quick to clarify that building submarines is not on NDSQ’s drawing boards yet.

“We can build vessels up to 170m in length and we can also build submarines. It is not in the description, yet but technically this yard is capable of manufacturing all sorts of submarines,” Dekker said during a tour of Nakilat’s facilities yesterday. Dekker said NDSQ has an annual total building capacity of 25 vessels. Currently, the shipyard is working on 18 vessels, he added.

According to Dekker, NDSQ is in the final stages of delivering 19 vessels to the Port of Mesaieed. Twelve of these vessels have already been delivered while five are “in the water” and one will be showcased at this year’s Dimdex.

He said NDSQ is also building two mega yachts and six other vessels, mostly tug boats, pilot boats, and mooring boats that would be operating at the Las Raffan Port.

Aside from shipbuilding, Nakilat is also capable of simultaneously servicing multiple large vessels, particularly LNG tankers.

Albert Kee, general manager of Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KON), said the company’s track record was repairing six LNG vessels “in one goal.”

The feat, according to Kee, is one of the biggest challenges N-KON has accomplished twice in 2012 and once in 2013. Kee also noted that the company has the facility with enough capability to service cargo pumps – a necessity when accommodating LNG vessels.

He added that LNG owners from Europe, the UK, Japan, and Greece, among others have already utilised N-KON’s facilities at Las Raffan Industrial City.

Nugent emphasised that with Qatar’s reputation as a major exporter of natural gas, “clearly there are opportunities in the commercial ‘ship world’ to answer that demand.”

“There are also a lot of utility ships that dominate Nakilat’s building operations right now the likes of tug boats and surface vessels. And given that the offshore industry is very big within the gulf, clearly there is an opportunity there for Nakilat to take advantage of that demand,” Nugent said.