Drydocks consider going into superyacht maintenance

Malta Drydocks is considering setting up a facility for the maintenance of superyachts, Economic Services Minister Josef Bonnici said yesterday.

"There is no such facility in the Mediterranean and we are looking at this niche market which promises to be quite successful if handled correctly.

"Here we are talking about yachts each costing between $50 million to $70 million (between Lm20.8 million and Lm29 million)," Prof. Bonnici said.

This month looks healthy for the drydocks, the minister said, with several considerable repair contracts from various countries including Japan.

The 'yard is bidding for five conversions similar to the one the drydocks carried out on the Ikdam, converting a tanker into a floating production and supply unit, which in simpler terms means turning a tanker into a vessel that can be used directly in the drilling for oil.

The supply unit is moored close to an oil rig, receives the oil directly from the rig, refines it and passes it on to tankers berthed alongside as a refined end product.

"Unfortunately, the oil sector has not been as active as had been anticipated and, therefore, the demand for work from that sector was not as widespread as had been forecast," the minister said.

In the meantime, Prof. Bonnici said that a team of Norwegian and Maltese 'yard managers has been appointed to oversee the construction of a hull for the Norwegian shipyard Havard by Malta Shipbuilding.

The project management team has already discussed the contract, worth more than Lm1.5 million in labour, and work involving an average of 100 to 120 workers. Work will start shortly.

The hull is to be finished within seven months from the time the shipbuilding 'yard obtains the designs and the 1,100 tonnes of steel that will be needed.

Once completed, the hull will be shipped to Norway to be outfitted and used as a platform supply vessel.

The minister said the government was searching for a practical way in which it could partly solve the chronic Lm200 million debt at the drydocks by seeing whether the shiprepair 'yard and the shipbuilding 'yard at Marsa could pass on to the government parcels of their land.

"It is pointless for the government to keep passing subsidies to the two 'yards when most of this money is being used to pay off the interest on the debt which has accumulated over the years.

"We are looking at practical solutions on how to square the debt the two 'yards have. One possibility - but we are still at a very early stage in this - is that the 'yards would pass on to the government parcels of land they can do without and in return the government will take it upon itself to honour the debt owed by the 'yards," Prof. Bonnici said.