Turkish yards take shelter in niche building
Istanbul Shipyard has delivered a number of newbuild workboats, including the aluminium patrol boat SNR-17.
While the financial downturn has had a dampening overall effect on Turkish shipbuilding, the picture for its workboat projects is different, Murat Erdogan, Turkish maritime industry analyst and commentator told MJ.
The Turkish government is lifting some or all of the 17% tax that presently accrues for all newbuilds, with the aim of making them more competitive with the Far East. Mr Erdogan explained that across Turkey there are more than 70 facilities, but the downturn has hit hard and, excluding naval orders, below 3% of this capacity is being used.
Just before the crisis, the value of Turkish shipyards was being discovered, with a corresponding jump in initiatives to make Turkey a shipyard ‘hub’, including a maritime Organised Industrial Zone (OSB) which has only recently been established in Yalova after four and a half years of stop-start delays.
Despite demand, “many yards didn’t want to build workboats and other smaller boats when their order book was full with chemical tankers”, said Mr Erdogan.
He explained when one company needed to build a pilot boat back in 2008, they could not find an empty and willing yard So, a marine engineering company that specialised in projects such as block work, was offered the job. That company, Loça, was already tooled up although it had not taken on a complete workboat build before.
That first boat attracted five more builds for Turkish owners and there has also been a recent Swiss order worth US$9m for seven workboats with an option on another seven more, all to be delivered on a turnkey basis.
Mr Erdogan explained that when the downturn came, many yards quit newbuilding and went back to their old business of ship repair. Despite this, workboat demand, shipbuilding’s under-appreciated little sister, has fared better. For example, the Yonca Onuk shipyard has been responsible for more than 60 boats for the Turkish navy and has exported almost 80 around the world. Last year saw an order for 34 navy boats from Abu Dhabi.
SNR-İstanbul (Istanbul Shipyard) built five police boats for Romania last year as well as taking on some Turkish repairs. Another yard that made its mark with aluminium workboats, although better known for larger vessels, was Sefine, as it built four aluminium craft for the Turkish coastguard to use on the Bosphorus.
Looking to the future, Mr Erdogan predicts that with a rising demand for workboats, plus the Turkish yards’ competitiveness in building cost effective smaller craft, there will be a resurgence in demand and alludes to contracts “presently under discussion”. In conclusion, he said, that workboat orders, far from being badly affected, “have actually found new opportunities at Turkish yards”.
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