Shiprepair & Maintenance: 1st Quarter 2021
Despite the ongoing global health and economic crisis, Lisnave reports it enjoyed a successful 2020 overall. In total, the company carried out repairs to 76 vessels, of which 72 were handled in the yard’s six drydocks. The workload included 27 tankers and 14 LPG carriers and these two segments represented the most significant markets for the yard.
Indeed, between them they accounted for 55% of Lisnave’s activity in 2020. However, depressed freight rates in the tanker sector affected the scope of work awarded to the yard by tanker owners over the course of the year, and in consequence the average volume of work per vessel for routine dockings suffered a slight reduction, the company reports
During 2020, Lisnave continued to be heavily involved with the retrofitting of ballast water treatment systems for tanker owners and operators, with the completion of a number of installations involving equipment from different manufacturers.
One of the most notable of these was AET Shipmanagement’s 107,000dwt crude oil tanker, Eagle Klang, which went through an extensive package of works at Lisnave last year, including the retrofitting of ballast water treatment equipment. The yard also retrofitted a ballast water treatment system on the LNG carrier Arctic Lady for Hoegh LNG last November during its special survey docking.
While the tanker business remains crucial to Lisnave, the company continues to make efforts to diversify activity, with considerable success. Last year container ships represented 15% of total activity at Lisnave, while the yard repaired five dredgers amongst other specialised vessels, including offshore crane vessels, Flexible Fallpipe Vessel (FFPV) units and passenger ships.
Illustrating the diversity of work undertaken at the Mitrena yard, at one point in late November there were 14 vessels at the yard simultaneously, with three product tankers, two container ships, an Aframax tanker, shuttle tanker, LNG and LPG carriers, a bulker, passenger vessel, cutter suction dredger, general cargo ship and a crane barge.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the yard also carried out an unusual five vessel project for Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) to decommission three of its ships and upgrade two new vessels. The process included the removal of 30 refrigerated juice tanks from the three older ships and their installation in the two new vessels, which will be used for the transportation of citrus juice and byproducts from Brazil to Europe and Asia.
Vessels repaired during 2020 were contracted by 46 different clients located in 19 countries. UK, Norwegian, Singaporean, German and Belgium owners led the way, with many repeat customers featuring amongst the 2020 client list.
The yard remains generally upbeat about prospects for 2021, as the world emerges from the pandemic. A spokesman commented: “Although the pressure on shiprepair prices continues to increase, resulting from the continued expansion of capacity and activity in ship maintenance and repair centres in countries with manpower costs that are significantly lower than Portugal, it is expected that the need to reduce the idle time of vessels will lead to an increase of activity for repair shipyards in Europe in future. So far, we have started what is an unpredictable 2021 with a fair number of different repair projects.”
Lisnave’s Mitrena shipyard in Setubal features a total of six drydocks up to VLCC size, as well as 1,400m of quay space. These facilities enable it to handle the largest tankers in service, as well as a wide range of other ship types.
