Shipbuilders cast net wide, hoping to lure fishing industry
COMMERCIAL, naval shipbuilding and ship repairing company Southern African Shipyards (SAS), with several large contracts under its belt, has recognised the growing gap in the market for serving the fishing industry and is on a drive to net this business.
SAS, which is located at Durban’s Bayhead near the Salisbury Island, said it had the advantage of owning a floating dock and had now taken a strategic decision to bag the fishing business as well.
SAS chief executive Prasheen Maharaj said that while most fishing trawlers were based in Cape Town, the industry had to contend with a lengthy wait to get vessels into dry dock there because of the high volume of traffic and such delays cost them time and money.
“Further delays are likely in Cape Town as the dock’s syncrolift is due for major repairs and expected to be out of action for up to a year,” said Maharaj.
SAS is now on a drive to lure this fishing business to Durban.
It was focused on personalised services to make visiting crews feel as welcome as possible during their stop-overs.
It said its ablution and shower facilities were being upgraded, braai facilities were being built and Wifi was being installed at the quayside to enable crews to stay in touch with friends and family.
Maharaj said while they were new to the fishing business, their list of satisfied clients in this sector was growing and the company targeting potential customers around Africa, starting in Mozambique.
He said SAS was also gearing up to meet the continent’s needs, particularly in the oil and gas industry and with navy vessels.
Highlights for the company included its involvement in major projects such as building and refitting luxury yachts for international clients, constructing utility boats and fishing trawlers as well as 21 tugboats for the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA).
In recent years, it had secured a R1.4billion contract to build nine state-of-the-art tugs for the TNPA, the biggest single contract the TNPA had ever awarded a South African company to build harbour craft.
Maharaj said they clinched the tender to build the SA Navy’s hydrographic survey ship, the most technically advanced and complex vessel ever built in Africa.
The company was recently commissioned to build a
R700 million, 143m barge for DNG Energy, which was at the forefront of the liquefied natural gas revolution. This project, now in the design phase, was expected to result in a workhorse to meet the energy needs of South African and Southern African Development Community customers.
The first pieces of steel were cut for both projects at the SAS shipyard in November by Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-nqakula.
Maharaj said the work on the survey ship and energy barge represented one of the largest job creation projects in Durban.
“With the experience of having built such technically-advanced ships, and with the aim of becoming a global force to be reckoned with, SAS is hoping to secure the intellectual rights to both mega projects, the plan being to replicate them to the rest of Africa,” said Maharaj.
SAS said the obligation for them as black industrialists was to ensure that local jobs were created and maintained and that smaller and emerging black emerging empowerment (BEE) enterprises benefited. This year alone SAS said it would take on 70 apprentice artisans as well as 15 to 20 graduate engineers as interns.
“Industry transformation and creating opportunities for black women remain a core strategy for the sustainable development and success of SAS,” he said.
He said the survey project would take about three years and eventually create work for more than 500 people, including apprentices, artisans, technicians, engineering interns and engineers.
It would also provide about 3
500 indirect jobs, while there would be numerous procurement and sub-contracting opportunities for SMMES, BEE and military veteranowned companies.
Ultimately, he said, the shipbuilding and repair sector needed to develop new products and services that responded to the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and climate change.
“The sector needs to become more competitive by reducing the cost of doing business – by lowering rental and docking costs, for example – and increasing the efficiency of labour through continuous training and development, while creating a more competitive supply chain by introducing new entrants, especially black-owned SMMES.”
SAS said there was a need for investment in larger and floating docks to accommodate the bigger vessels calling on South Africa’s ports, as well as in modern, more efficient production and manufacturing equipment, skills development and in new products and services developed through research and innovation.