Middle East

Nakilat yard plans laid out

Doha: Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) will build at least 25 vessels per year in the near future and hopes to complete the sixth and final phase of the Erhama bin Jaber al Jalahma Shipyard in Ras Laffan by 2015.

Nakilat has two joint venture yards, one with Singapore’s Keppel for repair work and the other with Europe’s Damen for newbuilds. The 25 new ships a year, Nakilat is mulling, are likely to small ships, given the dimensions of the Nakilat-Damen yard, including water taxis for Doha. 

Mohamed Ghannam, managing director, Nakilat, said: “We believe that our workforce of 5,000 will double in the near future…also, the final and sixth phase of the Erhama bin Jaber al Jalahma Shipyard is expected to be completed by 2015.”

Ghannam was not concerned by the myriad of yards in the region, with big names now in Dubai, Oman, Bahrain and more still to come.

“The GCC market is big enough for everybody and all shipyards in the region have the space to make profits,” he said.  [02/06/13]

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