Damen Group Set to Construct New Shipyard in Vietnam’s Haiphong City

Netherlands Shipyard Group Damen, new partner SongCam Shipyards, a subsidiary of Vietnamese state owned Vinashin, will commence construction of a new shipyard in Vietnam’s Haiphong City in December. Occupying a 40 hectare site adjacent to the city’s River Cam, construction of the shipyard is boosting employment in the region, generating hundreds of new jobs and opportunity for international training.

Project management and engineering consultancy Royal Haskoning, is responsible for design, support of the tender process and supervision of the shipyard construction.

Royal Haskoning’s design for the inner harbour incorporates a ship-lift that will offload Damen’s pre-constructed hulls for tugboats, high speed craft and aluminium catamarans, destined for the global market. Once the hulls are offloaded, they will be transported via an onsite rail system to the shipyard’s various outfit buildings for further processing,

Gerrit Jan van Ommen, General Manager of Damen, SongCam Shipyard, said:

“It as a great advantage to work with an international company from the Netherlands. Royal Haskoning has been active in Vietnam for some time now, and has a good knowledge of local regulations and legislation, which has been useful when applying for the necessary permits. Royal Haskoning has plenty of experience with large scale international projects of this type, which means it is able to combine the expertise of engineers and consultants effectively. We have been active in Vietnam for fifteen years, but this is our first joint venture with SongCam Shipyards. Our involvement is considered to be significant as it brings innovative ‘know-how’ from the Netherlands, and the opportunity to create new employment and expertise within the region. For example, a number of Vietnamese employees have been engaged on a training programme at our headquarters at Gorinchem in the Netherlands. Initially there will be 250 new jobs but we will require hundreds more employees in the future.”

A great deal of attention is being paid to making the yard as efficient as possible.

“Wages are relatively low in Vietnam, but if they start to rise, we will need to work as efficiently as possible. For example, we have designed special steps into the buildings where the vessels are processed. This will give workers quick and easy access to all the materials they need, make a difference to the numbers of staff required and is a much safer approach, as staff will not need to climb ladders or work on scaffolding. The yard is designed to meet European health, safety and environmental standards and we have taken future growth into consideration. This has involved focusing on a number of scenarios which we have developed together with TU Delft and Royal Haskoning.”

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Source: royalhaskoning, October 25, 2011;