Western Marine Shipyard Delivers Two More Ships to German Owner

Bangladesh’s leading shipbuilding company Western Marine Shipyard Limited is set to deliver two more ships to German today (Wednesday, 21 Mar 2012), setting another milestone in the country’s shipbuilding industry. The delivery would be the fourth pair of ice class ships built by the Western Marine for the German buyer Grona Shipping.

The commerce minister G M Quader is expected to be present as the chief guest at the delivery function to be held at the Chittagong Boat Club, Patenga. The EPB vice chairman Subhashish Bose, Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Alphons Hennekens, German deputy head of mission Dr. Ralf Reusch, FBCCI president A K Azad and Daily Star editor, Mahfuz Anam will be present as special guests.

Managing director of Bank Asia Mehmood Husain and Olaf Mallow from Commerzbank will also attend the event as financial partners to the shipyard. Ship owner Markku Vedder, shipyard representatives of East Wind Hamburg and classification society Germanischer Lloyd, will be present.

Western Marine expects that this event will mark another significant achievement for a Bangladeshi shipyard amongst the shipbuilding countries of the world.

The EMSWATER & EMSFLOW are 5.200 DWT MPC ships certified as E3 ice-class vessels which mean it is designed and equipped to sustain in cryogenic weather condition.

Around 1500 tonnes of ice-class steel were fabricated by using 60 tonnes of welding electrodes to build each ship while 23 kilometres of marine cables and 24,000 litres of paints were used for its skin protection.

Western Marine has emerged as a top local ship exporter in recent years, leading to keep major contribution to the national revenue. Currently, the shipyard holds new building projects worth millions of money. They are building 5 X 4100 DWT ice-class container vessels for Stella Shipping, Denmark; 1 X RORO ferry for a Danish owner.

Numerous ships for port use, fishing trawlers, tankers, cargo carriers for inland and coastal use are in progress. The outstanding shipbuilding by the Western Marine has helped it achieve a global reputation at a very short period, ensuring international contracts and local orders to meet the demand for inland vessels, in both public and private sector.

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, March 21, 2012; Image: wms