Skaramanga shipyards have already started commercial activities from February 2024 after shipowner Giorgos Prokopiou took over ownership of the shipyards.
The company’s management has placed emphasis on two things, upgrading the equipment – as no heavy maintenance had been done in the last 15 years – and opening up their commercial activity.
To date, 17 ships have been built at the Skaramanga shipyards, including three yachts, 9 tankers, 4 container ships and 1 bulk carrier.
The shipyard recently completed the repair of the axial system of a Suezmax tanker, 274.2 meters long and 50 meters wide, with a total capacity of 150,000 tons, thus demonstrating its leading position in the field of complex shipyard repairs.
This type of ship is the largest that can be accommodated in a tank in Greece, and Skaramagas Shipyards is the only one that can undertake such repairs due to the size of Tank No.4 (335 x 54 meters), specialized personnel, facilities and equipment.
The repair involved the reassembly of the propeller, the damaged (not usable) final shaft, the intermediate shaft and the hopper of the propeller shaft. During the ship’s refueling, all five-year work was completed on schedule.
Infrastructure development
Already a design and upgrade team of the shipyard has focused to serve the needs of the new era, such as servicing LNG carriers the known lng, while additional areas in which they are concentrating are ship repairs, especially the large suezmax, but also in maintenance, retrofits and the future mega yachting constructions. The management of the shipyard, which wants to play a leading role in the Mediterranean, has started significant investments in the part of upgrading its infrastructure for the next two years.
These include repairs to the pumps and substations in strengthening the fire safety and fire-fighting systems and the reopening of the large tank that can accommodate aircraft carriers and has been inactive for 20 years.
Ready for “building” ships Neorio and Elefsina
At the same time, at the two large shipbuilding units taken over by the ONEX Group since 2019, Neorio of Syros and the Elefsina shipyards, 612 Greek and foreign ships have been built to date, of which 117 have been built at the Elefsina shipyards.
As the president and CEO of ONEX Shipyards & Technologies Panos Xenokostas stressed, the two shipyards are ready to undertake the construction of ships even tomorrow since they have already submitted proposals and plans. Speaking recently at the transport conference at the Athens Concert Hall, Xenokostas pointed out the need to modernize the legislative framework for Greek shipyards, as it is an area that competes internationally with imperfect and flexible, and the creation of a special secretariat for the sector due to multiple responsibilities.
He said that for about 25 to 30 years the industry had been depreciated not only in terms of infrastructure and personnel but also legislatively and added that the government has now embraced the project and the vision and it is now national for the revival of the industry.
He also stressed that Greece should shield the industry in the context of the carbonization of shipping, commenting on a report by former European Central Banker Mario Draghi on the investment needs for shipping and achieving a zero carbon footprint in waterborne maritime transport.
Referring to the investment plan, he said it is progressing rapidly, noting that so far more than 120 million euros have been given for Capital Expenditure, for the acquisition of products for long-term use (capex) and for money to staff who have been unpaid for 5-6 years.
About the repair part, the president of the Union of Greek Shipyards Panos Xenokostas, reiterated that both shipyards are fully operational and compared to what was the case in previous years, “today we are around 250%”.
“If one imagines that both Elefsina and Syros in their best years did not have a turnover of more than 20-21 million, this year the repair part of the two shipyards will exceed 120 million euros,” he stressed.
The shipbuilding activity at PPA is positive
Shipbuilding activity in the PPA’s shipbuilding zone also saw a significant increase in the six months to 2024.
Specifically, a total of 255 vessels carried out work or tanker operations up to June 2024. Of these, 160 vessels carried out various ship repair work and another 95 ships carried out tanker operations.
In 2023, a total of 424 vessels carried out shipbuilding activities at PPA compared to 411 in 2022, an increase of 3.6%. In the tanker sector, 154 vessels were handled in 2023 compared to 133 in 2022, an increase of 15.8%.
In addition, total days of occupancy increased by 10% (from 1,304 to 1,439 days).
In the Ship Repair Zone sector, there was a 3.6% decrease in the number of vessels served, with 270 vessels in 2023 compared to 280 in the previous year, as infrastructure upgrade projects during the year reduced the availability of repair berths across the Zone.
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