Drydocks World, the ship building and repair subsidiary of Dubai World, is seeing the market recovering as it bids for new projects and delivers 2 seismic vessels.

Mr Khamis Juma Bu Amim chairman of Drydocks and Maritime Dubai said that it would start work on two projects which include service vessels for European consortium customers and some Far Eastern customers and deliver them during 2011.

Mr Bu Amim said that at this moment we are tendering for a quite a number of new builds. In the first and second quarter, the awarding process will start. Drydocks with 4 shipyards in Singapore and Indonesia is doing a portfolio adjustment to minimize exposure especially the loss in certain yards.

Mr Bu Amim said that generally we are trying to improve our ability in the Far East and of course, the capacity of our yards. We will continue with our investment no doubt. The ship builder yesterday delivered two seismic vessels to Norwegian geophysical operator Polarcus. Drydocks has been commissioned to build another three similar vessels for Polarcus. The project value for each vessel is about USD 110 million.

He said that we have noticed in the past 6 to 7 months there is a true change in the market on the upside. That is a true sign that the market is picking up slowly and surely. The company is also looking at building efficiencies into operations in Dubai. We are trying to develop a robust organization that has a very futuristic and very active role in the future.

(Sourced from www.mubasher.info)