Located in the heart of the #shiprepair zone in #Tuzla Bay with 3 different facilities, Art Shipyard is keen to take a different approach to better serve the industry. In 2023, the company plans to build onsite mechanical workshop to provide a full and diverse range of in-house repair services. Ahmet Ocal, Marketing Manager at #ArtShipyard and this edition’s host, is here to tell us more about the upcoming plans and expansions.

How does Art Shipyard evaluate 2022 in terms of projects and business? and what is your outlook for the ship repair industry?
It was definitely a booming year for the ship repair industry; looking at the situation in China, the previous challenges of the lockdown have created a difficult situation to cope with. Our biggest challenge this year was to manage old orders, accomplish successful projects, as simple projects become a challenge since all the repairs that must be done in China were coming our way.

From our side, this is considered a good challenge, but it has created a busy schedule which made it somehow hard to handle all these repairs at once. Commercial wise, 2022 has been our most successful year.

How do you see the competition in this industry?
In terms of numbers and market competition, there is a lot to share with our competitors, but as a Turkish yard we have been trying to go along the market demands and we have succeeded in providing a good level of quality.

Besiktas Group, our roof company, was always there to support us in all aspects, especially in quality and safety standards. Looking at our clients, we are working with premium companies that own big fleets on a global level. I believe that Art Shipyard was able to succeed in being one of the preferred yards in the region in a short period of time. Based on our capacity, we have managed to deal with larger projects, and reach an optimal number of vessel repairs with added value to the shipyards.

Tell us more about the shipyard facilities. 
Art Shipyard was established in 2019, and we have set our aim since then to improve our facilities. Art Shipyard is an active ship repair yard of the Mediterranean region having +85 dockings per annum with 2 floating docks - the largest of which is 230 m, berthing facility – total berth length is 1.500 meters. We can accommodate 12 ships concurrently with our 2 floating docks on 70.000 sqm total area.

We are currently investing in mechanical workshops. These mechanical workshops include in-house shaft and propeller works. A new workshop is also built for heat exchanger ultrasonic cleaning, and we have just established our safety and PV valves workshops. Also, we have in-house piping workshops, outfitting and prefabrication workshop. 

ART Shipyard has a distinctive hatch cover laying capacity compared to other shipyards in the region. Hatch cover landing area capacity is 80-85 covers, which allows for 4 vessels to be fully stripped off their covers.

The market boom is considered an opportunity for investments. How do you see that?
The last 2 years were certainly an opportunity for investments, and along with the upcoming year, they are considered special years which allow us to grow and invest more. But it is also important to be cautious because high markets soon experience a downfall. As part of Besiktas Group, we have a unique advantage of a greater flexibility, as the group operates 5, soon to be 6 docks within 3 brands. This gives us the flexibility to acquire fleet agreements with major companies and a certain stability in our yearly plans, opening to new markets and developing relations with new clients.  In the upcoming years our main focus will be improving our quality and enlarging our customers range among major shipping and ship management companies. As a growing shipyard, we believe that the market has a lot of room to accomplish progress, we are very well known in the shipyards’ market, mostly in Europe, but we are on the way of further expansion to the Far East and the Middle East market. 

We try to target the niche markets that we still don’t have a steady business in. Although we have a presence in many countries through our roof company, we intend to have an independent presence and footprint in means of commercial activities, which will be a key factor for us in acquiring a larger number of clients.

What is Art Shipyard’s lookout regarding opportunities in the Middle East?
Our concentration so far was limited to management companies moving to Dubai as it is the hub for these companies. We already have some relations with Far Eastern companies moving into Dubai and we are now working more with Middle Eastern companies; for example, we are working on a project for Sonatrach’s regarding a LPG carrier, and we are expecting two more. Art Shipyard sees big potentials in this region, as it holds a lot of prospects to be one of the major markets.

What were the shipyard’s main projects in 2022? And how are you managing to adjust your projects with the IMO regulations?
Our business in 2022 increased by more than 20% in ballast water treatment installations, compared to 2021. Lifting up the number of projects from 34 to 55 projects in 2022. We expect to have this number of installations in 2023 as well. 

It is no doubt that the IMO regulations created huge opportunities for the ship repair industry. 2022 closed with 85 completed repair projects, and 55 ballast water instalments. Our docking schedule flexibility depends on the project’s duration, the longer the project is, the easier it is to handle docking dates.

Robban Assafina Magazine, Issue 83, Jan./ Feb. 2023, Maritime News - Shipbuilding, pg. 71

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	Issue 83 of Robban Assafina (Jan./ Feb. 2023)