Western Marine will build another Ro-Ro ferry for BIWTC

Western Marine has inaugurated the construction work of one Ro-Ro ferry through a keel laying ceremony on the 28th of July 2013 in the shipyard premises located in Patiya. This is the second time Western Marine will be building a similar ferry for BIWTC. The ferry will operate in River Padma from Chandpur to Shariatpur.

In July 2011 Western Marine delivered the first Ro-Ro ferry to BIWTC called “Md.  Ruhul Amin”. Today the ship operates from Charjanajat to Mawa. It was first time a Bangladeshi shipyard built & successfully delivered a Ro-Ro ferry for domestic use. Previously these ferries used to be imported from Denmark by the government of Bangladesh. To meet the crisis in the transportation sector the government has taken initiatives to procure more ferries to enhance the inland waterway transportation system of Bangladesh.

Western Marine was awarded this newbuilding order upon bidding the lowest price in an international tender. The contract price for newbuilding of this ship is around BDT 25 cr. One Bank Ltd will be the financial partner to Western Marine Shipyard in financing this project. The shipyard is scheduled to deliver the ferry within a period of 18 months. The 60meter long ferry will have a carrying capacity of 340 passengers & 27 trucks. She will be built under class Germanischer Lloyd (GL) & will be able to sail at a speed of 10 knots with 1.52m loaded draft, powered by two 750BHP main engines.

The Keel Laying took place in presence of shipyard Technical Director Mr. Arifur Rahman Khan, Addl. Chief Engineer & Project Director of BIWTC Mr. Abdur Rahim Talukder, Chief Engineer & Ship Surveyor of Department of Shipping Mr. Mirza Saifur Rahman and Surveyor of GL Bangladesh Mr. Ataur Rahman.

Timblo Drydocks, India will provide dredging facilities to Mongla Port Authority in collaboration with Western Marine Shipyard

Timblo Drydocks based in Goa, India has signed agreement with Mongla Port Authority for building a complete set of dredging facilities for use of Mongla Port Authority. Western Marine Shipyard will provide full technical support to Timblo in this newbuilding project.

This project is worth of USD 8.5 million. The contract was signed at the Head Quarters of Mongla Port Authority in Mongla in presence of the Port Chairman Commodore M. H Bhuiyan, BN; Executive  Director of Timblo Drydocks Mr. Sarvesh Pramod Timblo & Operation Director of Western Marine Shipyard Ltd. Capt. ABM Fazle Rabbi.

In this project one 18 inch cutter suction dredger, one 12 ton BP tugboat, one crane boat, one crew house boat, one officer’s house boat with other accessories will have to be delivered to Mongla Port Authority within a  period of 18 months.

This project is a part of the soft loan finance scheme of USD 1 billion, that the Indian Government has sanctioned to Bangladesh recently through EXIM Bank of India. This credit facility has been sanctioned  at .59 percent rate of interest for bilateral trade enhancement of both the countries. This is how Timblo Drydocks an Indian origin shipyard got involved with the project to improve trade between Bangladesh & India.

Timblo Drydocks Pvt. Ltd. owned by the Panduranga Timblo Group. Besides shipbuilding & other engineering services they are also engaged in mining, agriculture, shipping and other activities. Timblo Drydocks has been building various types of vessel like OSVs, MPVs, dredgers, passenger ferries, dry bulk cargo carries etc. The shipyard has chosen Western Marine as a representative in Bangladesh for Western Marine’s rich track record in similar business in the market of Bangladesh. Through this venture both the shipyard will exchange technology & business profile enhancing Bangladesh-India bilateral trade. It is hoped that joint venture of Western Marine with an Indian shipyard will take the shipbuilding industry of Bangladesh one step ahead.

IMO Secretary-General visits Western Marine

His Excellency Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General of International Maritime Organization (IMO) has visited Western Marine Shipyard Ltd in Chittagong today June 26, 2013. During the visit he was accompanied by the Joint Secretary of Ministry of Shipping, Mr. Mr. Nasir Arif Mahmud; Deputy Secretary Mr. Md. Habibur Rahman; Commandant of Marine Academy Dr. Sajid Hussain & IMO Member State Audit Officer Capt Moin Ahmed.

IMO is one of the 15 specialized agencies under the United Nations which is headed by its Secretary General. The international agency is solely responsible   for the safety and security of world shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

The Secretary General was keen to see the shipbuilding activity in Bangladesh. During his visit to the shipyard he highly admired to see the quality workmanship of Western Marine Shipyard & mentioned that for maritime safety all the shipyards should comply IMO regulations for a better & safe future.

The Chairman & the Managing Director of Western Marine, Mr. Saiful Islam & Mr. Sakhawat Hossain hope that this visit will further stretch the strong tie of Bangladesh & IMO.

 Later the IMO Secretary General visited the ship breaking facility in Shitakunda & National Maritime Institute in the city. He left for Dhaka at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon.

Western Marine to build passenger ship for Tanzania

The ship will be 38m in length & it will be able to travel at a speed of 20knots. Catamaran ships are very safe for sea voyages & even more stable than other type of ships as they are specially designed with twin hull. Western Marine has built similar type of catamaran ship in the past which operates for Chittagong Boat Club. The ship will be built at a cost of BDT 25 crore & the shipyard expects to deliver it to her owner by mid of 2014.

Western Marine Managing Director Mr. Sakhawat Hossain said that this project will be a break for them in the market of Africa. He said like Tanzania many other countries in Africa are developing their infrastructure system & thus these countries are in need of various types of ships. The Chairman of the shipyard Mr. Saiful Islam said that this is a great news for the nation as this export order will add great value to our economy though foreign currency earning.

Western Marine inks deal for newbuilding of another inland container feeder vessel for PICT

Western Marine Shipyard has signed a new agreement for newbuilding of one more container ship yesterday 12 May 2013. This ship will be constructed for Bancan Shipping. The deal was signed by the Managing Director of Western Marine Shipyard Mr. Sakhawat Hossain with the Managing Director of Bancan Shipping Mr. Mohammed Ilias on behalf of their respective organizations. The ships will be having a capacity of 160 TEUs of container & will operate to carry containers from Chittagong Port to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT). The government has issued 50 licenses for inland container ships which shall ply in this route. Western marine has already secured orders of 6 ships into their basket from these.

This ship will cost BDT27.5crore and they have been designed uniquely for the inland & coastal route of Bangladesh. Newbuilding of container ships are very much sophisticated & requires complicated calculation of stability unlike other types of vessel like cargo ships or tankers. So far Western Marine has built nine container vessels (multi-purpose) which has been exported to Europe.

The ship will be serving for the PICT which Bangladesh government has developed in Dhaka to facilitate increased trade within the country. The ships will make a major contribution in our economy for port service enhancement & at the same time they will play a major role in reduction of traffic density in highways by transferring the mass imported goods by river. This way for the first time container ships will be plying in our inland channels, which had never been experienced before.

Statistics say that last year Chittagong port received 15lac TEUs of containers which is also growing by 20% per annum & it will reach an optimum level of 30lac in the coming years. 90% of these goods are transferred to various destinations within the country either by rail or road. The new 50 container ships for PICT will be able to carry 2.5lac TEUs per year. According to the present momentum at least 100 container ships will be required to meet the growing volume of containers received by Chittagong Port.

Western Marine inks deal for two more container ships

Western Marine Shipyard has signed a new agreement for newbuilding of two container ships. These ships will be constructed for Neepa Paribahan Ltd and Mir & Islam Enterprise. The deal was signed by the Managing Director of Western Marine Shipyard Mr. Sakhawat Hossain with the Managing Director of Neepa Paribahan Ltd Mr. Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury & the Managing Director of Mir & Islam Enterprise Mr. Mir Mahmood Ali on behalf of their respective organizations. The ships will be having a capacity of 160 TEUs of container & will operate to carry containers from Chittagong Port to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT).

The government has issued 50 licenses for inland container ships which shall ply in this route. Western marine has already secured orders of 6 ships into their basket from these. Recently the shipyard has enhanced its capacity & they plan to build more 20 container ships. The ship will be constructed under class Germanischer Lloyd ensuring its best quality.

Each of these ships will cost BDT25crore and they have been designed uniquely for the inland & coastal route of Bangladesh. Newbuilding of container ships are very much sophisticated & requires complicated calculation of stability unlike other types of vessel like cargo ships or tankers. So far Western Marine has built nine container vessels (multi-purpose) which has been exported to Europe.

These ships will be serving for the PICT which Bangladesh government has developed in Dhaka to facilitate increased trade within the country. The ships will make a major contribution in our economy for port service enhancement & at the same time they will play a major role in reduction of traffic density in highways by transferring the mass imported goods by river. This way for the first time container ships will be plying in our inland channels, which had never been experienced before.

Statistics say that last year Chittagong port received 15lac TEUs of containers which is also growing by 20% per annum & it will reach an optimum level of 30lac in the coming years. 90% of these goods are transferred to various destinations within the country either by rail or road. The new 50 container ships for PICT will be able to carry 2.5lac TEUs per year. According to the present momentum at least 100 container ships will be required to meet the growing volume of containers received by Chittagong Port.

Chairman Saiful Islam said “Bangladesh government has issued 50 licenses for such vessel, and Western Marine has ensured the new construction of six of these vessels”. He emphasized saying government should discourage import of container vessels because local yards are fully capable of building such ships & Western Marine being the leading shipbuilder in the country has exported 9 similar ships to the European Market. Further the imported container ships will not be compliant to the inland route of Bangladesh where they will ply.

Shipyard MD Sakhawat Hossain said for introducing such container ships in our river channels 16,000 vehicles will be taken off the highways which shall reduce our traffic congestion & prevent air pollution.

Successful sea trial of largest fishing trawler in Bangladesh by Western Marine

F.T. Agro Food-1 is the largest fishing trawler in Bangladesh at present built by Western Fishers Shipyard Ltd (WFSL), a joint venture between Western Marine Shipyard & Fishers Shipyard. Western Marine Shipyard has provided the full technical know-how in this venture. The new built vessel has successfully completed its trial in the Bay of Bengal in the last week.

F.T. Agro Food-1is 42m Deep Sea Mid-Water Fishing Trawler, which is the first of its kind ever made in Bangladesh. This ship is the first from a series of three sister vessels WFSL has built for Agro Food Ltd. The other two sister vessels F.T. Agro Food-2 & F.T. Agro Food-4 will ready for trial by next month. Each of these fishing vessels is being built at a cost of BDT28cr. The design of these ships is from Iceland. These trawlers will be able to cope with the rough Bay of Bengal and capable of trawling into deeper sea. These ships are equipped with anti roll-tank, kaplan propeller, kort nozzle, bulbous bow, powerful engine & bollard pull, which made the vessels fit for fishing in the Bay of Bengal yet in monsoon period.

The trawlers will also be having hi-tech German made refrigeration system which can process the fish at -50deg core temp. The system includes processing deck, slurry ice machine, chill water maker, blast freezer and store freezer which will maintain the freshness and best quality of the fish caught. Each trawler has a carrying capacity of 300 tons of fish. They are powered with 1850 BHP engine, 800 KW generator power of & have a pulling capacity 26 ton. The main engine & gen-set of the ships are US made.

Most of the steel made fishing trawlers in the country are second hand imported from Thailand & China and they are not designed to cope with our fishing zone, the rough Bay of Bengal. But F.T. Agro Food -1, 2 & 4 would be the first trawlers of their kind duly designed to meet the fishing requirement in the desired zone of Bay of Bengal considering the sea state of this specific area, weather condition and many more.

WFSL mainly concentrates on new building of fishing trawlers. Western Fishers is the first shipyard in the country to have initiated new building of Mid Water Fishing Trawlers. Besides they are also building more nine fishing trawlers for local owners. This way WFSL has secured a share of 300 crore in the shipbuilding market of fishing trawlers.

Goodwill Visit by German Parliamentary Delegation to Western Marine

Chittagong, 12 February 2013: A Seven member German Parliamentary Delegation (Bundestag) accompanied by members of the German Embassy Dhaka paid a goodwill visit on 10th Feb 2013 to the leading shipyard company Western Maine at Patiya, Chittagong. The delegation was headed by Mr. Josef Winkler Member of the German National Parliament.

The delegation is on a 4 day visit to Bangladesh. During their stay they will call on the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the member of the opposition and other important institutions: garment factory and shipyards.

In welcoming the delegation, the Managing Director of Western Marine Mr. Sakhawat informed the group about the delivery of eight 5200DWT MPC vessel to Germany in the recent past, as well as about earlier high level visits from Germany to the Shipyard.

He mentioned that currently 26 German companies are supplying engines and machineries worth $ 70 million per year to the shipyard for the last few years, which is continuingly growing.

On the way to shipyard by River Karnafully, the delegates saw two newly built vessels: one Multi-Purpose dry cargo ship Stella Atlantic heavy 4100 DWT capacity which will operate in Europe. Another Ro-Ro passenger ship, ISEF JORD with carrying capacity of 147 passengers and 28 units of Vehicles has been built for Danish owner Hundested Rorvig Faergefart which will operate in Danish costal area which were delivered to the European owners on 06 Feb 2013.

Dr.Ralf Reusch, Deputy Head of Mission while delivering his speech said that he was proud to see the German Flags hoisted everywhere and mentioned about the GiZ functioning in the yard He hoped that this progress and its story will continue. Mr. Holger Ortel said that it was really good to come BD and know that you are capable of building good quality ships

Ms. Monika Hein, Parliament Administration in her address mentioned about her previous visit to Western Marine and said that whenever she visits Boston she always sees Bangladeshi vessels later, Dr.Ms. Birgit Reinemund said in her speech that it was important for her to know about the financial /banking matters which could be pushed from the German.

The head of delegation Mr. Josef Winkler in his speech said that he was extremely pleased with the status of the shipyard & technical data, present market status he also mentioned about the excellent job that GiZ have been doing for the Shipyard workers as well as the community. Finally he expressed his hope that the German Bangladesh trade relation will continue to grow further. He concluded by saying that he would act as the ambassador for Western Maine to promote business in Germany.

Western Marine Services Inks Deal with ERL for Constructing 3x13000Mts. Storage Tanks

Chittagong, 10 February 2013: Western Marine Services Ltd. (WMS) went into agreement with Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL) for construction of 03 nos. of oil storage tank for the refinery on behalf of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). Each tank will be capable of holding 13000MTs of oil. The contract was signed in ERL office Chittagong by the Managing Director of WMS Md. Sakhawat Hossain & Managing Director of ERL A.H.M Shamsud Duha on behalf of their respective organizations. During contract signing from WMS side DMD Abu Md. Fazle Rashid, TD Mohammed Abdul Mobin & Director Civil H. M. Harun and from ERL side GM Manzary Khurshid Alam, DGM Md. Rashed Kawsar & other high officials were present.

The project is on turnkey basis including design and construction under API 650 code. These tanks will be handed over to ERL, North Patenga, Chittagong in the year 2014. The worth of this project is about BDT 50cr.

Earlier WMS had constructed 2 X 50,000m3 tanks with floating roof for the refinery which are still considered to be the largest two storage tanks in Asia. WMS has the richest track record in constructing such tanks & their recent major completed projects includes 15 nos. of tank for Super Petrochemical Pvt Ltd (SPPL), 8 nos. of tank for Bangla Cat, 14 for Mobil Jamuna Fuels Ltd (MJFL), one for KAFCO, and many more.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) & other companies in the power sector have taken measures for construction of new storage tanks within next few years. This is due to government initiatives for establishing new fuel generated power plants to meet the national power crisis. This opportunity has created a market for new construction of storage tanks. Western Marine having the know-how for constructing best quality tanks and related facilities, aims to secure lion part of this market share contributing in the national economy.

Western Marine exports one fully automated Ro Ro Passenger Ship & one Multipurpose Dry Cargo Ship to Europe

Western Marine Shipyard Limited have delivered more two ships to the European market on 06 February 2013 creating another milestone in country’s shipbuilding sector. The Ro Ro Passenger Ship “ISEF JORD” has been built for Danish owner Hundested Rorvig Faergefart which will be used to carry 147 passengers & 28 units of vehicle in Danish coastal area. The other ship “STELLA ATLANTIC” is a 4100 DWT Multipurpose dry cargo ship which will operate in Europe. The Commerce Minister Mr. G. M. Quader attended the delivery ceremony as Chief Guest and Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mr. Svend Olling joined as Special Guest.

Addressing in the occasion the Chief Guest Commerce Minister GM Quader, MP said shipbuilding has become a brand for Bangladesh & Shipyards like Western Marine has proven that we are fully capable of hi-tech construction in Bangladesh. The Special Guest Danish Ambassador Svend Olling stated that these ships will be known by many ship owners in Denmark as Bangladesh built products & I am hopeful that more ship owners in Denmark will be interested in getting involved with highly potential shipbuilding industry of Bangladesh.

ISEF JORD is a hi-tech & fully automated ferry built under class. Newbuilding of passenger ships require great proficiency considering the highest standard & 100% safety compliances. Bangladesh being an emerging & very infant shipbuilding industry, it was a great challenge to have taken initiatives for building such sophisticated ship. ISEFJORD consists all the advanced technologies of a passenger carrier. The ship is fully automated, she can operate from both end having dual operating system in its bridge. ISEFJORD is capable of rotating 360 degree from a fixed point. Systems of the ship could also be monitored & controlled from cellular phones & laptops which is considered the most sophisticated marine technology in today’s date. Further the ship could be operated by only two men for having the highly advanced marine equipment in it.

To be mentioned ferries which ply in Denmark are of best quality & Denmark is known for selling similar ships to other countries in the world. In-fact Bangladesh used to import ships from Denmark in the past and delivery of ISEF JORD will add a new achievement in the shipbuilding industry of Bangladesh. The ship has been built under class Bureau Veritas & approved by the most stringent maritime administrator “Danish Maritime Authority”.

In the other hand STELLA ATLANTIC is a merchant ship having the capacity of 4100DWT. She is strengthened to carry heavy specialized cargo. She has twin deck which means she can carry two types of cargo at the same time. The ship is also equipped with 120tons of hydraulic crane for self feeding. This newbuilding project was executed under class Germanischer Lloyd (GL).