ABS sets up Black Sea Commitee
THE inaugural meeting of the ABS Black Sea Technical Advisory Committee took place in Istanbul last week. ABS says: “The invitational Committee is formed from a wide range of senior representatives drawn from shipowners, shipbuilders, designers, vendors and academic and industry organizations domiciled in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.” “Throughout the Black Sea region we see increasing levels of shipbuilding and shiprepair activity,” said ABS Europe President and COO, Chris Wiernicki. “Yards in the area have wide-ranging capabilities from small specialized vessels such as chemical carriers and feeder containerships to tankers of increasing size. Competitive labour costs coupled with the proximity of quality raw materials and equipment are attracting a steady inflow of orders from both international and regionally based shipowners.”
More than 40 shipyards are now located in the region. Turkish shipbuilders alone have significantly increased their orderbooks over the past year and the country is projected to move to the number eight position in the league of shipbuilding nations’ by 2008. Other shipyards in the region have forged alliances or attracted ownership participation from Asian and North European shipbuilders and are handling projects from complete panamax tankers from the Daewoo Mangalia yard in Romania to smaller hulls ready for outfitting by European yards.
