UK-based maritime engineering company Intermarine UK has appointed the shipping agent Olimpic as its representative in Greece and Cyprus.
Intermarine President Slawomir Kalicki said the new agreement will see Olimpic charged with bringing Greek and Cypriot-owned and registered ships into its 2400 sqm ship repair facility in Portland Port on England’s south coast.
Olimpic president Georgios Orfanos, who was born in Poland to Greek parents, said he will be bringing an extensive contact network in the Greek shipping market to Intermarine.
Kalicki said Greece is a critical market being second only behind China for fleet size by ship owners and ship managers based in the country.
In summer 2018 Intermarine announced it has supplied $1.3 million worth of piping to Cammell Laird shipyard for the building of the RRS Sir David Attenborough polar ship. Intermarine has further worked with the A & P shipyard group helping maintain Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels. And the company recently demonstrated its wider engineering capacity by assembling a pre-formed corrugated stainless steel tank for Cornwall-based water treatment specialist Eliquo Hydrok.
Kalicki said Intermarine has invested more than $657,000 of its cash reserves in equipping its workshop in Portland since opening in January 2018. Equipment includes bending machines, welding sets, CNC plasma machines and laser cutters. In addition, he said the company has created 20 jobs, including 15 laborers and five office-based positions. In total he said 60 new jobs should be created in the next two years as Intermarine seeks to support shipyards and ship owners across the UK and the world in line with the UK’s new shipbuilding strategy. Mr Kalicki said Intermarine is actively recruiting for more multi-skilled engineers who have competence across plating, welding and mechanical fitting and urged anyone in the area with this skill-set to get in contact.
Intermarine’s expansion to Portland has been championed by politicians as an example of much coveted foreign investment in the UK’s maritime sector.