One Norwegian shipyard has opted to focus on ship repair and service versus newbuild -- and downsize too -- to ride out COVID-19 and its impact on the world economy.
New Havyard Ship Technology announced that it will restructure its operations into a repair and service yard and reduce the number of staff, as employees were informed today at the yard in Leirvik.
"The strategy of becoming a service and repair yard is absolutely necessary to keep as many jobs as possible," said Gunnar Larsen, CEO, Havyard Group. He said the yard industry now recognizes that the market for newbuilds and the possibilities of obtaining funding for building projects will be challenging in the time ahead. At the same time, the service segment is healthy and profitable.
"New Havyard Ship Technology must therefore restructure its operations to repairs, service and maintenance."
The Norwegian yard industry is facing serious problems, and Larsen calls for more measures to facilitate shipbuilding in Norway.
"The measures notified by the authorities are not good enough to secure Norwegian yard jobs," Larsen said. "More measures with more immediate effects in relation to transitioning to environmentally-friendly shipping would help both the Havyard yard" and the Norwegian maritime industry as a whole.
Converting the yard into a repair, maintenance and modification yard means that the yard will undergo a downsizing process that will reduce the number of employees by around 100 in the coming year.
"We know that this is difficult for the people affected, but we are doing it to save as many jobs as possible," said Erlend Hatleberg, General Manager, New Havyard Ship Technology.
Gunnar Larsen, CEO in Havyard Group ASA. Photo: Havyard
Newbuilds
Havyard New Ship Technology has six newbuilds that are scheduled for completion in 2020 and 2021. The downsizing will take place in correlation with the completion of the newbuilds and the shift in activities at the yard as it receives new service assignments.
"We will deliver excellent newbuilds, in the same way as always." Hatleberg also says that they have not ruled out newbuild activities completely.
"We have newbuild expertise and experience of upscaling and downscaling the yard in line with demand. Therefore, newbuilds may be an option in future, but for now, we will primarily concentrate on adding a new string to our bow: repairs, maintenance and modification."
