By
Rebecca Gibson |
Shipyard De Hoop in the Netherlands made a bold move earlier this year to expand its business with the introduction of De Hoop Shiprepair. As part of a move to expand on its longstanding ship repair expertise by creating a ‘onestop shop’ for all the key shipbuilding disciplines, the yard took advantage of a major overhaul of the facilities at the Lobith shipyard to introduce a repair division. This has enabled the yard to take advantage of an increase in demand for repair services as the cruise market in Europe continues to grow. The new division, which caters to customers at both the Lobith and Foxhol yards owned by the company, provides a comprehensive range of service and repair facilities for river cruise vessels as well as day passenger vessels.
The ship repair facility is a natural extension of the shipyard’s existing business across the major European waterways, says Johan Fasel, director of operations at Shiprepair De Hoop. “In the past, we have provided repair services to newbuildings for our customers, and we are now in a position to offer many more services for seagoing vessels.” Demand is expected to be especially high in the winter, when there is pressure on repair and maintenance facilities as large numbers of vessels require attention during the quiet months.
“We are working on inland cruise vessels at both of our yards and can provide repairs to all ships that pass,” says Fasel. “This is an excellent location and we want to offer more services, so we are organising in Europe to be a partner for seagoing vessels. By establishing partnerships with other yards in the area, we have the opportunity to combine ship docking with repair work. The major advantage with this approach is that the customer only has one party to talk to in order to arrange everything that needs to be done. It is a very good combination with our newbuilding operations, as we can see the demand for repairs and make competitive offers.”
With its yards in Lobith and Foxhol and quay facilities in Rotterdam, the shipyard is ideally placed to serve a range of cruise and ferry operators from the company’s impressive contact list, as well as new customers from the many lines that use the busy Rhine and other regional waterways. De Hoop is currently managing repair demand at each of its yards with existing staff from its newbuildings section. There are significant cost benefits to customers from the economies of scale the new set-up affords, and staff can coordinate demand for equipment and parts based on their knowledge of all the vessels in a fleet. “As a medium repair yard, we could never offer our customers the most favourable terms if we had to buy all the materials separately, but our costs are lower because we are purchasing for our newbuildings already. If a repair customer calls about a broken window, for example, we can deliver it, along with the personnel to repair it, and the customer still saves money.”