On March 20, Vietnamese Minister of Transport Mr Nguyen Hong Truong, carried out the official Vietnamese ribbon-cutting ceremony for the latest addition to Damen Shipyard Group’s portfolio. Damen Song Cam, a brand new yard, is one of the largest in the Group and represents Damen’s first formal Joint Venture yard in Vietnam.
Damen Song Cam is considered state-of-the-art, bringing a western shipyard designed to meet European health, safety and environmental standards into a Vietnamese environment. The yard will produce around 40 ships annually in the first phase.
A history of success
Damen has a well-established history in Vietnam and has been working with five shipyards for more than 12 years.
Pim Schuurman, Managing Director of Damen Holding Vietnam , said: “ We have successfully built 226 vessels in Vietnam with our partner yards. Vietnam has a lot of shipbuilding knowledge, the people are very hard working and in the next stage of Damen’s Vietnam journey we are looking forward to having our own Joint Venture shipyard, which has been designed to maximise efficiency.”
Chris Groninger, Managing Director of Damen Song Cam, said: “ Damen started building in Vietnam for the first time at Song Cam yard and this venture was such a successful cooperation for both Damen and Song Cam that we decided to bring this to the next level and that led to Damen Song Cam .”
Mr Schuurman added: “ Damen built up its presence in Vietnam by subcontracting to yards in Hai Phong initially and the number-one yard was Song Cam and now it is great to see it become our partner in Damen Song Cam.”
With direct access to open sea, the new yard is based on a 43-hectare site, of which 500 m is directly alongside the River Cam. The yard has a 120 m long x 85 m wide outfitting hall, plus extensive paint and carpentry workshops.
Damen Song Cam to set to become the largest series producer in the Group therefore everything revolves around efficiency. The shipbuilding hall is in fact a dedicated outfitting hall, with three overhead cranes of 25- tonnes each over every bay.
Damen’s focus on standardisation, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale value and reliable performance. Furthermore, Damen vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology.
Damen offers a wide range of products, including: tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and super yachts.
For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of Services, such as maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. To complete, Damen offers a variety of marine components, especially nozzles, rudders, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.
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Press Release, March 24, 2014