Chairman’s Message
Arabic Version
Welcome to our Website!
The shipping industry is used to the unexpected, it's part and parcel of the vagaries of international
trade. But very few could have foreseen the events of 2009. It's always tough to keep up with the high of
an exceptional year.
Although a number of us saw clouds on the horizon towards the end of 2008, what came as a big shock to
almost everyone was the global financial crisis colliding head on with a worldwide recession. It is,
therefore, heartening that ASRY managed to hold its own in a very difficult and demanding year – we
repaired a record number of vessels and even made a small profit. Not many shipyards can claim that for
2009! In achieving such a positive financial result in such a bad year my thanks go to ASRY's management,
staff, workers and Trade Union, and our global agents and loyal customers, both from the Arab and
international markets.
2009 saw ASRY repair 168 vessels, a 26% increase on the previous record-breaking year. The problem
was that many owners, operators and managers were only spending the minimum on repairs due to highly
challenging market conditions; consequently revenue took a nosedive, down 37% on 2008 to US $131.4 million.
I would like to particularly thank our loyal Arab customers KOTC, Vela International Marine and Red Sea
Marine Services, and from the International market, Norway's Odfjell, India's Shipping Corp of India and
Greece's Chandris (Hellas) Inc for supplying ships during the year. Without their support 2009 would have
been an even worse year for ASRY. Even this limited success would not have been possible without our growing
oil and gas customer base, and I would like to thank the various rig operators who have brought business to
our relatively new offshore division, ASRY Offshore Services (AOS).
I would also like to express our special thanks to our new customer, the UK's A&P Group, with whom we are
now working in co-operation with on the through life support of five vessels from the flotilla of the Royal
Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).
This is an exciting new market for ASRY and one which sees the shipyard pitching its skills at the demanding
naval vessel sector.
The recent entering into service of the yard's new large slipways saw a new string added to ASRY's bow in
terms of size and types of vessels repaired, and I’ve been delighted by the response from the small vessel
market to this new facility, which to date has seen almost full occupancy. Special thanks must go to US dredging
specialist Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., and offshore support vessel operators Zamil, from Saudi Arabia
and Britoil from Singapore, for their work during the year.
However, ships and rigs just do not turn up for drydocking and repair at ASRY without a great deal of behind
the scenes sales and marketing activity, not only by the shipyard, but also by our global network of agents.
Without our agents' tireless efforts, many of the ships repairing at ASRY would have ended up at other yards.
I would particularly like to thank our US agent Vogler Marine Agencies, Norway’s ECA Shiprepair, India's
Interlinks Marine, the UK’s ASRYMAR and Greece's Bogdanos Marine during 2009 for their sterling efforts.
ASRY faces yet another tough year ahead, but I'm confident that with the continued support of the yard's
management, workers, agents and loyal customers the yard will ride out the storm and come out fighting fit
to meet the new demands of the shipping and offshore industries in the coming years. We have an exciting yard
expansion program underway which will see the entering into operation of a new 1,380m repair quay wall at
the end of 2011, as well as a large new offshore fabrication area. These new facilities will enable the yard
to provide an even better level of service to our customers and I'm confident that by the time they enter
service the market will be back to normal. The recovery, of course, will take time, but we are fighting for
every single piece of business we can get.
We are confident of achieving a faster rate of growth and a greater volume of Business in the years ahead
with the continued support from all our agents and customers.
Once again thank you all for visiting our website.
Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al-Khalifa
Chairman of ASRY