Life is changing in the shiprepair and conversion world.

Nov. 4, 1997 Successful shiprepairing - from the repairer's point of view - was once said to be a combination of brilliant estimating and cheap labour, if a profit was going to result from a contract. It is a lot more sophisticated today, of course, but the principles of labour flexibility, the collection of the right sort of skills, and the ability intelligently to determine what needs to be done in advance remain important.
The highly successful Shiprepair and Conversion Conference and Exhibition has recently taken place in London. It is perhaps a measure of the intellectual requirements of the industry, which has advanced from the need to offer a "wash and brush up" to passing shipping to extraordinarily complex repairs and reconstructions, that such a show has established itself on the maritime calendar.
- How do you build a FPSO from the unpromising bedrock of a conventionally constructed tanker?
- What do you have to do to keep a hard-worked double hulled tankship in operation once the ballast tank coatings start cracking up?
- How do you reasonably reinforce a rather well-used bulk carrier to comply with the new criteria that will enable these ships to survive flooding holds, but without producing new problems that nobody has yet thought of?
How can you devise a conversion programme that will give some old clunker of a well-loved passengership a new life according to the latest requirements for damaged subdivision and fire protection?
The life of a shiprepairer is lived increasingly at the frontiers these days, with all these new rule requirements and novel ship designs, many of which have been devised with subsequent maintenance perhaps not the priority it might have been.
But the attitudes to maintenance are having to change in accordance with the International Safety Management Code. The sort of deficiencies that were once judged to be "not life-threatening" and which could safely wait to the next drydocking, have to be re-evaluated in a far more critical light, because the government surveyor - or whoever is representing the flag (or port) state - will look at deficiencies in such a fashion.
There is a great deal that is still to be tested, and much that is subjective and will depend on the attitude of individual surveyors, but the point is that sensible shipowners cannot take the chance that their certificates will be placed in jeopardy by neglected repair, or an accident traced back down the audit trail to a repair that has been placed in abeyance for some financial reason.
These are changing times, and the repairer has to adjust like the industry he serves. There is a requirement to extend the lives of ships to twice the number of working years that were anticipated when a ship was originally designed. New ground again for the repairer who has to learn how to take these ships apart and replace steel that was designed to be in place for the whole life of the vessel. How do you modernise the engine plant without costing a fortune, and when the spares have long ceased to be manufactured?
It is all part and parcel of the challenge the modern repairer must face.
The repairer too must recognise that the industrial climate has considerably changed in many of the countries in which he operates. There is no shortage of competitors in this global industry, and still more new repair yards being established in strategic spots for passing shipping. The "customers", who have been spoilt for choice since the advent of eastern European and Chinese repair yards, delightedly add these to their lists of -possible- facilities available for repair and conversion work.
The world of the repairer changes with the industry's economic cycles but superimposed upon these must be the overall trends that demand a fluid and flexible approach to the future. The traditional abilities to make and mend have a certain timelessness about them, but there are still plenty of new skills that are needed with the changing demands of the customer.
The need to work in new materials - aluminium and composites for instance - the demands of new machinery that might be far more sophisticated but equally less tolerant and robust than that which predated it.
The requirements for greater levels of scrutiny in surveys, and the need to adapt to a permanent maintenance regime, rather than one which progresses in fits and starts.
It is all change in the shiprepair and conversion world.