The Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co (ADSB) yesterday announced it signed a strategic agreement with the UK's Halmatic Ltd to build military and commercial vessels at its state-of-the-art facility.

A range of Halmatic vessels including military and coast guard patrol vessels, military fast attack craft, rigid inflatable boats, search and rescue vessels will be built for customers throughout the Gulf, ADSB managing director Lawrence Holliday said.

The vessels, to be locally built, could also include products from other Halmatic divisions and partnerships, including high performance boats from Cougar. "There is an excellent market in this region for such vessels and very soon we hope to start work on the project," Lawrence Holliday said.

Halmatic, a division of Vosper Thornycroft, is leading designer and builder of vessels employing the glass reinforced plastic (GRP) and the high-tech advanced composite materials.
Under the agreement, ADSB will have access to Halmatic product range for construction in Abu Dhabi.

"With the new Halmatic agreement, ADSB will rapidly expand its existing business to include the construction of glass reinforced plastic and advanced composite vessels," Lawrence Holliday said.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co is currently undergoing a major shipyard facility expansion that will increase production capacity by more than 400 per cent. The first phase of shipyard facility expansion is fully completed, with the second phase on target to completed by end of 2001.

The company is finalising plans for an additional expansion to provide dedicated, state-of-art production facilities for glass reinforced plastic and composite vessels. Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co's diverse business activities include the construction, refit and repair of a wide range of naval and commercial vessels built from steel and aluminium.