Seabulk to shut Sharjah shipyard complex

The Sharjah shipyard base of Hvide Marine Inc unit Seabulk Offshore International Inc will close down as of December 31, when its lease expires.
The company's offshore service facilities will continue.
"We are in the process of an orderly shutdown of the base," U.S.-based Jack O'Connell of Hvide told Gulf News by telephone.
"We have 120 people in our operations there, and our staff there will either be reassigned or be given layoff notices or severance pay," but it is too early to speculate, he said.
The company proposes to sell another 15-25 vessels following the 16 utility boats it has sold in the last three months, he added.
O'Connell said the move is part of the holding company's worldwide restructuring programme as it continues to cut costs, consolidate facilities and focus on its core business under President Gerhard Kurz.
Kurz took over in May to engineer a turnaround by the troubled company, which had announced a voluntary Chapter 11 filing under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code last September, and had re-emerged in December.
"A contributory factor may have been we tried to swallow too much too fast, and so overextended ourselves," the CEO said at that time.
The company yesterday said that after a thorough evaluation of its Middle East operations, it has concluded that the base is no longer a strategic fit.
"We are a marine transportation company, not a shipyard, and we will continue to be the largest independent operator of offshore support vessels in the Gulf."
O'Connell noted that the company had inherited the shipyard when it bought out Sealand. After running into financial trouble, it began looking for a chance to get rid of the base.
"We see ourselves as saving money by exiting a business to which we don't belong," he said.
Asked if the company's services might prove less attractive to "blue-chip" clients since Seabulk would now be dependent on third parties for technical back-up, he said, "The area is commercially developed, so we do not anticipate any problems on this score."
On the need for fresh docking space on January 1, he said there is plenty of docking space available. (Industry sources felt the vessels still laid up, pending sale, would be parked in Mina Khalid and Ajman Port.)
"The upturn in our business consequent to rising oil prices first made itself felt in our Gulf of Mexico operations, and has now spread to West Africa and the Far East," O'Connell said. "The Mideast has been one of the last areas to recover, but we are seeing signs of this now."
Vessel redeployment would also be to India, where the company has sizeable operations.
Dubai-based Seabulk Offshore International operates a fleet of 89 vessels, including 19 in the Far East, compared to 97 a year ago. The company is part of the worldwide Seabulk Offshore group, with a total of 189 vessels.