Smart Maritime Group (Kherson, SMG) held a launching ceremony for the third outfitted hull of a chemical tanker for the Dutch VEKA Shipbuilding WT B.V.
Local residents, the Head of Kherson Regional State Administration Yuriy Gusev, city mayor Vladimir Mikolayenko, a representative of the customer company, Mr Huig Spaargaren, attended the event held on the construction site of Kherson Shipyard on Tuesday, 28 January. The honorary mission to be the "godmother" of the ship went to Olga Lobunchenko, chief accountant of SMG. She, together with the marketing director Yury Kornienko, smashed a symbolic bottle of sparkling wine against the board of SYNERGY Ship.
A representative of VEKA Company, Mr Huig Spaargaren said: ‘Today we have launched the third hull, but Smart Maritime Group is working on the construction of the fourth similar chemical tanker. Just yesterday, a ship-owner visited Kherson, and expressed satisfaction with what he saw. He confidently announced his plans to build the fifth hull. The client accepted the work without any remarks, and I can confirm his opinion: the ship was built in a very professional manner. Nowadays Europe sees a boom in shipbuilding, so we hope for further cooperation with SMG and not only on this project.’
Smart Maritime Group's CEO Dmitriy Krasnikov said: ‘If Ukraine wants to develop its shipbuilding as one of the basic industries, then it certainly requires special attention from the state. Possibility to raise affordable financial resource for implementation of such long-term projects remains the key challenge for the industry today. We hope that the situation will change in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, the successful implementation of this contract is another confirmation that our shipyards are ready to provide shipbuilding and ship repair services at the highest professional level.’
Reference. SYNERGY chemical tanker was built at Kherson Shipyard under the Dutch CAVALLI project. The deadweight of the vessel is 5,320 tons. Its length is 110 meters, the beam is 13.5 meters, its side/hull height is 6.6 meters. The tanker is designed for the transportation of petroleum products and chemical goods on the inland waterways of Europe.
Within the framework of the contract, the shipyard manufactured the hull of the vessel, installed general shipboard piping systems and deck outfitting systems and painted the hull.
The job was fulfilled over the period of 8 months. The value of the contract is EUR 2.5 million.
In the manufacture of the vessel, 1,200 tons of high-quality shipbuilding steel, mainly manufactured at MMK and Azovstal Works of Metinvest, were used.
Smart Maritime Group is the largest shipbuilding company in Ukraine, combining the shipbuilding assets of Smart-Holding: Nikolaev and Kherson shipyards. The SMG production facilities allow the construction of medium-tonnage fully outfitted vessels and comprehensive ship repair operations. Clients of the shipyards are companies from the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and other countries.
VEKA Shipbuilding B.V. is part of VEKA Group Shipbuilding Company headquartered in Werkendam (the Netherlands). The group was founded in 1988. The company specializes in the construction and maintenance of inland navigation vessels. The company's reference list includes double-hulled chemical tankers and bunker tankers, LPG tankers, container ships, passenger ships and other types of vessels. VEKA operates four shipyards in the Netherlands: in Lemmer, Heusden, Rotterdam and Werkendam, as well as shipyards in Eastern Europe and, in part, in Asia.
The history of successful partnership between SMG and VEKA Group numbers more than 10 years. Over this time, SMG built 11 tanker hulls for the company.
