Globally, there are just over 50 thousand oil tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo ships, gas carriers, chemical tankers, ferries and other passenger ships with an average age of 20.6 years. Even if you have a wide range of dry-docks available to your ships for intermediate and main classing, shipowners might get into trouble finding the right shipyard.
You can grab the facts about the world's commercial fleet here: The Global Fleet Revealed.
Criteria for selecting the right shipyard
There are some critical factors you should consider before choosing the right shipyard for docking and classing your vessels.
Essential aspects are:
- Location
- Competitive pricing
- Size of the facilities
You can read more in this article at The Maritime and Offshore Blog presented by GMC Maritime.
On these pages, you will find an overview of available services at GMC Maritime and our locations and facilities.
Nevertheless, you must consider the shipyard's capacity and book your docking in advance. Don´t wait until the last week before contacting the shipyard.
Most shipyards have a backlog for several weeks and months. Here at GMC Maritime, we recommend shipowners to book at least six months in advance. Sometimes, we can take on projects on shorter notice.
With three vessels in dry dock and another three boats by the quay, we can do six or seven projects simultaneously. These types of operations require a lot of logistics.
Docking is all about logistics
To execute docking and classinc operations at a minimum of time and cost, we have to be good at logistics.
Ordering spare parts and crew, setting up day time shifts (and sometimes night time) and making all this work seamlessly together is an art of business.
We emphasize that shipowners shall have a great experience when docking at GMC. The only way to achieve this, is working closely together. It is all about predictability.
We always try to optimize for good utilization of our docking capacity. Building upon our experience, here are three simple reminders that is fundamental to a succesful yard stay:
- Check out the capacity at the shipyard and the size of the docking facilities
- Book your yard stay as soon as possible. If possible, we recommend 6 months in advance of your yard stay. You may save a lot of money by doing this
- Stay in contact with your shipyard the last weeks before arriving
In this free checklist, we share additional tips related to dry-docking:
