Monday, January 13th witnessed the official opening ceremony of Damen Shipyards Sharjah FZE – the newest shipyard of Albwardy Marine Engineering.

In a joint venture between the Damen Shipyards Group and Albwardy Marine Engineering, the core activities at DSS will continue along the tried and trusted course of Damen new-builds and Albwardy’s conversions, dry-dockings and repairs.Damen Shipyards Sharjah is conveniently located in the Sharjah Hamriyah Free-zone. The spacious new yard, located on a huge 284,000 square metre site, has direct and unrestricted access to the sea and meets the highest standards of modern ship construction and repair.

The facility is equipped with a 120 x 26.5 metre ship-lift, with a 5,200 ton capacity and is connected to eight dry-berths, each of which is 125 metres in length. It also features a fully enclosed blasting and painting shed and an under-cover new build construction hall.

There is also extensive adjacent repair space, with 1,200 metres of quay with a water depth up to nine metres.

Up and running for some time now, DSS has the facilities to repair and construct all type of vessels, and has recently delivered tugs, workboats, support vessels, dredgers, landing craft, floating docks, barges and pontoons. The yard’s order book presently consists of contracts for two multicats, two shoalbusters, two barges, one aluminium crew boat and not less than ten ASD tugs.

The cooperation between the two family-owned companies is further strengthened with three existing yards in Dubai and Fujairah that will continue their focus on repairs, conversions and dry-dockings. They will also undertake rig repairs and conversions for the oil and gas industry. With its 35 year history, Albwardy Marine Engineering is a well established name in the Gulf region.