Finding success in Fiji shipyard

THE Fiji government shipyard and slipway along Suva’s waterfront in Walu Bay is rapidly growing to be the marine centre of the Pacific island nations. The shipyard is building ships for Fiji and the region. It also has a

slipway for dry docking vessels from

throughout the region.

Said shipyard and slipway manager Apenisa Naigulevu: “Fiji is the best value for money for you to build your next vessel. Fiji is centrally located, the hub of the South Pacific. We have a reliable, inexpensive and skilled workforce sup ported by modern equipment, facilities and resources. But perhaps our greatest asset is our versatility. No job is too small or too large.”

Naigulevu says the Fiji government shipyard is poised for international orders. Since he took over as shipyard manager in 1981, Naigulevu has trans formed an operation which built a Fiji government landing barge in four years into an operation which will now do the job in eight months.

Naigulevu is in the process of asking the government to fund an expansion plan that will include the purchase of a floating dock built in West Germany and the takeover of the Carpenters Group subsidiary Industrial and Marine En gineering Ltd (IMEL) in Suva. The float ing dock was built in 1960 and refur bished last year. Naigulevu said the ex pansion will enable the slipway to work on ships 6000 tonnes and bigger. Cur rently it handles vessels no bigger than 1000 tonnes.

His plans are enormous and they in volve major transformations. The Fiji government shipyard has won seven ma

jor contracts this year from international tenderers which will bring in no less than $35 million. Additionally, it has won options which might bump it up to $62 million.

Naigulevu says the shipyard is big

enough to absorb more work during the period up to 1993. The shipyard is alive with two shifts a day working on two 28-metre fishing vessels for the Fiji government-owned Ika Corporation.

The total cost is $3.4 million. They will be launched this month and delivered next month. At the same time the shipyard is building one 38-metre catamaran for the Australian company, Sea Management Corporation, worth $2 million.

Tbe tbird contract is a 73-metre cruise vessel, the biggest to be built out of the shipyard in 59 years, for another Austra-

lian company, Ship Design & Manage-

ment Corporation. The job will cost $8.5 million. The shipyard has an option to build two more of the same vessel for the same company, which has the fourth and fifth contracts with the Fiji govern-

ment shipyard and slipway.

The fourth contract is a 52-metre cruise vessel for $3 million. The fifth contract, for which there is an option for two additional boats, is for another 52metre cruise vessel costing $5 million.

Fiji’s Blue Lagoon Cruises has ordered two 48-metre cruise vessels for its tourism operations. It is understood that costs have not been finalised, but the local company may have to deposit s lo ’ ooo for each boat to ensure they are included in the current work programme.

The other contract is for a 20-metre prawn trawler for Sonar Ship Brokelage

Ltd, a company from Cairns in north Queensland. The trawler will replace one of the 200 boats fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the Northern Terri tory of Australia. While it costs only $700,000 to build, the word is that the shipyard will be flooded with more orders if this first job is a success.

Naigulevu says the potential for the shipyard is limitless provided he gets the backup to get out and market it. And he is not sitting around waiting. He has launched an awareness campaign

through advertising. His first regional

advertisement in July has had two posi tive responses from Vanuatu companies which have enquired about the Fiji gov ernment shipyard and slipway capabili ties. He says Vanuatu, the Solomon Is lands, Papua New Guinea and the French territory New Caledonia will be major markets for the shipyard in the future as they develop their fisheries.

Already Papua New Guinea has sounded him out on the possibility of opening a shipbuilding yard there.

The Fiji government shipyard is de signing for two private companies in Vanuatu and another in the Tokelaus.

The Marshall Islands wants to buy punts and the Cook Islands has mentioned its interest in using the Suva-based ship yard. Additionally Naigulevu is confident Tonga will utilise Fiji’s most competitive capabilities to build two fishing vessels the Asia Development Bank has agreed to fund.

But the biggest push will come next year when Naigulevu looks to the Euro pean market. He says he wishes to advertise the shipyard and slipway in Europe. □