Working with external partners, shipbuilding company overcomes difficulties

Railroad train "made at" shipyard

With the shipbuilding market facing difficulties, many shipyards within Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC) had shifted to new products such as train carriages, aluminum hull passenger ship to create jobs and maintain business activity.

Present at the Song Cam Shipbuilding in the middle of May, many people are surprised when they find out long queues of train carriages in this shipyard’s workshops.

According to Mr. Le Van Hai, Deputy General Director of Song Cam Shipbuilding, they were urgently completing new passenger coaches to be handed over to Hanoi Railway Transport Company before May 31.

In 2017, the firm faced many difficulties due to its main partner, Damen-Song Cam Shipbuilding provided no new order. The company had been actively searching local orders for building new passenger ships. At the same time, Hanoi Railway Transport Company is in urgent need of high quality passenger coaches.

"We have partnered with the railway mechanic units to complete this order since August 2017. The company undertakes 13 air-conditioned bed carriages," said Mr Hai.

"The deadline was the 2018 Lunar New Year. Meanwhile, we did not have any experience with train carriages building. But we have the technology, shipbuilding advanced equipment with good labor force. The biggest thing, the value of a carriage is more than 10 billion dong, equivalent to the value of a hull of 5,000 horsepower. That will bring jobs and revenue to the company".

According to Mr. Hai, to ensure quality, the company had applied shipbuilding technology which increase durability, reduce maintenance costs and periodic repairs such as spraying grinding, steel plates... After that first order, Song Cam to be trusted and got new order by the Hanoi Railway to build 13 bed carriages in the second quarter of 2018.

"With the experience from the previous order, we have made many improvements in building, materials and manpower management… to improved the quality while reducing 6% of the cost of products ... ", said Mr. Hai.

Aluminum Hulls shipbuilding

Facing the same difficulty, Saigon Shipbuilding Industry Company (SSIC) has found new jobs by building aluminum Hulls ship. According to Mr. Tran Tan Cham, Deputy Director General of SSIC, the technology of building aluminum ship was big challenge when the firm shifted from steel hulls shipbuilding to aluminum one. The company has to start from the beginning. "But we are determined to do it because we did not have any contract in 2017," said Mr. Cham.

According to Cham, aluminum hulls shipbuilding requires very high technology because the material needs very special management and preservation process; The requirements of the factory are also strict, not being constructed outdoors. Small errors can only be corrected one - two times. Now SSIC has affirm its reputation in building aluminum ships. There are about 20 passenger ships are operating from Rach Gia, Ha Tien to Phu Quoc, of which 15 ships were built by SSIC.

Mr. Cham said, to attract clients, SSIC has not only confirmed by the quality of aluminum ship, but also by the support activities, customer care. SSIC has implemented turnkey contracts, in which the ship owners sign ship purchase contract, SSIC must carry out the package of products including support to carry out the relevant paperwork such as vehicle registration. The ship owner only needs to pay and receive the complete ship for the operation.

SBIC