Strict Covid-19 could continue to restrict yard capacity for drydocking in the coming year warn Nippon Marine Paint.
The number of vessels drydocked at Southeast Asian yards for paint jobs dropped sharply in 2020 and 2021, and while improving this year is expected to remain at around 25% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
“We expect the number of vessels drydocking in the Asia Pacific region for a new coating to be 680-800, slightly up on the previous two years but still only 60-70% of the number of vessels that docked in 2019, which had a combined tonnage approaching 76 million deadweight,” said Bill Phua, Managing Director, Nippon Paint Marine (Singapore).
Southeast Asia’s largest shiprepair centre – Singapore saw the number of vessels drydocked for paint jobs drop from 516 in 2019 to 296 ships in 2020, and 316 in 2021. Singapore’s yards have been hit with labour shortages due travel restrictions from source countries in South Asia and outbreaks in worker dorms and resulting quarantine measures.
Phua said that following recent visits to yards in Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Middle East, strict safety measures continued to impact the operation of yards in the region.
“There’s still this limitation in place, restricting some yard’s achieving full capacity,” he said.
Source: Seatrade Maritime News
