High levels of occupancy during the first two months of 2020 and strong forward bookings are sustaining momentum for Gibdock, following a strong surge in demand for the Gibraltar repair yard in the last quarter of 2019.
Recent contracts included a number of ‘environmental’ retrofits, such as converting Balearia’s 154 m long, 1,000-pax capacity ro-pax ’Bahama Mama’ to dual-fuel.
Gibdock had earlier converted ‘Napoli’ for the same owner, although in this case LNG storage tanks were mounted on the stern deck, rather than integrated within the ship’s structure.
“With the ‘Bahama Mama’ and ‘Napoli’ projects, we demonstrated that we are capable of major, high-end conversions to enable dual fuel capability,” said John Taylor, Operations Director. “We look forward to carrying out more work of this type in future.”
Gibdock also installed a number of exhaust gas scrubbers over the past year.
“We’ve proven our abilities across a range of environmental retrofits, including scrubbers, ballast water treatment systems and dual fuel engine conversions,” said Beards. “We are always flexible in our approach, whether engineering ourselves or working with specialist contractors.”
Recent weeks have also seen Gibdock benefit from a busy ferry season, with local operators returning to the yard for winter refits.
