ASENAV

ASENAV

50 years a Chilean legend POWERED BY INSIDE MARINE

Celebrating 50 years

ASENAV

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PROFILE

a Chilean legend Astilleros y Servicios Navales (ASENAV), regarded as one of South America’s long-standing and pioneering shipyards, has reached its 50th year landmark with sights firmly set on blazing a trail for the next half-acentury. With a diverse order book, including the biggest live fish carrier on the continent, ASENAV is also furthering research into emerging green technologies for vessel propulsion. Profile by Andy Probert.

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using heritage with modernity, the family-run shipyard is a beacon of great pride for Chile and South America, and one that burns bright globally as a pioneer in design and build innovation.

Approaching nearly 200 new-build projects since its founding in 1972, ASENAV is one of the leaders in wellboat constructions, a mainstay of the Chilean aquaculture, a recognised builder of expedition ships, and foremost in using new energyefficient technologies.

“ASENAV has achieved a lot in its 50 years and will continue to contribute to the local community and offer work standards comparable with more advanced nations,” asserted Germán Schacht, Business Development Manager.

That comes to the fore with a slew of various projects recently completed or presently under contract at the shipyard, located in Valdivia city, on the Calle-Calle River and 15km from the Pacific Coast.

Vessel innovator In 2021, ASENAV delivered two vessels for the Chilean aquaculture industry. The Patagón X is a 2,000 cbm, 69.5m live fish carrier. The 1,985 tonne vessel, which has three wells for fish transport, marked a milestone as the tenth construction for its client Patagonia Wellboats, a leader of Chile’s live fish carrier segment.

This was followed by the Owurkan, a first-of-its-kind delousing vessel explicitly developed to treat different diseases that affect salmon, mainly focusing on the Caligus treatment through regulated therapeutic baths.

The vessel was built for Chile’s fish health management service provider owner SalmoClinic. Its CEO, Hans Kossmann, created the first wellboat for the Chilean salmon industry in 1998, and is also a Patagonia Wellboats’ director.

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PROFILE

Due to operate in Southern Chile, the 62m vessel has a treatment capacity of 1,000 tonnes of fish per day. The vessel followed six years of research, while Owurkan means “Healer” in the southern Chilean Kawéskar dialect.

The vessel contains a tank with a large helix to provide a continuous swim-through bath treatment for salmon pumped aboard.

The tank was manufactured by Norwegian company Stranda Prolog, which specialises in equipment for handling live fish and stress control.

Because the fish move through the treatment bath in a controlled manner, the amount of medicine needed is reduced and, therefore, the amount of process water to be handled.

A helix unit can treat 200,000 fish with an average weight of 3.5kg with only 700cbm of process water. That offers a 96% reduction compared to a comparable treatment in a cage and 90% compared to treatment in a wellboat. A novel pesticide degradation unit is also aboard the Owurkan.

As Mr Schacht explained: “One of the critical features of the vessel is reducing the use of pesticides or anti-parasites that today are used massively without adequate environmental control. This vessel takes care of the products used and does not impact the surroundings. This is the first vessel built worldwide for this specific purpose, and is expected to revolutionise the industry.”

ASENAV’s experienced engineering department designed the Patagón X and the Owurkan. Both have diesel-electric propulsion systems, reducing emissions and ensuring more efficient fuel consumption. The main generators operate in constant revolutions, and the integrated power management system distributes the electric power the vessel needs for different operation modes.

“This reflects the sustainable strategy the shipyard is pursuing, as the transportation industry generates emissions, and maritime transport is but an important fraction.”

New build breakthroughs Mr Schacht added the shipyard is also engaged in new projects, including building a 3,000 cbm live fish carrier – believed to be the biggest of its type to be built in the Americas.

The 79.8m vessel, being built for Patagonia Wellboats, will include the latest technology that reduces the environmental impact with the fit-out of diesel-electric propulsion with a total electric power of 3,000 kW. “As all the main equipment are electric-powered, the ship will be prepared to incorporate in the near future different energy sources, such as green hydrogen, when these supply and distribution logistics exist,” he highlighted. The project will be delivered

by May 2023 and be operational in the winter of that year.

Mr Schacht said: “This ship will have a greater transport capacity with only two holds instead of three and relates to the growth in the size of the farming cages. This facilitates trace-

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ability and improves loading and unloading times.”

Additionally, a shelter deck has been incorporated to work in a covered area where the fish handling system equipment is located, giving crew and equipment greater protection from the weather. Spaces will be reserved for the future installation of an RSW system and a desalination plant to treat fish through freshwater baths. Cabin and common area space have also been increased, providing greater comfort to the crew.

Another vessel under construction is a speculative 25.6m ASD tugboat with 70 tonnes of bollard pull.

Responding to market trends due to the post-pandemic economic reactivations, ASENAV saw an opportunity to provide a quick solution for clients in the short term.

Mr Schacht said this represents the 33rd tugboat to be built by the shipyard and the sixth vessel of a proven in-house design. The other five have been operational for more than five years, with exceptional performance results.

“Happily for us, we can confirm the ship was already sold prior to being ready for delivery, which confirms our initial analysis of the urgent need of the industry for this type of ships.”

Recently, one of ASENAV’s biggest achievements was being awarded a contract to build a 30.8m fishing and oceanographic research vessel for the Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture - Chile.

This vessel, set to be delivered by the end of 2023, is a milestone for ASENAV, complying with strict vibration and noise standards for this type of ship.

“This shows the great confidence and trust national institutions have in our shipyard for the worldwide-renowned construction quality we maintain,” stated Mr Schacht. “It also allows us to enter a new market due to the high level of technology involved, which is one of the competitive advantages of our constructions.

“As ASENAV turns 50 in 2022, we will reflect on our tremendous history, our continued contribution to the local community and the drive to complete another 50 years of historic shipbuilding in southern Chile.”

Community-strong, globally robust Indeed, Mr Schacht is the third generation family member to enter the ASENAV business, which was founded by his grandfather, naval architect and mechanical engineer Eberhard Kossmann.

Eberhard Kossmann’s back story is a testament to his tenacity to survive the odds, just like his shipyard. Originally from Germany, he fled Eastern Germany by swimming a lake to the West before journeying to Peru to be with his brother. He then moved on, ending up in Chile’s most southerly region.

Settling in Valdivia, he was able to mix with the largely Germanic community and opened the shipyard in 1972. Today, the 130,000 sqm yard has three production plants, 30,000 sqm of building area, with capacities for 120m vessels, overhead cranes ranging from a 10 to 50 tonne lifting capacity, and maximum lifting of 120 tonnes.

ASENAV has docking piers of 188m and 82m long and drydocking of 1,300 tonnes. Its state-of-the-art equipment includes advanced robotic technology for welding, plasma cutting tables and associated works.

The shipyard is one of the most important employers in Valdivia, with between 600 to 1,000 employed workers – approximately 30% of them being subcontractors, depending on the type and size of the vessel being built.

The yard provides an important degree of sophistication in a regional economy dominated by the primary goods sector.

In addition, ASENAV hires naval engineering graduates from Universidad Austral de Chile, a local university from Valdivia, one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and one of the few that teaches Naval Engineering.

As a pioneer in ferry building, ASENAV helped connect hundreds of islands in southern Chile. They introduced a simple, secure and lasting technique with a double-ended ferry solution and continue to make ferries for that same market today.

ASENAV remains critical to the connectivity of a country that is more than 4,000km long and has over 3,000 islands. In contributing to uniting Chileans nationwide, it expanded into the fishing vessel market as the industry boomed in Chile and was the first to introduce purse seine, trawler and combined technologies to the domestic market and exported similar vessels to Norway.

While the yard pioneered the design, construction and implementation of wellboats and fish handling systems to support Chile’s salmon farming industry – the second largest in the world – it also built vessels for clients in Fiji, the Bahamas, USA and Canada.

Challenges and opportunities Mr Schacht said that with all this experience and technical knowhow, while actively supporting the local community, ASENAV’s focus is to deliver the current projects on time “as it is one of our key competitive advantages.”

“We hope to close a few more international newbuilding projects from Europe, and be able to enter that market. ASENAV today is focused on improving its efficiency in engineering and production to reduce costs and be more competitive.”

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STRANDA PROLOG Norwegian company Stranda Prolog is a proud supplier of the HeliXir-tank system on board Owurkan (owned and operated by SalmoClinic and built by ASENAV). Stranda Prolog specialises in equipment for handling live fish and stress control in addition to advanced solutions for salmon harvest plants globally.

The large HeliXir tank provides a continuous swim-through bath treatment for salmon pumped aboard. This is a patented online precision bath process, environmentally friendly and provides good fish welfare. The system is flexible to use both fresh and sea water and elegantly operated by Stranda’s StraQS control software.

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ASENAV

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ASENAV’s engineering department, said Mr Schacht, is always looking to innovate and include state-of-the-art technologies.

“Our current focus is including propulsion systems using green fuels that will considerably reduce emissions – the industry’s primary concern today. This won’t happen until reliable supply and distribution logistics satisfy that demand, but when the time comes, we’ll be ready to adapt this technology in our constructions.”

The yard has been previously experienced in the expedition cruise vessel arena as the concept for a more personalised vessel in the tourism industry has grown. ASENAV designed a tailor-made 91m, 100-passenger capacity vessel to meet the Polar Code’s demanding requirements, enabling it to operate in the Antarctic and Arctic.

“The vessel, Magellan Explorer, built for cruise operator Antarctica 21 based in Southern Chile has the autonomy to operate for 60 days without touching port and is equipped with Tier III emission reduction technology,” said Mr Schacht.

The yard’s ability to deal with highly complex demands from customers was also met with the release of the Pelee Islander II Ro-Ro passenger ship for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, Canada. This is a standout project as all the building requirements had to be approved and meet the demands imposed by Transport Canada on all new vessels entering its territory.

ASENAV has also delivered six AHTSVs for Maersk Supply Service, which operates from Port of Saint John into the North Atlantic Ocean. These vessels were state-of-the-art constructions including Dynamic Positioning II System, which allows the vessel to stay automatically in the same place regardless of the weather conditions – a key requirement in vessels that support offshore platforms.

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These vessels have between 80.20 and 90.15 metres of LOA, between 18.80 and 22.00 metres of BOA, gross tonnage between 4.323 and 6.490, 150 to 218 tonnes of Bollard Pull, around 6,500 sensors and more than 240km of cable in each unit.

The yard has adopted a 10-step plan to ensure workers’ safety from Covid-19 and worked closely with Universidad Austral de Chile to actively monitor any cases. This plan included more working shifts in smaller groups, constant temperature control, and PCR testing for all staff twice per month.

“For us, the most important was to keep the shipyard operating and keeping our workers and their families safe. To date, production has not stopped, and we have delivered three new building projects without delays,” he said.

Another challenge is the increasingly competitive landscape that has seen shipyards worldwide close and many more rescued by their governments or public institutions during the last decade.

Readying for a greener future New restrictions due to environmental issues favour ASENAV thanks to its drive for innovation.

“We are always ready to apply the most advanced technology available in our projects,” Mr Schacht said. “The first experimental vessels with hydrogen cells and propulsion based on auxiliary groups with LNG are a case in point.”

He emphasised: “Chile is a country with the largest free trade agreements globally, so ships built by ASENAV, in most cases, have advantages to be exported. We have the freedom to build with imported materials and equipment from around the world without restrictions.”

Mr Schacht also highlighted Chile’s solid institutional framework, atypical for a developing South American country, and the country’s deep-rooted international business culture.

“Having complete design capabilities for a project, we can work closely with clients and tailor a vessel to suit their needs.

We guarantee high-quality international standards at a competitive price, and since the company was founded, we have maintained a policy of delivering vessels to agreed deadlines.”

ASENAV will continue to adopt more environmentally friendly technologies, Mr Schacht confirmed, focusing on green fuels and creating vessels that provide better performance, hydrodynamics, and operational results.

“While we are renowned for high-quality constructions and engineering concepts, reliability is also a very important requirement for our customers. They know that we’ll achieve the required project whatever it is. In addition, on-time delivery is key for us as clients plan their entire operation around a ship’s start and delivery date.”

The yard’s after-sales service ensures it accompanies the client throughout the entire operational life of the vessel and doing everything possible to solve any issues quickly. ASENAV can also

accommodate the design and construction of the vessel to solve a client’s requirements.

“All these qualities are fundamental to enjoying long-term relations with clients,” he said. “These also apply to our leading suppliers, whom we have been working with since the yard was founded.

“The relation between shipyard, supplier and client is completely symbiotic and ensures ASENAV remains involved in the vessel’s lifecycle.”

Mr Schacht added: “The marine industry faces an important challenge regarding environmental care and global warming.

I think this is the biggest issue that, as an industry, we need to figure out how to solve as soon as possible.

“We must work together with customers and governments to speed up the supply of new technologies and greener fuels.

However, the assumption is that in the short term this will come with higher costs at the beginning, and the entire supply chain must assume this increase to reduce our eventual impact and have a better future for all. In the long run, this is clearly expected to have benefits for the operation besides from the reduction of the contamination of our environment.”

He concluded: “ASENAV has reached a significant milestone in 50 years of service to the community and the industry.

We are firm in our desire to continue that trend for the next half-a-century.” n Inside Marine

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