Grandweld

GRANDWELD SHIPYARDS I PROFILE

The global shipbuilding industry is experiencing a much-needed recovery and Grandweld Shipyards in Dubai is no exception. With order books full to bursting, the company is looking forward to delivering several years of highquality ship launches. Meanwhile, its design department has been putting the finishing touches on a brand-new product launch exclusively revealed in this article. Richard Hagan sat down with General Manager, Jamal Abki, to get the inside scoop.

Located on the man-made island of Dubai Maritime City, Grandweld Shipyards’ large, modern 55,000 square metre facility is centrally located and perfectly positioned to serve both regional and international customers. It provides a complete range of shipbuilding ser -

vices to the global shipping industry, including design, new builds, repairs and mainte nance.

Fabricating dreams in the desert Grandweld’s shipyard is the largest in Dubai Maritime City, with the capacity to simultaneously build over 30 vessels.

It also boasts unique fully enclosed hangars, completely insulated from the desert's heat, sand and dust. These buildings allow the company’s skilled teams to build, repair and maintain vessels in complete isolation from the harshness of the local environment.

Grandweld Shipyards’ eco-certified facility contains everything needed to build some of the region’s best ships. Alongside 31 docking births, Grandweld Shipyards boasts a pair of ship lifts – one 6,000-tonne and one 3,000-tonne – to effortlessly move projects in and out of the facility, where up to 1,000 skilled staff members at a time can work on them. Though the number of staff employed in the shipyard varies between projects, the company maintains a large, permanent management team to ensure continuity across all projects.

A CNC workshop and a piping workshop are also conveniently located inside Grandweld Shipyards’ facility. According to General Manager Jamal Abki, Grandweld’s comprehensive facilities set it apart from its competition: “Our facility is unique, globally, in many ways. We have everything necessary right here to perform at the highest levels of efficiency, safety and quality at all times.

“Grandweld pioneered the shipbuilding industry in the United Arab Emirates, and our extensive capabilities have been vital to our success in evolving from a regional builder to a respected player on the global market.”

Future fuels and hybrid hype

In light of the ever-tightening International Maritime Organisation (IMO) emissions rules, ship owners worldwide are turning t o the shipbuilding industry for solutions

Grandweld Shipyards has been quietly developing several innovations.

“There’s a definite trend towards hybrid ships containing a battery system linked to diesel generators,” Mr Abki explained. “We’ve been working hard, doing a lot of research and development with hybrid system manufacturers to ensure that our vessel designs interface and integrate correctly with their systems. We’ve now reached a point where we are ready to move forward and start building these vessels.

“And it’s just in time, because recently we’ve received a lot of very serious enquiries for hybrid ships and we’re working on offers for various clients. So w e definitely see hybrid as the direction the industry will go for now.”

Grandweld Shipyard expects its hybrid vessels to easily meet and exceed the IMO’s incoming and future emissions regulations. “As designers,” he continued, “we have to work out where the industry is heading and then ensure that our designs are 100% compliant with all incoming regulations so that the vessels are ready for the enforcement of those regulations.”

New & exclusive: GrandUltra

For almost two decades, Grandweld Shipyard has enjoyed enormous success with its top-selling Grand Superior crew transfer vessel. The vessel has been so popular that between 2017 and 2022

Grandweld delivered approximately 150 examples to customers around the world, including locations as far afield as Venezuela and the Gulf of Mexico. And now, following the resounding success of Grand Superior, the exclusive reveal of Grandweld Shipyards’ replacement for Grand Superior: GrandUltra. In GrandUltra, the team at Grandweld Shipyards has improved on and evolved everything that made Grand Superior so popular with customers worldwide.

“GrandUltra will boast more muscle and more capabilities, while remaining focused on the mission for which it is built,” said Mr Abki, who went on to provide some context to the new model’s design.

“Grandweld Shipyards was the first to bring a 42-metre aluminium crew boat to the market in 2007. At the time, people couldn’t see the need for a boat that size in our region because smaller boats were typically in use. However, we’d done our research and we established that in fact, the right boat for our region is a 40- to 42metre vessel. At the right speed, a boat that size can take on a lot of the offshore

“GrandUltra will boast more muscle and more capabilities, while remaining focused on the mission for which it is built”

business and also replace helicopters for many trips. It’s more economic to run and is able to do these offshore trips quickly and efficiently.”

GrandUltra has been specifically designed to accommodate both conventional and hybrid propulsion systems, but its design has specifically focused on several key areas: Deck space, crew comfort, and seagoing capabilities.

“It’s got a serious deck that exceeds everything else on the market,” said Mr Abki. “In terms of crew comfort and seakeeping in general, we’ve ensured that the vessel’s dimensions and hull shape provide best-in-class crew comfort and seagoing capabilities, both here and outside of the Gulf region.”

Chasing the future

Despite its full order books, Grandweld Shipyards is not becoming complacent. The company is actively pursuing diversifi -

cation to ensure that the cycles typical of the shipbuilding market have less of an impact on it in future. “We’re trying to diversify outside of oil and gas as much as possible,” Mr Abki explained. “We’ve identified opportunities in passenger transport and offshore wind farm service vessels, so we’re definitely going to be expanding on that.”

A recent project is evidence of the company’s flexibility and willingness to adapt in its quest to diversify: in 2022, for the f irst time, Grandweld Shipyards delivered a one-off, totally bespoke superyacht chase boat (sometimes referred to as a ‘shadow vessel’).

The chase boat included a sizeable helicopte r landing pad that can accommodate very large helicopters, while also boasting plenty of space to handle superyacht tenders, cars, jetskis and the like. It also offers an onboard g ym and VVIP accommodation, all on top of a com-

fortable, seaworthy hull capable of going almost anywhere.

“We delivered the chase boat with 100% customer satisfaction,” said Mr Abki. “The success of this project proves that this is another opportunity for diversification that we can pursue.”

In the meantime, Grandweld Shipyards will continue to foster the company culture that, according to Mr Abki, is the secret ingredient that keeps customers coming back. “We work hard to deliver a unique experience when clients visit us,” he concluded. “All of our staff are focused on making the customer happy while they’re here and keeping them happy when they walk out. And what I hear from our clients is that this is what makes them come back to us again and again.”