Sociber

At a crossroads of major shipping lanes on the Pacific side of South America, lies the SOCIBER shipyard. It is a floating dry dock in Valparaíso, the Chilean seaport. With origins dating back to 1985, SOCIBER has long been synonymous with friendly, fast, focused ship repair and conversion services. Sidney Chellew is the General Manager and he explained what makes the shipyard tick to Hannah Barnett.

The SOCIBER shipyard is not only one of the largest floating dry docks on the west coast of South America, but it also recognises the value of doing things the old way.

“The really nice thing about what we do, is we give work to a lot of motivated people doing both updated technical tasks and old trades that not many people know,” said General Manager Sidney Chellew. “There's a lot of things we do that they don’t teach at university or any technical school. They're taught by someone’s father, or by an old worker passing along his experience.”

The technical aspect

It may be in touch with its roots, but the SOCIBER shipyard is still equipped to provide quality service to modern standards.

“It’s not a floating dock for really big ships but it's good enough,” said Mr Chellew.

“It is 150 metres in length, and we can raise ships of up to 9,500 tonnes with a width of up to about 24 metres.”

As a classNKK dock, SOCIBER cannot afford to let standards slip. “NKK is very strict, so every five years we have to obtain a full classification certificate to continue operations,” Mr Chellew said.

SOCIBER SHIPYARD I PROFILE

“The dock may be 37 years old,” he continued, “but it’s in a very good shape, it works efficiently, we are responsible, and safety is crucial. We love our floating dock, so we care for it. Port of Valparaíso has had a floating dock since 1857 and we are the proud successors of them.”

Expansion and strategic planning

Mr Chellew has been General Manager at the shipyard since the 1st of April 2021. He explained that since then, he has been focused on establishing a coherent vision for the future, and that a newly reviewed

corporate strategic plan was the first task asked of him by the Board of Directors.

“We took a year working on the strategy and thinking about it,” he said. “One of the things that came out of the review was that we needed to expand our operations. So, we have been working as a subcontractor. Doing what we do best; hull treatment, painting, scraping, those kinds of things.

“We also do big mechanical jobs. Like fixing propellers, piping, valves. And we’re able to do metal structure work, fix damage and replace plates. We are expanding those capacities and looking into further revenue

streams, like port facilities or ship docking. That's my big push as General Manager, to generate more income.”

Client’s choice

Most of Chile’s dry docks exist to service the Navy, meaning the Sociber shipyard is a good option for commercial vessels. The dock sees a lot of trade from fisheries, because Chile has a wide ocean as an exclusive economic zone and is also the second largest producer of salmon in the world, after Norway. Mr Chellew explained that peak season falls between July and November.

The quality of the services offered is something SOCIBER has never compromised on. “We work with four or five different fishery companies,” said Mr Chellew. “I know the ships that we had last year will be back next year. We need to do a good job, because if we do a bad job, they are not coming back. Quality was one of the attributes that previous managers brought to the company. If you look at the balance book, from yearto-year, you will find very few failures.

“As a client, I would love that if I ask for an unexpected job or decide some necessary changes on the repairs plan, the shipyard will show a quick reaction and adaption. Customers like that dynamic.” That is a highlight characteristic of SOCIBER.

The other advantage the SOCIBER shipyard has is its location, because many of the other shipyards in Chile are located further south where there is more rain and bad weather. Valparaíso has a temperate climate. “The blackout days for shipyard production here because of weather issues are only about 12 to 15 a year,” according to Mr Chellew.

The future’s bright

As well as mainly importing its steel from China and Europe, SOCIBER works with a range of both international and local suppliers. “For example, we have a good relationship with our painting suppliers,” Mr Chellew said.

Despite some turbulence in global markets, and across industries over the last few years, Mr Chellew remained optimistic about the outlook for the future of the company, viewing the shipyard repair trade as

reliable one: “We basically deal with eliminating rust, but rust is going to exist forever. So, we’re going to have a business forever,” he summarised.

SOCIBER´s stated goals are to be recognised in the Central and South Pacific as a highly competitive company, to provide solutions in the field of maintenance and to continue working to a high standard of quality and safety.

But it is its people who make SOCIBER special. As Mr Chellew concluded: “You get a good feeling when a ship is sent back to service; a feeling of a job-welldone. That pride of doing things right. I think there's an understanding that everybody here is treated with justice

and fairness, including our workforce. If an employee after work is moving back home, he is not going to mind wearing a lanyard with our logo on it. Not ashamed to say: ‘Okay, here I am. I am from SOCIBER’.” n