Bulgaria’s FLOTSKI ARSENAL – VARNA LTD is an originator of its nation’s ship repair industry and a current global key innovator for clients. Having remained at total capacity throughout the Covid years, the Black Sea yard is looking ahead confidently. “We offer more than repairs to clients; we guarantee reliability,” emphasised Commercial & Marketing Director Radoslav Kostadinov in a conversation with Andy Probert.
The Covid era proved exceptionally strong for TEREM-SHIPYARD FLOTSKI ARSENAL – VARNA , with a 40% boom in business through to 2021 and smaller but significant increments to the end of 2023.
While some shipyards wilted, TEREM SHIPYARDcontinued to tick over and came through the worst relatively unscathed.
At its heart, according to Commercial & Marketing Director Radoslav Kostadinov, is a cautious approach to business. However, TEREM-SHIPYARD leans heavily on its highly-skilled Bulgarian workforce to be as reliable as the ship projects it turns around. 2024 is set to be another good year for the yard. Among the new projects is a four-year deal to repair and maintain Bulgaria’s naval assets, while negotiations on building its first floating dock for a Croatian client are inching ever closer.
“We are not fazed by a new project,” Mr Kostadinov added. “It offers a new
challenge, a new opportunity to learn and to move on into the next one more enlightened than last time.”
Port with purpose
Situated on the shores of Varna Lake, 20km from Varna, the largest city on the Black Sea coast, TEREM-SHIPYARD was founded in 1897 as a port of special purpose to focus on maintaining the ships of the newly-established Bulgarian Navy.
127 years later, the 100% state-owned Ministry of Defense shipyard, which operates on a totally self-supporting basis, remains a staunch partner in the maintenance of military vessels. However, it has increasingly widened
its mission to repair commercial ships, due to expanding foreign partnerships.
Across 617,000sqm, the yard has two floating docks, four quays, a lifting capacity of 2,200 tonnes and four floating quays along a 1,300m length of coastline. It has three 135m long rail slipways, serviced by a 45-tonne auto crane, and equipped with electrically-driven rail trucks, a 16 tonne/20m portal crane and a 6 tonne/30m tower crane. The slipways, which are supplied with electricity, acetylene, oxygen, fresh water and compressed air, are used for repair, conversion and new build projects.
Vessels up to a maximum of 14,000DWT and 200m in length can be accommodated,
with vessels up to 165m in the bigger of the two floating docks.
Given its modern and well-equipped workshops and employing 400 people, with a pool of 200 subcontractors, TEREM-SHIPYARD is geared to handling high-quality complex ship repairs at short notice.
Mr Kostadinov noted how the past five years had been one of continual growth for the yard as more clients, particularly with strong links to the Black Sea, had turned to Flotski Arsenal.
Projects have ranged from complex repairs to conversion and modernisation of ships, steelwork, spectral analysis of metals and materials, and repairs of radar systems, armaments and electronic equipment. The work scope has encompassed bulkers, general cargo vessels, tankers and dredgers, plus mega-yachts.
New investments
Mr Kostadinov acknowledged that the yard had embarked on a new investment to build a new pipe workshop, which the EU is partly subsidising: “This will enable us to continue evolving our work scope for clients and building our experiences in that area.” The yard will also look to replace one of its cranes in the next two years.
Having constructed an 80m target vessel, which took six months to complete for the Bulgarian Navy, and the conversion of a landing craft into a mine-laying vessel, TEREM-SHIPYARD recently sealed a four-
year repair and maintenance contract for Bulgarian naval assets. This will encompass dock repairs of Bulgaria’s three Drazki-class frigates, its single ex-Soviet frigate, a missile corvette, two anti-submarine warfare corvettes and three Tripartite-class mine countermeasure vessels.
While averaging around 70 ship repairs per annum, the shipyard is poised to build a new 86m x 16m floating dock for a client
in Croatia. “This is an exciting upcoming project and a first for the shipyard,” said Mr Kostadinov. “If all goes well, then we may well see more companies coming forward for similar floating docks building. It could open a whole new chapter for us.”
TEREM-SHIPYARD successfully handled major repairs on the MV Vera Su (now MV SAFINA) cargo vessel after it collided with rocks near Varna. “We restored the vessel’s
TEREM–SHIPYARD FLOTSKI ARSENAL – VARNA I PROFILE
entire bottom, the engine room, the auxiliary engines and electrics,” Mr Kostadinov explained. “It was a big job, but we completed it within eight months.”
These projects have been supplemented by the installation of ballast water treatment systems for various vessels throughout 2023.
Maintaining a reputation
“Due to the outbreak of the RussianUkraine war, we stopped working with Russian fleet owners,” said Mr Kostadinov. “However, we have begun working with many Ukrainian clients because they cannot accomplish ship repairs in their nation’s shipyards. We have established excellent relationships and look to move these connections forward this year.
“The shipyard has continued to pursue more digitisation innovations to enable us to conduct repairs without the need for clients to visit. We are looking to develop an app to help increase communications between our workshops. This will provide a better overview of a project and improve efficiency.”
Recruiting specialised workers, such as welders, pipefitters and machine operators, has become a challenge in Bulgaria and across the global ship repair field.
“No one wants to work in these professions anymore,” Mr Kostadinov continued. “No one is coming from the schools or specialised academies, even though we are increasing wages. Most young people want to be in IT, so recruitment is a struggle. In the near future, we may have to consider employing other nationalities.”
The success of TEREM-SHIPYARD is aligned with using local suppliers, according to Mr Kostadinov: “We work with those that are fast, affordable and offer the highest quality of work that will enable us to complete projects on time for clients.
“Our mission is to maintain our worldwide quality reputation, because we are highly adaptable at handling a stream of diversified projects,” he said, in conclusion. “I believe TEREM-SHIPYARD FLOTSKI ARSENAL – VARNA LTD. is entering new and exciting years ahead, and we are looking forward to it with confidence.” n
