Drydocks World joins ringfenced Dubai assets

Drydocks World has been in constructive dialogue with its lenders for several months and its financial profile does not require it to be included in the more wide-ranging restructuring process envisaged in last week’s announcement.

Drydocks World has to date reacted promptly to the challenges of the global economic slowdown which have impacted the shipping sector globally. The company has implemented extensive operational improvements over the past year. Drydocks World continues to have sufficient financial capacity to service its debt and remains well positioned to take advantage of the expected improvements in the ship building and offshore industries in the coming years.

Drydocks World is the Gulf region’s largest player in international ship repair, shipbuilding, rig building, ship conversion, offshore fabrication and fleet operations with facilities across the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Conceived as an ambitious project under the guidance of H.H. Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the late Ruler of Dubai, the facility on an average handles 400 vessels in a year, most of them ULCCs (Ultra Large Crude Carriers) and VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers). It completed 25 years of operation in 2008.

Several of the world’s largest dredgers and jack-up rigs are serviced every year and the yard has specialised LNG handling capabilities. The yard’s workshops are equipped with modern equipment capable of working to exacting standards.

The world’s largest vessel, the Knock Nevis, has recently been decomissioned from Maersk Oil Qatar’s operated Al Shaheen Field in Qatar, and is widely expected to undergo extensive work at the Drydocks World Dubai yard, one of the few in the world capable of handling such a large ship.