By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama Shipyard’s top executive is voicing confidence that its $600m dry dock investment will grow its business “beyond” what it enjoyed in early 2019, but warned: “It’s not going to come easy.”

Dave Skentelbery, its chief executive, told Tribune Business the magnitude of the investment by its owners, who include the world’s two largest cruise ship operators, represents “a significant show of trust” that the Shipyard can more than recover lost ground and put the loss of its two previous docks “behind us”.

Despite those losses reducing the Shipyard to just 25 percent functioning capacity by late 2019, he pointed out that the fact the company continued operating through the COVID-19 pandemic and all other hurdles proves “we’ve got a good recipe for the future”.

However, Mr Skentelbery told this newspaper that he and his management team must continue to “keep the business alive” until the two new docks, which are being manufactured in China, arrive at different times in 2026. And, in the lead-up to their arrival, they have to ensure the company is “globally competitive” such that it can win back ship repair business that went elsewhere when its operational capacity was reduced.

Explaining that it is “too early to tell” how many Bahamian jobs will be created by the dry docks project, or how much of the $600m will be spent in Grand Bahama as contracts are still being negotiated, Mr Skentelbery pledged that both numbers will be “significant” and have a major impact on Grand Bahama’s hoped-for economic revival.

Speaking to the site preparation and infrastructure-related works, which must be completed before the new docks arrive, he said: “The infrastructure works will start at the beginning of November and ramp up early in the New Year. There’s a significant dredging programme that will be done by an overseas dredging company, because there is no local company capable of doing that size of job, but we’re mindful of employing Bahamians.

“There’s some demolition works for where the old docks were, and dredging work to accommodate the new docks, some strengthening of the existing seawall and extension of the finger pier to accommodate the new docks.”

Disclosing that “a significant portion” of the total $600m investment will go into the Grand Bahama-based works, Mr Skentelbery said he was optimistic that the “bigger, more capable” dry dock replacements will eventually help the Shipyard to expand its order and business book beyond what it enjoyed pre-2019.

“I think you have to look back to when we had three docks before,” he told Tribune Business. “We’ve got bigger and more capable docks coming. We will have three docks again, but a bigger and far more capable yard, so it will have a significant impact on the Bahamian and Grand Bahama economy.

“We’re expecting the the business to get back to its former level and beyond in the global ship repair market. Once it’s up and running, it will provide more employment for Bahamians, both directly and indirectly... We have to keep the business alive until they [the new docks] come here.”

Both the two new floating dry docks are already under construction at CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Company in Qingdao, China, with one expected to arrive in Grand Bahama by January 2026 and the other by the end of that same year.

“We have a business to run up until that time, and have to prepare for the new docks in terms of training and recruitment, plus getting the business back to where it was,” Mr Skentelbery said. “It’s not going to come easy. We have to attract business back to the yard.

“Those ships that used to dry dock here have found other homes while we were out of capacity. We have to remain globally competitive. Our business is a global business.” He pointed out that previous clients simply transferred their repair and refit business to rival shipyards in other countries with the Shipyard’s operating capacity much reduced for the past four years.

Carnival and Royal Caribbean each own 40 percent of the Shipyard, with the remaining 20 percent held by Port Group Ltd, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) affiliate. Mr Skentelbery acknowledged that having the world’s two largest cruise companies as shareholders will help to rebuild the Shipyard’s business, but added that it cannot rely on this alone.

“We have the capacity to grow the business again, and I have every confidence we will, in time, not only get back to where we were but beyond that,” he told Tribune Business. “This is a significant investment, significant show of trust by the shareholders investing in the future of the Yard. 

“I think it does show they have confidence in Grand Bahama Shipyard getting back to where it was before and put the loss of the previous two docks behind us. We continued operating through COVID-19 and kept the business going. I think it shows we’ve got a good thing here and a good recipe for the future.”

The Shipyard said it is also expanding its apprenticeship programme, with a goal to take on 16-20 new apprentices per year. Designed to develop needed technical skills, the four-year apprentice initiative will be further enhanced through partnerships with technical colleges.

Mr Skentelbery explained that this initiative will not only benefit the Shipyard but other industrial concerns and companies, as well as those apprentices involved, by equipping them with the required skills and “globally recognised qualifications”.

An April 2019 accident involving Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship destroyed one of the Shipyard’s previous dry docks, while another was damaged several months later through the passage of Hurricane Dorian. The ability of its cruise line shareholders to finance their replacement was both delayed and severely impaired by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut the cruise industry down worldwide for some 16 months until summer 2021.

These accidents meant the Shipyard lost its status as the world’s busiest cruise ship repair facility, having serviced three-and-a-half times the number of vessels seen by any rival yard. They also left the company functioning at just 25 percent capacity for the past four years until the $600m investment in the two replacement floating dry docks was confirmed.

The Shipyard, in an earlier statement, said the two replacements will be “among the largest floating docks in the Western Hemisphere”. One was described as “a mega dock that will have the largest lifting capacity in the world”, and be capable of servicing all existing and currently planned cruise ships worldwide, as well as multiple other commercial vessel types.

Prime Minister Philip Davis KC described the expansion project as “a new and promising chapter in the story of Grand Bahama”. Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, said: “The timing of the Grand Bahama Shipyard expansion project coincides beautifully with our efforts to revitalise Grand Bahama’s tourism industry.

“This project is just the impetus that Grand Bahama needs to further boost the island’s economic growth. It is a strong show of confidence that Grand Bahama Shipyard is establishing the world’s largest ship repair facility in The Bahamas.”