BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 2. Dutch Damen Shipyards Group has a vast experience in building and delivery of tankers, dry cargo ships and ferries, and can contribute its knowledge and experience to the development of this sphere in Azerbaijan, the company told Trend.

“Damen Shipyards Group delivered several vessels to Azerbaijani customers. We intend to continue our cooperation. At this moment, we have ongoing negotiations with clients, but no contracts are signed yet,” said the company.

Damen said it brings together 35 shipbuilding and repairing yards located in different countries of the world, including 15 shipyards in The Netherlands, where the company’s headquarter is located. The remaining 20 shipyards are located in Poland, Romania, Turkey, Qatar, China, Vietnam, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore. The company also has Joint Ventures in many other countries. More than 11 thousand employees are working for the company today.

“In addition to shipbuilding at its own yards around the world, Damen Shipyards Group has an extensive experience of building at the local shipyards under Damen licence. Damen provides the license and engineering package, ship components, as well as supervision during the building process, generating a vast transfer of shipbuilding technology and guaranteeing excellent quality.

Thanks to this proven concept, more than 1,000 projects were realized at the local yards all over the world. Some of these examples include the construction of the various types of the vessels in Albania, Italy, Brazil, Vietnam, frigates in Mexico and Indonesia and the construction of patrol vessels in South Africa for their Navy. Also, numerous design license packages were supplied to the US Coast Guard.

In case local shipbuilding is required, local subcontractors and suppliers receive transfer of technology, knowhow capacitating and uplifting them to be ready for integration into our supply chain. Through these programs, thousands of jobs were created and sustained, as well as the export opportunities, which were previously out of reach, the capabilities of strategic importance were developed and sustained,” the company said.

During his visit to Switzerland earlier in January, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with Chief Executive Officer and shareholder of the Dutch Damen Shipyards Group Arnout Damen in Davos.

Arnout Damen said that they have started the implementation of projects in Azerbaijan, and highlighted the work done.

President Ilham Aliyev hailed the fact that “Damen Shipyards Group” has recently started implementing projects in Azerbaijan.

The sides emphasized that there are good opportunities for the company to do a wider scope of work in Azerbaijan.

Noting that Azerbaijan has become an important transit country, the head of state pointed out that the volume of cargo passing through the territory of the country has increased by 75 percent. President Ilham Aliyev stated that, taking into account all this, there is a need to increase the number of new tankers, dry cargo ships and ferries in Azerbaijan. The head of state underlined that there is also a good potential for cooperation with “Damen Shipyards Group” in this field.

They also discussed the issues related to the possibility of manufacturing various ships for the Azerbaijan Naval Forces.

Source: TREND News Agency