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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW<br />
Lars Seistrup<br />
Managing Director of<br />
Albwardy Damen<br />
Following a 10 year of remarkable progress<br />
Albwardy Damen strives for growth<br />
and market excellence<br />
By Effat Mostafa<br />
The UAE has become a recognized<br />
leader in shipbuilding and repairs for<br />
vessels of different GRTs. With consistent<br />
government support in the<br />
development of local companies, the<br />
infrastructure and facilities in the<br />
UAE have raised the bar for competition<br />
in the rest of the region.<br />
<strong>Marasi</strong> News has exclusively interviewed<br />
Lars Seistrup, Managing Director<br />
of Albwardy Damen , to find<br />
out more about their latest achievements,<br />
continuous growth, and the<br />
sustainable model they have developed<br />
over the past years.<br />
Albwardy Damen, can this year<br />
celebrate its 40 years anniversary<br />
from the start in Al Jadaf back in<br />
1978 and at the same time the joint<br />
venture between Albwardy Investment<br />
and the Damen Group, will celebrate<br />
10 years of sustainable progress<br />
and success in the UAE. The<br />
38 SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2018<br />
shipbuilding and repair service provider<br />
for the Middle East Maritime<br />
Industry, operating in Dubai, Sharjah,<br />
and Fujairah is driven by striving<br />
to achieve excellence through abiding<br />
by both, technical and environmental<br />
standards.<br />
A well-renowned shipyard, Albwardy<br />
Damen consists of a workforce<br />
exceeding 1200 employees<br />
with 26 different nationalities, and<br />
possesses LRQA certifications for<br />
ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001, OH-<br />
SAS 18001 and API Q1. Albwardy<br />
Damen’s expertise includes construction<br />
of aluminum and steel<br />
vessels, tugs, workboats, support<br />
vessels, dredgers, landing crafts,<br />
floating docks, barges and liftboats.<br />
The company offers offshore and<br />
afloat repair services to worldwide<br />
clients, services of marine and Oil<br />
& Gas assets, and a diving division<br />
that involves underwater hull cleaning.<br />
Overcoming a plateaued repair<br />
market<br />
With repair cyclic market upturns<br />
and downturns have proved difficult<br />
to foresee, but Seistrup maintains<br />
an optimistic perspective stating,<br />
“2018, much like 2017, was busy in<br />
the first half but remained steady<br />
at a lower level after that. Despite<br />
this, we’ve been lucky to have good<br />
conversions projects in the first half<br />
of the year and expect this trend to<br />
repeat in 2019.” Despite the market<br />
instability, Albwardy Damen managed<br />
notable conversion projects<br />
including one project for a liftboat<br />
converted and upgraded for a European<br />
owner and two PSVs, which<br />
are currently being converted into<br />
seismic vessels.
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