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UAE shipbuilding industry anchoring service for Gulf region

Dubai - Supply chain management activity needs to advance rapidly to keep pace with development and growth of shipbuilding and retrofitting

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The UAE’s shipbuilding industry is doing a great job in supporting the maritime industry across the Gulf region as a large number of the local population is being trained in maritime technology and getting exposure to the nautical culture to understand the sector's complexity, an industry veteran says.

“The UAE leadership has been very visionary in developing the shipbuilding industry. Shipyards like Dubai Drydocks, Abu Dhabi Ship Building and Al Bawardy – Damen Shipyards are supporting the maritime industry not only in the UAE but to other Gulf countries also,” said Capt (retd) Mohammad Ahsan ur Rahim PN, author of the book Supply Chain Management, Policy, Procedure And Processes For Shipyards.

He noted that a a large number of the local population is getting exposure to the nautical culture, which is required to understand the complexity of the shipbuilding world.

“Supply chain management is also developing, but the major design of vessels is still typically based on ships designed and developed in the shipyard industry in Europe, the United States and Australia,” he added.

Ahsan ur Rahim said the industry's supply chain management is extremely complex as each type and series of ship being constructed, repaired or refurbished has its own specific requirement.

“It is very difficult to find reference books that would guide a young procurement engineer through different aspects of supply chain management; policy, procedures and processes that are relevant to the shipyard activity associated with new build, refit and retrofitting of both commercial and military vessels."

“Therefore, it is a good guideline to not only those within the shipbuilding activity, but all those supply chain management professionals in any industry like oil and gas, transport or any activity associated with major projects,” said the author, who worked with the Pakistan Navy as director of naval weapons and equipment and later joined Abu Dhabi Ship Building.

He added that the development of supply chain management activity in the UAE needs to advance rapidly to keep pace with the development and growth of the shipbuilding and retrofitting activity.

“One of the most challenging issues is the non-availability of the required spare parts and consumables required for periodic and corrective maintenance of the platform and combat system equipment on board. Hence, sometimes vessels are lying at moorings, anchored or standing alongside awaiting specific spares from abroad. This becomes challenging because there are a wide variety of equipment installed on these vessels which were sourced from suppliers in many other countries,” he added.

— waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com