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中集来福士总裁于亚：客户重拾信心，我们的运气正在转好
Chinese offshore fabricator CIMC Raffles is pursuing a new strategy to focus more on semi- submersible drilling units built for operations in Europe’s North Sea.
XU YIHE Yantai, China 04 November 2011 01:17 GMT
Despite the new business orientation the yard, in Yantai city in Shandong province, will also spread its wings to reach the offshore engineering market in the Caspian and Arctic regions by establishing a presence in Russia.
The latest vote of confidence is derived from compliments handed out by key client COSL Drilling Europe. It owns three GM4000-design deep-water semi-subs ordered from CIMC Raffles, following the completion of Statoil’s first well using the first rig, COSL Pioneer, at the Sleipner field in the North Sea last week. “The first rig has performed according to all the specs and met our expectations,” says COSL Drilling Europe president Jorgen Arnesen. Statoil said the COSL Pioneer has performed above expectations on the first well, Dr No.
The first rig spudded Dr No in August this year after a six-month upgrade by Statoil upon its arrival in Norway this April.
“We are now getting a clearer picture of what we are capable of in terms of meeting the client’s quality requirement, budget and deadlines,” says CIMC Raffles president Yu Ya.
Optimism also arises as fresh enquiries from rig owners or companies specialising North Sea operations have kicked in for CIMC Raffles.
Some talks about building semi subs are in advanced stages and the yard is expected to conclude several deals over the next six months, according to Yu.
Of the six semisub drilling rigs his yard has built, three are for operations in the North Sea.
With five delivered, the yard is now completing fabrication of the remaining rig, thelast of the three semisubs for COSL Drilling Europe. It also has an order for two semi-submersible crane vessels (SSCVs), the first of which will be mated next month, ready for delivery in June next year.
The vessel — with a DP 3 system and two 1800-tonne cranes — is designed for operations in all relevant regions except the northern part of the North Sea.
Capacity stretched The high-spec track record comes with a huge price. Yu admits that too many orders received in 2008, coupled with the yard’s expansion plan to build a flagship 20,000-tonne gantry crane and an 18-metre deep-water wharf, stretched the capacity of the yard to breaking point.
Indeed, Yu says no Chinese yard has taken so many orders at the same time — eight semisubs and three jack-ups.
“We are like adolescents — full of vigour and ambition,” Yu says, adding that the yard cannot finish all the projects at once. The delays are costly, eating into the yard’s margins. Last year, the company logged a pre-tax loss of $173 million, against a profit of $31 million in 2009, forcing it to launch a major downsizing exercise this year.
In addition to a 14% pay cut for senior management, the yard retrenched 800 employees in August, cutting the total staff to 3500. Yu says the losses are tapering off now as it is catching up and aims to meet the new delivery schedule set for March with COSL Drilling Europe.
CIMC Raffles’ fortunes are rising, as it will soon deliver three new jack-ups to two clients — Reignwood Group via its offshore outfit Opus Offshore and an unnamed Chinese enegy conglomerate.
The three Super M2 jack-up rigs, each costing between $150 million and $160 million, will be ready for delivery later this year.Meanwhile, CIMC, which is China’s top container fabricator, increased its share in the yard to 65.55% last month, up from 10% when it first acquired shares in the yard in January 2009.
Speculative construction Yu says the yard is going to further tap the jack-up market by building more units on a speculative basis. These could be sold or leased via CIMC Leasing, another CIMC operating unit.
The yard will kick off the construction of two Super M2 jack-up units with operating water depths of 300 feet later this month and two more similar units will start fabrication later this year.
The rationale behind the latest building is in anticipation of potential increases in rig demand in the US Gulf, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, according to Yu.
Published: 04 November 2011 01:17 GMT | Last updated: 04 November 2011 01:17 GMT |
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发表于 2011-10-31 20:11
