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Shipbuilding Prospectl Looking Up by Alan Thorpe, international editor One of the most talked about subjects ir Scandinavia is the possible return to com-1 mercial shipbuilding by some of the yards! which were part of Sweden's withdrawal] from this industry during the 1980s. The giant | Kockum facility, with its large building dock at Malmo, is still in place and talks are underway to reopen the yard for possible re-entry into the cruise vessel market. Meanwhile, Kockums, which retains its inter- est in shipbuilding by the design and construction of submarines for the Swedish and foreign navies, has entered joint venture talks with Denmark's Burmeister & Wain for the possibility of supplying steel fabrication sections for the proposed Sound Bridge project between Sweden and Denmark. Kockums is also combining with the Danish ship- yard for the RoRo 2000 project for ferry newbuildings in the Baltic trade. This is of par- ticular interest at present, following the recent Estonia disaster and the proposed rule alterations by many of the Scandinavian countries, which may lead to many newbuildings required as re- placement for older tonnage. Another Kockums venture back into commer- cial shipbuilding is the acquisition of a 25 percent stake in Norway's Mjellem & Karlsen (M&K), of Bergen, in a share offer worth half of the 11.3 million shares offered on the open market. The remaining half were bought by the Norwegian Industrial & Regional Development Fund. Uddevallavarvet is another former shipyard looking at the possibility of returning to the ship- building industry. Prior to its closure during the 1980s, this yard concentrated on the medium- sized tanker market. Bruce Shipyard, in Landskrona, has been building sections for two ferry conversions at Norway's Horder Dok & Ser- vice, in Oslofjord. Swedish ship repair and conversion shipyard, Oresundsvarvet AB, Landskrona, recently won a $28 million contract to lengthen two freight-only RoRo ferries. The 7,984-dwt vessels — Nor king and Norqueen — built in 1980, are owned by Finland's Oy Rettig AB (Bore Line), of Turku, and are on long-term charters with North Sea Ferries for its Zeebrugge/Teesport service. The two vessels will enter the yard next winter, the first in November with delivery scheduled before Christmas. The second ship follows imme- diately, and is scheduled to be returned in Febru- ary 1996. The conversion will include the inser- tion of a 94.5-ft. (28.8-m) pre-fabricated mid-body section in each vessel, increasing the overall length of the vessel to 590.5 ft. (180 m). The lengthening will increase the vessels to 11,400 dwt, giving each a 30 percent increase in cargo carrying capacity. New fixed ramps will replace an existing elevator system between cargo holds and the main deck. Each vessel's bow will be modified to a more streamlined bulb, which will increase the service speed by 1.5 knots. For more efficient maneuver- ability in port areas, an additional bowthruster will be installed and the stern propellers will be fitted with high-efficiency blades. To increase each vessel's engine capacity by an additional 2,200 hp, the main engines and gears in KaMeWa waterjets are featured on the new Stena high-speed ferries, under construction at Finnyards. At press time KaMeWa announced it had bought Aquamaster Rauma, previously a Finnyards company. Maritime Reporter^
