Australian shipbuilder Strategic Marine has opened its first facility in the Americas with a keel-laying ceremony at its new yard in the Mexican city of Mazatlan.

Strategic Marine entered a joint venture with Mazatlan-based Servicios Navales E Industriales (SENI) which enabled the partners to win a US$11.89 million order to build two 52m aluminium Offshore Service Vessels for Arrendadora Ocean Mexicana (Bluewater Marine).

Bluewater Marine will use the vessels to service its Pemex supply contract in the Gulf of Mexico.

The keel-laying ceremony was held with much fanfare on June 17 at Strategic Marine Mexico’s new 60m x 24m x 33m tall shed which was erected in only six months after the joint venture agreement with SENI was signed.

SENI has over 25 years of experience in the Mexican marine industry, while Strategic Marine brings to the joint venture shipbuilding expertise which has seen the company deliver more than 350 high quality vessels worldwide.

The joint venture partners, both of them family-oriented private companies, aim to target the Gulf of Mexico as a new build market while also enhancing Mexico’s shipbuilding capabilities.

The Australian company already has a global reach, operating shipyards at its Henderson headquarters in Western Australia, Tuas in Singapore and at the Dong Xuyen Industrial Zone in southern Vietnam.

The two Bluewater Marine vessels are based on Strategic’s Deep V High Speed Planing Hull design and will be operated by a ten-man crew, with a capacity to carry 60 rig crew and 100 tonnes of cargo at a cruising speed of 20kts.

The Offshore Service Vessels will be delivered in mid-2009, before which Strategic will work with SENI to upgrade its existing maintenance facility at Mazatlan.

Strategic Marine’s Chairman Mark Newbold said he believed the Bluewater Marine contract win had been heavily influenced by Strategic’s choice of powertrain, which provided great hull efficiency thereby reducing fuel consumption.

“We have established a sound working relationship with SENI which will provide the strategic cornerstone for the company’s global expansion plans into the Americas,” Mr Newbold said.

“We have been actively looking at increasing our construction capacity to underpin global growth, particularly our goal of moving into larger offshore vessels such as PSVs, AHTs and DSVs.

“The Bluewater Marine contract is an ideal and substantial platform in respect of this vision, providing us with increased construction capacity while enhancing our ability to provide customers with an increased global support capability,” Mr Newbold said.

He noted that the Mazatlan yard would provide Strategic Marine with the ability to target both the North and South American offshore and paramilitary markets.

In the past 2 years Strategic Marine has won contracts to build 130 vessels, worth more than US$250.

The company has recently increased yard capacity to enable it to start building offshore vessels ‘on spec’ to meet the burgeoning demand worldwide for these type of vessels.

Two of these vessels will be built at the Mexican yard as soon as the Bluewater Marine Offshore Service Vessels have been delivered.

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