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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—Fifteen years after it was towed out of
Subic Bay during the withdrawal of the US Navy, the
Auxiliary Floating Drydock Medium 5 (AFDM-5) is now
happily bringing back the glory days of Subic’s
ship-repair industry.
Long
regarded as a familiar fixture at
Subic’s Ship Repair Facility until 1992, the AFDM-5 is now back to
its old home at Bravo Pier here—a bulky, seemingly
ungainly hulk of machinery that, despite the passage of
years, is helping
Subic
gain new fame as a center for maritime commerce.
The
AFDM-5 is essentially a marine garage where vessels can
be brought in for repairs or maintenance.
But this
special garage—which can be submerged under a marine
vessel, then raised to lift the vessel out of the
water—is now again the shining star at Bravo Pier, where
the newly formed Subic Drydock Corp. (Subicdock) has
established, in the last six months, a thriving
ship-repair operation.
Subicdock general manager Gerald “Gerry” James Hammond,
a former US Navy officer, said that since the AFDM-5 was
brought back to Subic in June, it has already serviced
18 vessels—an average of three ship-repair projects each
month.
“We have
already serviced many ships, including our own tugboats
and barges,” said Hammond, who got his first assignment
in the US Navy as dock personnel in 1976 and served
onboard for 13 years.
“Right
now we got the superferry Westpac Express out from
Guam,” Hammond said proudly, referring to the high-speed
vessel used by the US Marines’ Military Sealift Command
(MSC). “We got a lot of float repairs, but this is
really the first US float we got since we opened up.”
With the
AFDM-5’s capacity to take in ships weighing up to 18,000
tons and spanning up to 150 meters, Subicdock’s
P275-million ship-repair venture here is turning out to
be a highly viable investment, said Subicdock president
Catalino Bondoc.
“It took
us a lot of money to bring the dry dock in here, but we
are happy because it is now clear in our mind what we
are planning to do with this facility,” he added.
It was
Bondoc, who, as chief executive officer of Malayan
Towage and Salvage Corp., brought the AFDM-5 back to
Subic in June after proposing the ship-repair facility project to
the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
Brought
to Guam in 1992 when the US Navy departed from Subic,
the AFDM-5 first served in the repair of small- and
medium-sized vessels of the US Marine’s MSC, as well as
commercial ships.
Thereafter, it was sold to Cabras Marine Corp., a
private ship-repair company based in Guam and
Micronesia.
In 1999
Cabras awarded the AFDM-5 to its subsidiary Malayan
Towage, the largest towage and salvage company in the
Philippines, reportedly for P165 million. Malayan,
thereafter, towed the floating dry dock to Manila and
put in place additional equipment, including a
100-ton-capacity floating crane.
In June
2007, to the delight of some 50 former Subic dry-dock
workers, AFDM-5 arrived at Bravo Pier to regain its
title as the centerpiece of Subic’s ship-repair
industry.
Since
then, the AFDM-5 had shown “exceptional performance” in
the hands of its veteran crew, said James Edge, director
of the Asian Navigation Ltd., a customer of Subicdock.
“The
shipyard has been working the whole hours to ensure that
the deadlines are met, and the jobs are delivered on
time. So, instead of going somewhere else, vessels now
go to
Subic for
repairs,” said Edge, who also said that Subicdock’s
newfound reputation for reliability is spreading in the
maritime industry.
The good
news about Subicdock must have also reached businessmen
who knew a winner when they see one. According to Bondoc,
some Japanese and Indonesian businessmen have lately
offered $7 million for the AFDM-5, but he turned down
the proposals.
“We know
that ship repair is a viable operation here in Subic,
and there are lots of services we can do for the
shipping industry in this area. There is a lot more that
we can do here in Subic than what we can do with the $7
million,” Bondoc said.
Because
of the AFDM-5, Bondoc said that Subicdock is now able to
compete with ship-repair facilities in the
United States—like
Guam, for example, which has an AFDB, or Auxiliary
Floating Drydock Big.
Bondoc
said Subicdock’s competitiveness stems from Subic’s
free- port status, which allows the firm to bring in
machinery and materials tax-free, as well as Subic’s
pool of skilled manpower that is relatively cheaper than
those in other countries.
“We are
really in for a long term here in
Subic because of this edge, which is very cost-effective for us
and our customers,” he added.
Bondoc
also said that while Subicdock is gearing to provide
ship-repair services, it is also considering a long-term
plan for boat assembly in partnership with European
watercraft designers and builders.
“We
could have a technical tie-up wherein they could bring
parts for, say, tugboats and we will assemble them. Our
prospective partners could also use Subic as a base to
sell or export our products,” he said. |
