Gemak is lengthening ro ro ships for U.N. Ro-Ro
Gemak is lengthening ro ro ships for U.N. Ro-Ro
It has been several years that U.N. RO-RO İŞLETMELERİ A.Ş. operating one of the most modern and effici
ent fleets of RoRo vessels started contemplating about increasing capacity and efficiency as well as decreasing environmental footprint of their fleet by lengthening their vessels. Decision has been made and Gemak Group has been chosen as business partner for this demanding project at the tender that was attended by major European shipyards.
Ships from the same series will be lengthened by 30 m. building of new midbody block having 1.130 tons has already been started. For block building, Gemak will use several of its facilities to ensure fast and high quality fabrication. Finally, it will be assembled in Gemak TGE Shipyard and launched from the slipway already outfitted to minimise down time of vessels during cutting and lengthening operations. The first ship is expected in Gemak TGE Shipyard at the end of the year. Besides lengthening, Gemak will reinforce existing hulls of the vessels due to increased longitudinal and slamming forces. Also modification of HFO tanks related to MARPOL requirements will be performed in the fore part of the vessels.
Besides proximity to U.N. Ro-Ro terminal that ships to be converted call regularly, most important reasons to make decision in favour of Gemak were its technical capabilities and graving dock capacity in Gemak TGE Shipyard that will be used to perform cutting and lengthening operations. Once the ship is dry docked all movements will be performed in dry condition.
“We will use our own SPMT’s to move lengthening section in the dry dock.” says Birol Uner, Gemak’s CEO. “More challenging task is moving of the forward part of the vessel after cutting, weight of which will exceed 4.000 tons. Nowadays, our R&D team is developing skidding system that will be used to move forward part of the ships for about 30 m. We will also use special positioners that were developed in-house for 3rd Bosporus Bridge project that we have completed recently. This piece of hydraulic PLC controlled equipment enables us to position heavy weights, such as lengthening section of for U.N. Ro-Ro vessels with precision of less than 1 mm. This will make our job much faster, easier and will also ensure good alignment and high quality performance. Projects like these make us develop our technical capabilities and increase our competitiveness. It complies with our commitment to permanently develop our facilities. With these two projects we hope for more similar work from other ship owners. We will be able to offer very competitive price and short shipyard stay. “
Recently, starting from end of 2013, Gemak has embarked on capacity expansion programme focused mainly on heavy steel structures fabrication, handling of heavy loads and efficient and environment friendly blasting and painting of newly fabricated steel structures in closed and controlled environment. Most of the investment was put in place in Gemak’s new shipyard in Altinova (Yalova) region related to the project of steel decks’ fabrication for 3rd Bosphorus Bridge which are abt. 48000 tons in total. These improvements have continued and Gemak is nowadays investing in improving its piping and steel fabrication facilities aiming both shipbuilding and industrial projects.
Apart from being leader in ship repair activities in Mediterranean for many years, new capacities give Gemak Group opportunity to be very competitive in major conversions and steel fabrication projects.