For modernization projects the lead time can be as short as a few months, the President and CEO of ALMACO Group Björn Stenwall said, according to the 2022 Drydocking and Refurbishment Report by Cruise Industry News.
ALMACO – a major provider of refurbishment jobs in the cruise industry – needs to go through very detailed planning to complete a drydocking job on time.
“Everything is based on the master schedule, and we are planning in small detail what happens every day. We make sure that the goods are produced in time, that we reserve enough time for the shipment, to bring the material onboard, that there is a bit of extra time for the material within the required schedule. It’s a very tight and strict controlled schedule,” Stenwall said.
Successful planning and execution also require experienced personnel.
“There are many-many possible traps on the way. The shipment might be delayed for various reasons. There might be a disease, like COVID, slowing down everything, and we might not be able to get the people into the factory. So, there can be a lot of obstacles and we need to prepare for those, have Plan A and Plan B at the ready,” said Stenwall.
While ALMACO does a lot of refurbishment work, it also has a solid business as turnkey provider for the newbuild orderbook.
“We have been quite busy with a lot of newbuild projects in 2021,” Stenwall said in November 2021. “We were in a lucky position when COVID started; we had – and still have – a good orderbook.”
In 2021, ALMACO did work on Norwegian Cruise Line ships in Fincantieri in Italy, Royal Caribbean International and MSC Cruises’ ships at Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France.
It also worked on Saga, Carnival and Royal Caribbean vessels in Papenburg. In Finland, ALMACO worked on Costa ships at Meyer Turku as well as the Swan Hellenic newbuild at Helsinki Shipyard.
ALMACO worked with two Chinese shipyards in 2021.
“At SWS shipyard, we are involved in the construction of the new Carnival ship, and we are working on a Viking Line ferry at Xiamen shipyard,” Stenwall said.
