Official opening ceremony of Ergli Shipyard will be held on Friday, June 2nd by the participation of Mr. Tayyip Erdo?an, Prime Minister of Turkey.

Minister of Transportation Mr. Binali Y?ld?r?m and many officials and guests will participate to this event which will take place at 1330 hrs in  Güllük Çengelburnu position at Eregli, a a town in the western coast of Black-Sea.

Eregli shipyard is completed in about approximately 18 months from scratch. Taking into account that the shipyard area had to be reclaimed from the sea, the size of the challenge becomes more obvious.

The shipyard facilities consist of 17.000 sqm of covered high ceiling workshop areas with overhead cranes, 3200 sqm of Office, dining, social facilities and en-suite rooms in three fully climatised high tech buildings. The 2 slipways of 220m L x 38m W being the biggest ever built so far in Turkey is capable of accomodating handymax or even panamax size new buildings that are impossible in Tuzla shipyard zone.

The total area of the shipyard is 160.000 sqm , one of the biggest in Turkey yet the biggest in terms of slipway capacity. The steel processing capacity is 25.000 tonnes per year. The shipyard is self sufficient in many ways from having its shopblasting and priming facilities to all the way to finishing processes.

It is envisaged that with full capacity shipyard will employ 1200 people excluding subcontractors for outfitting and similar Works.

The aim of the shipyard is to build turnkey vessels like chemical tankers, containerships, multi-purpose vessels, product tankers, lpg tankers, supply vessels, tugboats and alike.

Right now, there are 5 chemical tankers under construction. Three of them are 7,000dwt and 2 of them are 11,240dwt. Apart from those, there are 6 tugboats under construction , 3 of them are 22.5m /40tbp and 24m/40 tbp. their delivery is due june 2006.Three tugboats of 32m/55-60tbp were recently delivered to KOTUG. By the end of May ,2006 ; a 6 unit Project of 32m/70tbp will be started. These tugs are Robert Allen design ASD tugs.These projects are all on Med group�??s own account.

Eregli Shipyard is owned by Med Group which has vast experience in shipbuilding.

Med Marine was established in 1996. Since then growing steadily and now successfully operating all over the world in the field of towage, pilotage, salvage/ wreck removal, ship escort, chartering and ship-building areas with its over 300 experienced marine staff.

Med Marine is operating a fleet of tugs ranging from BHP 1920 to BHP 5500 all built at Turkish Shipyards by Med Marine, except M/Tug "Ocean Ergun".

Ten of the tugs are harbour tugs having approximately 30 tons bollard pull capacity, all being engaged in in-port towing operations at Izmit and Iskenderun Bays.

Med Marine is offering services to its clients on time-charter, long-term bareboat charter and voyage charter basis.

Building tug boats, mooring boats, aluminium pilot boats and tankers Med Marine is serving its clients in new building harbour and ocean going sea craft.

Med Marine is a member of European Tugowners Association since 1997 and a member of BIMCO since 2000.

In addition, Med Marine was awarded ISO 9001 certification in January 2004 by BVQI and received ISM certification from Bureau Veritas in July, 2002. The company�??s philosophy and target is to provide excellent and comprehensive service 365 days in a year and 24 hours in a day to all of its clients.

By using its own finance Med Marine purchased two shipyards at Eregli/Black Sea area in 2004 and started to build a shipyard in the same area with a much bigger capacity to be completed in two years of time.

(Exclusive for turkishmaritimenews.com)