ARES Shipyard Offers Tailor Made Manufacturing
ARES Shipyard was established in Antalya Free Trade Zone in 2006. Our shipyard that used to manufacture service boats in the past, has become an expert in the patrol boats. Within this framework, the ARES 44 CPB fast assault and patrol boat was successfully manufactured according to these purposes and delivered to various Port Authorities, Maritime Police, Anti-Smuggling Department in Turkey and to Coast Guard Command of Georgia, Border Patrol of Turkmenistan and a private gas company in Tanzania. Concerning the domestic defence industry and within the scope of the tender made by the European Union Central Finance and Contracts Unit in 2012, our shipyard built and delivered ten ARES 42 Hector type 13m aluminum coast guard boats to Turkish Coast Guard Command in December 2013. During this period, our shipyard made two more important contracts and manufactured and delivered six ARES 58FPB 18m composite fast patrol boats to Coast Guard Command of the Kingdom of Bahrain while building 2 aluminum 30m patrol boats in order to be delivered to the Nigerian Customs Enforcement Directorate within the scope of these contracts. Our shipyard built the same coast guard boats delivered to our Coast Guard Command for the Coast Guard Command of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and accomplished the delivery within such a short period of six months. KKTC Coast Guard Boats were delivered as of April 2015. As a result of active marketing and business development efforts conducted in the Middle East and Gulf Countries, our shipyard won the tender for 17 patrol boats required by the Qatari Coast Guard Command in April 2014. This task we assumed, as a result of a challenging period of more than five years in which giant producers in international scale competed, is considered as the order with the greatest volume in the world in advanced technology composite patrol boat category. As far as we know, this is the greatest military maritime export connection of our country through a single contract. These five 24m, ten 34 m and two 47m long boats will be manufactured with cutting edge technology and with the vacuum infusion method and will be unique when their hardware and capabilities are considered. We launched the production of the 24m and 34m boats, the comprehensive model tests of which were completed. Delivery of minimum three boats is planned by the end of 2016. Our shipyard, collaborating with the leading design and supplier brands of the world, won the new type 2 SAT Boats tender initiated by our Undersecretariat for Defence Industries in 2014 in order to be delivered to our Naval Forces Command with the help of the design and advanced technology solutions it developed. The negotiations on the scope of the contract are ongoing.
Our Capacities, Capabilities and Investments
Presently, with our two shipyards, we reached an indoor area of 13.000 square meters at the Antalya Free Trade Zone, yet we will become a shipyard with an indoor area of 25.000m2 through our additional investments in the medium term. Where our number of employers was 91 in March, we envisage that this number will increase over 250 within two years considering our current projects.
We are capable of manufacturing aluminum, steel and composite vessels in our shipyard. In the sense of specialization in production with all three materials, ARES Shipyard bears an important advantage in competition.
As a result of its customer oriented approach, ARES Shipyard believes and implements the principle of “tailor made” production that is the production executed particularly for the customer. In this regard, with the experiences gained in the production of various platforms for different purposes such as the speed boats, luxury motor yachts, catamaran passenger ferries, starting from the design process ARES Shipyard perceives the requests of the customers and provides the most convenient solutions to these requests.
With the existing projects we are involved in, a horizontal revision has been made in the organization of our shipyard that is going through a rapid growth and change. Our departments of Quality Management, Post-Sales Service, Integrated Logistical Support and Training have been reinforced with our new employees. Since 2014, within the scope of our deliveries, a total of 58 personnel from the Coast Guard of Bahrain, 12 personnel of Nigerian Customs Enforcement Directorate and 12 personnel from KKTC Security Forces Command received user and maintenance and repair trainings. Last but not least, 275 personnel will be trained within the scope of the Qatari Coast Guard Boats project.
We aim to further expand our range of products with the new models existing in our 2015 catalogue. In this context, our design team developed the fast interception boat “interceptor” and new open sea patrol boat designs with the support of our strategic design partners Rolls-Royce and BMT Nigel Gee design offices. As ARES Shipyard, with our experiences lingering from the past, we are still developing projects on “service boats” - the service boats composed of ferries, personnel and support boats, port control boats and ambulance boat projects.
Our expectations and objectives regarding our sector and the future:
As a result of the wars, terror and relatedly increasing smuggling traffic, piracy and similar incidents in the Middle East, the regional countries are in a modernization and restoration trend in respect of their defence industry expenses. Our shipyard is considered as a “national supplier” by our Undersecretariat for Defence Industries. We are closely following all the tenders for domestic procurements. Currently we are preparing for the “Turkish Type Assault Boat” project that is to be initiated by our Undersecretariat for Defence Industries in order to be delivered to our Naval Forces Command. We strongly believe that the design we developed with Rolls-Royce, recognized as one of the best engineering companies of the world, will be creating a great difference between our competitors. Our greatest desire is to be able to see this ambitious assault boat navigating in our seas in the new century of our Republic.
Regarding the foreign markets, in order to increase our efficiency and market share in the Middle East and Gulf countries, we participate in all fairs and events held in this vulnerable area. We are involved in an intensive working program for establishing post-sales service, maintenance and repair base because of the deliveries we made in the past in this region and our future deliveries within the upcoming 5 year- period. In this context, we have an engineering office conducting the maintenance/repair activities of our 8 catamarans that are currently being operated by our customer in Qatar. We aim to grow our existence in the African market as well.
As ARES Shipyard, we are proud to represent our country in foreign markets in the best possible way. We fully believe that our domestic defence industry that is growing with rapid and firm steps will be reaching to better levels in the world with the support of R&D studies. In order to take part in this development process, we are always ready to accomplish our portion as Ares Shipyard.
