New projects are awaiting Shipyard Famagusta Ltd. as the North Turkish Cypriot company is planning to finish up its brand new workshop which will be capable of machining big capacity shaft, rudder, propeller equipment, used in future newbuildings.
Engineer Çağla İzkan at Famagusta Shipyard said that another project plan for the year ahead is increasing the company’s new build work, in its continuous efforts to assist its clients at all times. İzkan spoke to Robban Assafina magazine of the company’s activities during the hard times of addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, with the main current focus being the health and safety of its employees and clients while meeting their requirements and constantly being in contact with port authorities.
“As part of our plans to address this pandemic, we continue to work with a reduced number of workers, with a controlled number per area. We have also embraced other measures such as monitoring the temperature of each employee twice a day (in the morning and at the end of the day), including more fruits and vegetables to the menu at the shipyard kitchen, introducing sanitizing stations and being mindful about our employees’ mental health. As we do with all challenges we face, we will continue to improvise, adapt and overcome.”
İzkan also pointed out the Shipyard’s efforts to adopt some measures to facilitate the ships’ activities after the pandemic’s high effect to the shipping industry: “Due to our efforts, port authorities have accepted to charge a fee and give same day permits to vessels to enter the yard after all crew gets tested by port health department and all results come back negative. We are constantly in contact with port authorities and are assisting our customers.”
Speaking of coping with industry changes such as new class legislatıons of sulphur cap and ballast water systems, İzkan said: “Our first step towards these kind of changes are education. We always try to employ people keen to improve themselves hence when faced with a new rules, they are interested to learn more about it either through articles, seminars or courses. We always have people following up on the sector and regulatory bodies, trying our best to stay up to date with regulations. For instance, we have recently manufactured and installed the first ballast water management system. It was a new system for our entire team but we have researched, asked questions to suppliers, spoke to designers and eventually delivered the project successfully to our client.”