Filipino ship owners and operators should patronize local shipbuilders when ordering newbuilds, the head of the Philippine Register of Shipping (PRS), the country’s leading domestic ship classification society, said recently in a press statement.
“It is now time to build locally using our own resources as we continue to build our capacity for technology and experience,” PRS chairman Sammuel Lim said during a recent keel-laying ceremony for a newbuilding by Filipino shipowner Shogun Ships Company.
Shogun has ordered four 1,000-gross tonner roll-on roll-off passenger (ropax) ferries from the Navotas-based shipyard Safe Rudder Corp. A domestic tanker shipping operator, Shogun plans to deploy the ferries on short distance routes as a first attempt to venture into passenger shipping.
For delivery by 2018, the ropax can carry 632 passengers and more than 20 buses, as well as small vehicles.
Shogun Ships chairman and CEO Vic Cordero Jr said he plans to “bring the same high and strict standards of tanker operations and management to the domestic passenger-cargo shipping market.”
Lim’s call for support to Philippine shipbuilders is not only directed at merchant owners and operators but also at government ship operators such as the Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
While Filipino-owned shipyards have previously undertaken some newbuilding projects, major operators prefer to buy overseas second-hand ships such as from Japan, to the detriment of Filipino shipbuilders, Lim said.
Lim, also the president of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, commended local banks such as the Philippine Business Bank for financing projects “that will pave the way to improving our maritime safety through modern vessels and support the industrialization of the Philippines through shipbuilding.”