May 2015 Financial News

Saving Antigua’s port. ANSA Technologies completes $24m dredging project

May 14, 2015

St John’s Harbour in Antigua and Barbuda moved up ten spots from 27 to 17 among the Caribbean’s 30 ports after it was dredged at a cost of more than $24 million.

The company behind that mammoth project, ANSA Technologies Ltd (ATL), a subsidiary of the ANSA McAL Group, completed it on time without any cost overruns or accidents, winning the attention of International Monetary Fund (IMF) which plans to use it as a benchmark for other projects in the region.

ATL, the Caribbean’s oldest and largest service, supply and installation company, has 80 permanent staff members but has the capacity employ as many as 300 depending on the size of a project.

Managing director Aleem Hosein, executive director Asma Hosein and Rawle Sirjue, general manager of RS Hydrographic Services, spoke to the Business Guardian about the project during an interview at ATL’s headquarters at 40 Cipero Road, San Fernando.

Expansion of St John’s Harbour was crucial for Antigua and Barbuda where the direct contribution of travel and tourism to the economy was US$2,155.4 billion—2.9 per cent of total GDP—in 2013. However, cruise ship operators had been complaining that the harbour was too shallow and posed a risk to their vessels.

Facing the real prospect of a decline in visitor arrivals if cruise ship operators pulled out, the Antigua and Barbuda authorities awarded the dredging project to ATL. It was the first such undertaking for the T&T company.

The dredging of Antigua and Barbuda’s main tourism port of entry was made possible through a US$3.9 million loan from the China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC). The money was part of the overall US$268 million loaned to Antigua by the CCECC for the St John’s Waterfront Development project.

“For this project, we met with Antigua’s port manager in T&T in June 2014. We started to develop a relationship and started to track what opportunities there were out there,” Aleem Hosein said.

“We established a linkage also with RS Hydrographic Services Ltd who did the project management for us when we actually got the job. When the time came to put in a bid we got quotes from Boskalis International BV (a reputable international dredging firm) and we put in the bid.”

Sirjue, of RS Hydrographic Services, a company in the marine sector for more than 20 years, did the scope of works which entailed removing 450,000 cubic metres of silt using a trailer suction hopper dredge and disposing of the material at an offshore disposal site 22 kilometres away.

The project began on January 16 and work went on round the clock until completion on March 21

“We removed 471,000 cubic metres of silt. Some of it was slush, some of it was clay which was not suited for this type of vessel but we did our best in order to deliver what the client wanted,” Sirjue said, adding that there would have been serious repercussions if dredging of a port had been delayed.

Ports deal with importing and exporting cargo and vessels require a depth of at least 11 metres of water to berth, or they could run aground, or the bottom of the ship touches the silt.

“Captains do not like that at all. It goes into their bow thruster system which is costly,” Sirjue explained.

“There are a lot of legalities involved, especially in port dredging. Where ports become silted up, they no longer have a free flow of traffic because they have to wait on high tide for vessels to come in, so in essence productivity is cut down.

He said if the port silts up even further, the high tide will not alleviate the situation and there could be a need to “cut down the cargo.”

“Whereas you could have previously loaded 100 tonnes, you can only load half since the more you load the deeper the vessel goes down in the water.”

Woman at the helm

Asma Hosein joined ATL one year ago and was instrumental in introducing the company to the marine sector. She played an integral role in the dredging project from inception to completion, ensuring it was done in accordance with the scope of works and delivered on time, on schedule and within budget.

She was also on site in Antigua working closely with the manager of the Port of Antigua and Barbuda, Darwin Telemaque and William Castleton, regional manager, Caribbean and Central America, for Boskalis International.

This was a milestone project for ATL and Asma’s dedication and commitment paid off in the end.

Asma said she admires women who occupy leadership positions in maleoriented enterprises. Her advice to women in the workplace is to so the same as men.

“Do your best, realise your potential,” she said.
 

Source:
NADALEEN SINGH
nadaleen.singh@guardian.co.tt
Business Guardian, BG6 and BG7
Thursday May 14, 2015