Local company to fabricate parts for Debmarine’s AMV3 vessel

A local company, 3C Metal Belmet in Walvis Bay has been contracted to fabricate a large number of plates and structures to be installed on Debmarine Namibia’s new diamond recovery vessel, AMV3, currently being constructed at the Damen Shipyard in Mangalia, Romania.

The vessel which will be registered at the Port of Lüderitz will be the 7th and biggest vessel in Debmarine’s fleet, producing 500,000 carats per year, an increase of 35% of the company’s current production.

Various parts of the vessel are being sourced from all over the world and the company contracted the local company to help with the construction.

According to Debmarine Namibia CEO, Otto Shikongo the mission equipment is been built in the Port of Cape Town concurrently with the construction of the vessel. The mission equipment consist of the recovery tool and processing plant of which parts of the steel works are being manufactured in Walvis Bay.

Debmarine Namibia noted that local spending is a catalyst to growth and development of local enterprises as well as the creation of numerous job opportunities. To this effect, 3C Belmet Metal Namibia had 70 employees working on the project.

The Managing Director of 3C Metal Belmet Namibia Jarcu Groenewald said the project was the biggest to be awarded to 3C Metal Belmet Namibia to-date, which resulted in an expansion of their facilities and equipment in order to produce quality products.

“The project stretched our capacity as it was a big learning curve for our employees and we are grateful for the opportunity given by Debmarine Namibia. As a result we managed to keep all our staff employed through these tough economic downturn related to COVID-19,” Groenewald said.

The steel fabrication started 10 months ago and is expected be done end of October.