Cork based Marine Services company Irish Mainport Holdings  Ltd has announced the signing of a shipbuilding contract with Shin Yang Shipyards in Malaysia to build 3 new vessels to service the Offshore Seismic acquisition industry.

The vessels will be delivered in mid-2013 for deployment worldwide with a number of client’s seismic ships.

Mainport currently has 4 other seismic support vessels working worldwide for Seismic acquisition companies, in Angola, Brazil and North Sea. The build cost of the 3 vessels is expected to be US $ 36 million.

David Ronayne Chief Executive of Mainport said that the confidence shown in Mainport by our clients over the last few years together with their on-going commitment to the seismic support business gave us the confidence to design, source a dockyard and finance these 3 new ships.

Capt Dave Hopkins Marine Director of Mainport said he has worked on this project for the last 2 years with Mainport’ s clients  in the design of the vessels, which will incorporate many features not present in the existing seismic support vessels. They will be much safer to operate, give greater protection to the client’s high value cargo and are more environmentally friendly with lower harmful gas emission engines.

Commenting on news of the investment , IMDO Director , Glenn Murphy said “ Mainport are continuing to emerge as one of Europes leading companies in this sector. The news is a also a welcome boost for employment and investment in the Irish shipping services sector,”

Irish Mainport Holdings is a Marine services and ship owning company headquartered in Cork, Ireland, with offices in South Africa and Angola and owning and operating ships on a worldwide basis.

The company employ 60 people from their Irish office and 90 others worldwide. The new investment continues to underpin the companies’ commitment to its Irish operation and will also provide a further estimated 35 employment opportunities both at sea and at shore for Irish & other marine  personnel. The company provides ship agency & stevedoring, towage and salvage; offshore oil & gas support vls and seismic support & chase vls on a worldwide basis.

Further Information available from dhopkins@mainport.ie  Or info@mainport.ie

View the web at www.mainport.ie

Source: Mainport Holdings, January 2012