In order to enhance efficiency and transparency for shipowners looking for a repair yard, two Chinese experts have set up a new online platform. »GoShipyard« is based on the information from a panel constisting of yards, brokers, financiers and managers and shall serve as a valuation system, too. A brief portrait
As the tough shipping market situation prevails, ship owners are forced to become more cost control oriented in order to[ds_preview] stay in business. The day-to-day ship repair and maintenance remains to be the ultimately important part that requires stringent control of cost. The new website aims to assist in this task. It is an open platform for all ship owners across the globe to access.
»Just like any other mainstream websites such as Alibaba and Amazon that bring the businesses and buyers to the same platform, we believe a website like Goshipyard.com is able to play the same role and further bring the benefit to not only the ship owners and the repair yards, but also to other parties that are involved in the ship repair business. Our aim is to integrate all resource and information that are related to ship repair and maintenance in order to improve the working efficiency. Even the ship repair agents are welcome to use our website platform in order to provide more value added service to their clients«, Rachel Tang and Edward Zhou explain.
With the gathering of as much of resource as possible it is planned to assist ship owners in making selection of the most suitable shipyard in China. The goal is to integrate the relevant industries, including but not limited to class societies, spare parts suppliers and port agencies. As far as repair yards are concerned, apart from the normal ship repair business, the website could help promote the signature products of the shipyards to a wider range of potential clients. The payment terms are relatively simple and transparent. The user pays a lumpsum membership fee on yearly basis for the log-in, whereas GoShipyard does not charge any commission from the shipyard or shipowner for the repair order place. According to the founders there is no charging for the service provided by the system prior to end 2016. From the beginning of year 2017, the annual charge will be 1,000$.
Updates to be developed
On average, there are about 6,000 units going through SS/DD in Chinese repair yards annually. Considering the other conversion projects, the prospect of work load and revenue could be promising. The 1.0 version of GoShipyard is already finalized with the first three units going through. Tang and Zhou are currently working on the upgrade to the 2.0 version, which is scheduled to come on stream soon, when new features will be developed. »With the aim of integrating all related resources, the 3.0 version is already in the pipeline to continuously accommodate the needs of clients«, they say.
Up to now, the platform provides the full details of 31 qualified shipyards within China region from North to South along the coast, which can be accessed by ship owners or repair agents via all different searching parameters. It is equipped with a daily repair report system, enabling the technician on site to timely input the accurate repair progress on daily basis, which allows the ship owner to grasp the first hand information and to make decision in a timely manner. It is called SaaS (Software as a Service).
Although China is one of the most important repair markets, Tang and Zhou plan to expand their product to other countries as well: »After we establish the solid position of our website among the foreign shipowners and Chinese repair yards, we will approach the major repair yards abroad in order to be capable of offering more options to our clients.«
»Valuation system«
Besides being a platform for an overview of available services, GoShipyard shall be established as a valuation system as well – in both directions. The »qualified yards« are said to be »financially solid and well recognized by foreign ship owners through past repair performance«. The valuation system is put together on the basis of both personal performance of the yard project manager and the general performance of the shipyard in terms of level of cooperation, capability of solving urgent matters, etc.
»In addition to above, we are working jointly with the classification society Lloyd’s Register to come up with a certified third party evaluation system to rate the performance of the Chinese repair yards. As such our valuation system is put together on the basis of comments from various different parties and therefore is capable of giving fair and unbiased reference«, the two founders say.
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