Recent outbreaks of the coronavirus are once impacting the
operations at shipyards in Finland and Japan. Early in the pandemic, the
industry had experienced significant delays in its work but with new measures
and safety protocols shipbuilding has been proceeding. Last week, however,
Finnish health authorities ordered one yard into lockdown while in Japan
employees have been quarantined and operations are continuing under close
supervision.
Rauma Marine Constructions in Finland is planning to resume
limited on February 25 and 26 after Finnish health authorities ordered the yard
to suspend all work late last week due to an emerging cluster of the virus.
Mid-week health authorities had identified more than 50 cases of the virus and
as testing increased there were 52 new cases recorded on February 18 leading to
the order to stop all work at the yard. As of the last report, approximately
250 positive test results have been received with 800 of the yard’s
approximately 1,000 employees placed in quarantine. None of the employees
however had required hospitalization and many were showing no symptoms of the
virus.
Health authorities were working with the shipyard trying to
identify the source of the cluster. They cited the fact that nearly 800 of the
workers were international employees who lived in accommodations while working
at the yard. Further, cultural and language differences were being cited as
contributing to the spread of the virus.
“We will resume production in a restrained manner,”
announced Jyrki Heinimaa, CEO of Rauma Marine Constructions. “On Thursday and
Friday, only a few dozen workers who have not been at the shipyard during the
corona exposure will return to work. There will be no working at the shipyard
over the weekend so we can take the time to prepare for the following week. The
next workers returning to the shipyard will arrive next Monday, and the number
will be increased day by day. All measures aim to get production up and running
in safe working conditions.”
All of the facilities at the shipyard were reportedly
cleaned and sanitized on February 20 and 21. Also, the yard has been working
with the local authorities to further enhance safety protocols and procedures
that were initially introduced nearly a year ago.
“The plan and related instructions widely cover the entry
into and operation in the shipyard area, as well as the rules and guidelines
for example related to employees’ leisure time and living,” Heinimaa says. “We
require negative test results from those returning to work. We will also
increase random testing and, among other things, find out possibilities for
quick testing when arriving to work. Entering the shipyard area while sick is
not permitted.”
Rauma Marine Constructions currently has three projects
underway with the construction of Wasaline’s new car and passenger ferry the
Aurora Botnia, Tallink’s car and passenger ferry the MyStar, and four
multifunctional corvettes for the Finnish Defense Forces. The yard reports that
it is reviewing the schedules for these projects. The week-long work stoppage
and slow resumption may impact the delivery dates for some of the projects.
Separately, the outbreak at the Imabari Shipbuilding Co. in
Japan has so far been contained to one crew and only spread to a few employees
and contractors working at the yard. The outbreak is being linked to a crew
that arrived in Japan on January 23 after having been organized by Haque &
Sons, a Bangladeshi crew agency. All of the crew had negative test results
before departing Bangladesh and were further quarantine for two weeks in Japan.
The crew had been working aboard an unnamed vessel starting
on February 5 with new testing beginning on February 17 to prepare for a
departure to China. Nine of the 20 crew subsequently tested positive for the
virus and were quarantined. Follow-up testing on 60 individuals who had come in
contact with the crew resulted in one more positive test from the ship and two
positive tests for Japanese contractors. They were also awaiting test results of
seven additional individuals believed to all be employees and Japanese
contractors, while the majority had negative test results.
The shipyard apologized for the inconvenience and reported
it was working with the local authorities in an attempt to contain any further
spread of the virus. Other parts of the shipyard have continued to operate.