Parties enhance existing relationship and will provide quality and sustainable engineering, newbuild supervision and vessel design to the important Saudi market

International Maritime Industries (IMI), the largest shipyard in the MENA region, and Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM) have expanded their partnership by signing a Memorandum of Agreement that will boost Saudi Arabia’s capabilities in shipbuilding, ship repair and engineering excellence.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) comes only six months after both companies agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding to explore opportunities in various areas within the maritime sector.

IMI will work closely with CSM, a world-leading provider of ship management and maritime services, to support its vision of becoming a fully integrated global maritime facility. CSM’s maritime service portfolio, engineering expertise and worldwide network of clients and partners will help support IMI’s ongoing development.

The partnership will be further enhanced by CSM acting as an official consultant for IMI in the areas of ‘sensorisation technology’ for vessel performance optimisation, engineering solutions, vessel design, and newbuild planning and supervision. Moreover, CSM will actively promote IMI’s modern set-up and technical capabilities to both existing clients of CSM as well as any market potentials the CSM Group gets aware of through its extensive global network

Dr. Abdullah Al Ahmari, CEO of IMI, said: “We are pleased to have signed this agreement with CSM, a company that is committed to supporting our efforts of building a world-class, technologically advanced shipyard that will drive the development of the maritime industry in Saudi Arabia. The partnership enables us to leverage CSM’s unique capabilities and expertise, therefore enhancing our offering to both partners and customers. We look forward to collaborating further with CSM and achieving more important milestones in the near future.”

Mark O’Neil, CEO of CSM, said: “We are delighted to be able to underline our commitment to the important Middle East and Saudi markets by further developing our excellent relationship with IMI through this new MOA. IMI is a Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shipyard providing the most advanced and sustainable newbuilding, maintenance, repair and overhaul services for commercial vessels including VLCCs, Chemical Tankers, Bulk Carriers, Offshore Support Vessels and Offshore Jackup rigs. Together with IMI, we have a mutual interest in strengthening our collaboration in order to meet the ambitious targets set out by IMI in the MENA region.

“CSM remains fully committed to the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, where our recently created ship management office offers the full Columbia Group service catalogue,” he added.