A look at the history, current status and future endeavors of the shipyard.
The history of the Elefsis Shipyards goes back in the days of 1962 when its construction began. The shipyard finally began commercial operations and servicing ships 7 years later in October 1969 under the helm of perhaps the most powerful business personality in Greece at the time, Stratis Andreadis. In the half of a century that followed, up to present days Elefsis Shipyard has had a tormented history. In 1975 the Shipyard is nationalized and finds itself in decline for decades. In the early 1990s it gets privatized again and changes several hands in ownership but does not manage to escape several millions of accumulated debt in the following years, eventually shutting down commercial operations/services in the recent economic crisis of Greece.
A new era for the Elefsis Shipyards has finally begun in 2022 under the privatization and investment policies of the current government. ONEX a company of Greek-American interests, which has recently acquired Syros Shipyard and which has the support of the International Development Finance Corporation of the American government (DFC) together with the renowned Italian group Fincantieri. The two organizations have joined forces to take over the Shipyard and gradually revive all operations by also upgrading facilities/infrastructure, investing on optimism for the shipyard future.
The commercial part of the shipyard is already considered secured by Onex’s excess customer potential, which can no longer be served by the Syros shipyards. It is realistically expected to soon be able to increase repair capacity to about 150 vessels per annum, while the long-term goal is to build 2-3 navy war ships per year, as well as undertake maintenance/ repair contracts for the Hellenic Navy and the US 6th Fleet
Elefsis Shipyard is located in the bay of Elefsina, less than half hour drive from the port of Piraeus and currently occupies an area of 250,000 sq.m. Its facilities include three floating docks, the largest having a berth of 252 m length and 45 m width where ships of 120,000 DWT can be repaired or built. The floating docks are also outfitted with cranes ranging 5-20 tons capacity and are presently in the process of re-activation. Elefsis Shipyards anticipate that the Shipyard’s PANAMAX floating dock will be able to accommodate vessels from June 2023 and the following two floating docks will be able by the end of Summer 2023
Evdemon & Partners Piraeus office surveyors were proud to participate in the inaugural ceremony by the Ministry on 25th November 2022 and subsequently attend on board the very first vessel that entered the yard upon re-activation on behalf of H&M Underwriters, for carrying out repairs which lasted 4 months. The vessel recently shifted to the affiliate Syros Shipyard for dry-docking and completion of repairs.
Following the success of the first vessel, a number of vessels of various types also proceeded to Elefsis Shipyards for maintenance or repairs. In this respect, we attended on board an oil/chemical tanker which and was successfully repaired as well as recently on a bulk carrier for both H&M and P&I inspections.
