(Part of this post is News Articles direct from Xinhua and Myanmar
Shipyards.)
I’d just
graduated from RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology) as a brand spanking new
mechanical engineer and like most of my graduating classmates I tried to become
a marine-engineer hoping that eventually I would end up on a sea-going ship outside
Burma.
At that
time in Burma under Evil Ne Win’s despotic Socialist-military rule the dollar was
the king and anyone who could earn USD was top of the society that had been at dogs
for nearly 20 years on the Socialist road to ruin.
So like
everybody else I was dreaming of becoming a marine-engineer and earning USD. To
fulfil that dream I needed a marine-engineering ticket called MOT
Second Class Part-A issued by the Maritime Administration Department under
the Ministry of Transportation.
To get
that marine-engineer ticket as a RIT-graduate mechanical engineer I needed to have a six-month
dock-service from one of the government dockyards in Rangoon and I ended up
doing my volunteer service at the Dala Dockyards.
Dala Dockyards in Rangoon. |
(By then I was already working two jobs, one as a workcharge-engineer at Irrigation and another one as a temporary-tutor at RIT.)
But I was
amazed there that they were building all sorts of boats there with whatever
meagre facilities they had. The dockyards then had no advanced MIG or TIG
welders but only old stick or arc welders. Forget about robotic welders back
then.
They had
no profile cutters for thick steel plates but only the basic oxy-acetylene
cutting sets. But they were still building sea-going ships there. And I was
amazed even though I knew very well that Burmese are good boat-builders since
thousands of years ago. Especially in the Irrawaddy Delta where I grew up
almost every village has a skilled boat builder who could build a river-worthy
sampan out of a few Kanazo planks in few weeks.
Burmese sampans in Rangoon River. |
Of the
six vessels, two were exported to Indonesia which are a 38-meter-long sea
pollution control vessel and a 29-meter-long pusher tug, while the other four
were built for Singapore which are transporters having 50 meters, 55.5 meters,
56 meters and 63 meters in length respectively.
Official
statistics also show that since 1988, Myanmar has built over 30 vessels for
cargo and passenger services and imported over 100 passenger and cargo vessels
to improve its inland water transport, of which 72 were imported from China'
Yunnan Machinery Import and Export Corporation.
So far
Myanmar owns 721 state-owned vessels for its inland water transport services
and 23 ocean vessels engaged in overseas and coastal shipping services.
Myanma
Shipyards is capable of building sea-going, coastal and inland water vessels of
up to 2000 tons dwt in accord with the international classification societies.
The
Seagoing Vessels such as Tanker, Landing Craft, General Cargo, Patrol Vessel,
Tug and the Riverie Vessel Such as Ferry, Landing Craft, Tug, Work Boat, Barge,
etc have been built in Myanma Shipyards for local use.
In 1993,
the first overseas contract from Yunnan Machinery Import and Export Corporation
of China was received to built 9 nos. of 800 ton cargo barges used for Inland
Water Transport of Myanmar. In additon, 4 nos. of shallow draft double deck
passenger vessel were built in Myanma Shipyards for YMC & IWT.
The first
export vessel, MV Aquatic Conserver, was built and delivered in 1995 under the
Lloyd's Classifications for PT Cumawis Pte., Ltd. of Indonesia.
The
second export vessel, MV Forceful Performer was built according to the ABS
Classification and delivered to the Casey Marine Pte., Ltd. of Singapore in
1997.
MV Jaya Transporter, MV Jaya Gold, MV Jaya Transporter "2" , MV Jaya Gold "2" were delivered to the Java Marine Lines Pte., Ltd. of Singapore from 1999 to 2003 under the LRS and ABS Class designations.