Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), a specialist in the construction, repair and refit, of naval, military and commercial vessels, showcased its top Gulf defence-related projects at 'Indian Ocean Naval Symposium' (IONS) held in the UAE capital.

The biennial IONS is a pan-Asian maritime security forum comprising 32 regular member countries aimed at enhancing maritime cooperation among navies and maritime agencies patrolling the Indian Ocean region.

The inaugural symposium was held in New Delhi, India in 2008, with succeeding sessions to be rotated among the 32 regular country members.

This year’s edition was chaired by the UAE Navy and held under the theme ‘Together for the Reinforcement of Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean.’

During the event, ADSB chairman Homaid Al Shemmari made a presentation titled ‘Promotion of technical cooperation including repairs and refit efforts with maritime neighbours’.

The company discussed its past projects and those it has been currently working on for various Gulf naval defense groups at the symposium.

ADSB, as a Silver Sponsor of IONS 2010, highlighted its key projects, including its Baynunah Class 72m Corvette project and Ghannatha Class 25m fast craft for the UAE Navy; 42m Landing Craft and 16m Seakeeper Fast landing crafts for the Royal Bahrain Naval Force.

These vessels are examples of projects that showcase ADSB’s expertise in building complex multi task warships with different sizes in steel, aluminium alloy and composite materials, Al Shemmari explained.

“Through IONS we had the opportunity to showcase our extensive skills and our ability to work with various materials, for defence-related projects. We reiterated our commitment to growing our Gulf business during this event while offering our services to other organisations involved in the protection of the Indian Ocean’s waters,'
he said.

'We are confident that through the greater visibility provided by symposiums such as IONS we will be able to sustain the annual performance and profitability we posted in 2009,' Al Shemmari added.

ADSB has one of the world’s most modern naval shipyards and is the only one capable of building, refitting, repairing and upgrading complex naval warships in the Arabian Gulf region.

Through the emirate of Abu Dhabi’s hosting of this year’s IONS, the shipbuilder sought to secure new partnerships and reinforce existing ones across the Indian Ocean’s thriving maritime services sector.-TradeArabia News Service