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Bolidt builds on cruise success

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Jacco van Overbeek says Bolidt is looking east
Netherlands-based Bolidt Synthetic Products & Systems continues to attract a range of blue-chip cruise clients, both in the newbuild and retrofit sectors.

Jacco van Overbeek, director maritime division, tells Seatrade Insider that the company is now considering establishing a presence in Singapore with a view not only to servicing a growing volume of cruise ship retrofits and upgrade business, but also with the intention of targeting the buoyant offshore and super-yacht markets.

One of the company’s current projects is supplying composite products for decks and other areas on board Royal Caribbean International’s 137,276gt Voyager of the Seas which is currently undergoing a $20m upgrade in the Sembmarine Integrated Yard at Tuas, Singapore’s latest state-of-the-art shiprepair complex and the only one in the region capable of accommodating the cruise vessel.

Although retrofits now make up about a third of the Bolidt business, the latest round of cruise-ship contracting means that the 50-year-old  company has a healthy newbuild orderbook stretching some years ahead.

Projects currently in progress include the Quantum of the Seas and the Anthem of the Seas for RCI. The first of the two, now completing sea trials out of Hamburg, is due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage on November 2, bound for her home port of Bayonne, New Jersey.

The Anthem of the Seas is due to be commissioned next March. Other cruise vessels incorporating Bolidt products will deliver in 2016 and beyond.

The company is also an exclusive partner to Viking Ocean Cruises for the supply of decks and flooring. Its products will be used on board the Viking Star, due to deliver in 2015, and sister vessel, Viking Sky, which will be commissioned in 2016. There are also options on two other ocean-going vessels.

The company’s products include Bolideck Future Teak, an environmentally sustainable slip-resistant alternative to teak, suitable for stateroom balconies and deck areas; Bolideck Select Soft, a composite flooring well suited to other public areas; and Bolideck 525, a flexible flooring system that can be adapted for a range of applications. It was used, for example, as a grass-like putting surface on the Norwegian Getaway’s mini-golf course.