SHIPYARD operator Herma Group may expand its facility in Bataan to be able to accept shipbuilding orders from other countries, as most shipyards abroad are now running at full capacity.

The situation is expected to last for the next five years.

Herminio Esguerra, chairman and chief executive officer of the Herma Group of Companies, said they may spend some P100 million to expand their 17-hectare facility that was the former Bataan Shipyard & Engineering Co. Inc., or Baseco.

He said most of the money will be devoted to buying more modern equipment rather than reclaiming more land, since they have enough space for the expansion.

Esguerra said they have received several inquiries on cargo ships of 17,000 deadweight tons (DWT) to 22,000 DWT from Europe and South Korea.

“We see a big opportunity in shipbuilding because most of the shipyards in the neighboring countries are fully booked,” Esguerra said.

“Our problem now is the cranes’ capacity. We need bigger cranes. Our shipyard has plasma-cutting machines. We also have to construct piers,” he said.

Esguerra, however, said the expansion of the facility would entail uprooting informal settlers, which have populated portions of the shipyard during the past few decades because of inactivity.

He said they are talking to Catholic group Gawad Kalinga, with some help from Malacanang, to resettle the people somewhere outside the facility.

Esguerra said there are a lot of shipyards here in the country, such as Hanjin Heavy Industries in Subic Bay and Tsuneishi and FBMA in Cebu, most of them catering to foreign clients.

“They do not teach the Filipino the technology. Maybe the MT Matikas, the first Filipino-made double-hull, double- bottom is a good start,  and we will be able to put the country as the No. 5 shipbuilding nation in the world,” he said, referring to the Herma Group’s first double-hull tanker that set sail on April.

From a small company with a rented barge and 10 employees in 1985, the Herma Group has grown a multibillion-peso company with nine subsidiaries and providing petroleum, maritime and environmental services to foreign and domestic industrial partners. It now has a fleet of 21 vessels, a mix of tankers and barges.

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