Harena Boatyard

 boatyard, shipyard

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Boatyard/shipyard.
In November 1985, North Korea provided Ethiopia a 6 million birr interest-free loan to be used to purchase equipment with which to construct a shipyard on Haleb Island, off Aseb. Planners expected the shipyard to produce wooden-hulled and steelhulled craft ranging in size from 5,000 to 150,000 tons displacement. (As of 1991, the shipyard had not been completed.)
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The management at Sea Chrome Marine, Norm Wilhelm and Terry Dovey, were approached by representatives of the Government of Eritrea, who were interested in purchasing several Australian-made fibreglass fishing boats in two size ranges: 11 metres and 18 metres.

The Eritrean Government offered to buy the entire company. The package that was agreed upon included moving Sea Chrome’s entire physical plant to Halib Island in Assab Bay, Eritrea and in hiring, on a contract basis, a large proportion of Sea Chrome’s Australian workforce for a period of six years.

The venue for Sea Chrome’s new home is Harena Boatyard, located on Halib Island. It is 70 km away from Assab, the nearest town, via a causeway and an unsealed road, or about an hour away by boat. During the 1980s, when Eritrea was still controlled by Ethiopia, the Government of Ethiopia had a shipyard built on the island that was built by the Koreans to international standards but was never fully utilised.

In the early 1990s Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia after a thirty-year war. The shipyard on Halib Island suffered from neglect and after that, was used only as a barracks for soldiers.

When the Australians arrived almost two years ago there were two or three thousand armed soldiers living at the shipyard and most of the infrastructure was not working. After the soldiers moved out, the Australians brought in contractors to refit all of the buildings and to make repairs to the island’s infrastructure.

In less than two years’ time, the shipyard, which is operated as a joint venture between Sea Chrome and the Government of Eritrea, has been fully restored and has produced several vessels including five 11 m and one 18 m longline boats. One 11 m version is rigged for trawling. They have also completed several 10 m and 17 m patrol boats, some of which have been exported to neighbouring African countries.
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