The Fiji Ships and Heavy Industries Limited have re-fitted 16 vessels so far this year.

The Fiji Ships and Heavy Industries Limited have re-fitted 16 vessels so far this year.

The re-fitting works include the repairing of ships on slipways, painting and maintenance of some local and regional vessels.

Fiji Ships and Heavy Industries Limited Operations Manager Lopeti Radravu says their numbers dropped compared to last year due to the impacts of COVID-19.

“From the end of 2019, we serviced 118 vessels altogether. From January this year until to date before we have the COVID-19 we only should be able to service 16 vessels compared to the 21 that we did the same period last year.”

The Fiji Ships and Heavy Industries refitted 147 ships in 2018, this year’s vessels from Fiji,Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Tonga saw a drastic reduction.