Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Wärtsilä has today opened a new office and workshop in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. This latest Wärtsilä facility will service power plant installations in the region's gold, copper and silver mining industries, as well as regional marine applications in the fisheries and offshore oil and gas sectors.
The new facility will be fully functional by the end of November 2008. It will be capable of supplying the following services: fuel injection services, engine component overhauling, automation services, propulsion systems, seals & bearings services, operational & maintenance contracts, engine overhauls, and a service exchange programme.
In addition to supporting customers' installations, the facility will also help create new marine equipment service opportunities within the PNG Dockyard.
The PNG Dockyard has slipway capacity for vessels up to 125m in length. A state-of-the-art ship transfer system allows seven vessels to be serviced simultaneously, and there is a 150m lay-up berth for watering, fuelling and ship repair services.
Steve Jones, General Manager, Wärtsilä in Papua New Guinea, explained that the new office and workshop will offer competitive advantages in the area. "Being on the ground to provide a full scope of services gives our customers a significant cost advantage. We now have a trained local presence, which means that we can efficiently despatch goods and carry out our services from Papua New Guinea across this rapidly developing region. This will enable us to increase our market share, and expand our services into new power plant and ship power projects. Our plan is to grow the services capabilities to make Wärtsilä in Papua New Guinea self-dependent," he said.
The development is expected to benefit the local economy and provide employment for more than 15 people. Wärtsilä currently has eight employees seconded to the PNG shipyard, but this is set to increase to ten by the end of the year. Initially, eight local staff will work at the new workshop, but this will be increased to 15 by the middle of 2009. All new staff will undergo extensive on-the-job training carried out by personnel from Wärtsilä Australia, and will also be sent for training at one of the Wärtsilä Land and Sea Academies located in the Philippines or South Korea.
Pictures from the office and workshop opening will be available on our global website www.wartsila.com under Press section later on Thursday (EET).
Media contact: Ms Marit Holmlund-Sund Senior Manager, PR and Marketing Communications Wärtsilä Corporation Direct tel: +358 10 709 1439 Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425 e-mail: marit.holmlund-sund@wartsila.com Internet: www.wartsila.com
Wärtsilä Corporation in brief Wärtsilä enhances the business of its customers by providing them with complete lifecycle power solutions. When creating better and environmentally compatible technologies, Wärtsilä focuses on the marine and energy markets with products and solutions as well as services. Through innovative products and services, Wärtsilä sets out to be the most valued business partner of all its customers. This is achieved by the dedication of over 18,000 professionals manning 160 locations in 70 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on the Nordic Exchange in Helsinki, Finland. www.wartsila.com
This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
