Nam Cheong subsidiary SK Offshore & Marine is upgrading satellite communications as it ramps up its chartering business
Malaysia’s largest offshore support vessel (OSV) provider, Nam Cheong, is investing in VSAT for vessels it owns and charters out.
Its subsidiary SK Offshore & Marine (SKOM) has ordered faster satellite communications for 17 vessels it operates in the region.
Ku-band VSAT will be installed on the vessels, complementing existing L-band hardware and improving connectivity to online applications and voice services.
SKOM Group executive director Jonathan Leong thinks VSAT will make these vessels more attractive to charterers.
“As we continue to scale our chartering capabilities further, we look forward to furnishing the majority of our vessels with a more comprehensive suite of connectivity solutions,” he said.
“We are confident this will provide state-of-the art support for fleetwide applications, with consistent costs across our fleet.”
SKOM selected Speedcast International to provide VSAT hardware and connectivity for these 17 vessels.
Speedcast executive vice president of maritime Athina Vezyri said this is a multi-year agreement to provide connectivity services for the SKOM fleet.
“This migration to broadband connectivity is a trend we see in the market because these services are becoming essential in the modern world of commercial shipping,” she said.
Nam Cheong was a prolific OSV builder in Malaysia during years of strong market growth in the offshore sector. But its orderbook suffered following the downturn in OSV demand and an oversupply of available OSVs during the last five years.
SK Offshore’s chartering business has started to improve due to an uptick in demand for OSVs in the region.
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