Ship Constructors Ltd (Shipco) operates from a shipyard located in the North Island of New Zealand in the city of Whangarei.
From Shipco's inception in January of 1990, 75 vessels have been built.
Tugboats, barges and other workboats have been the predominant
construction and vessels built by the company can be found, not only in
New Zealand, but also in Australia, Fiji and New Caledonia.
In the early years the company built barges for coastal and
international towing. Sea-Tow 4 with a DWT capacity of 8000 tones
remains the largest barge built in New Zealand and Sea-Tow 25 the
largest and most powerful tugboat.
Shipco is privately owned and managed by Pat Ganley and Kelvin Hardie,
who each have in excess of 40 years experience in the ship building and
ship repair industries, as well as in coastal and international tug and
barge operations.
In 2004 Shipco reorganised its operations and embarked on a capital
expansion programme. Additional machinery was purchased and the design
and building of towing and anchor handling winches, together with other
deck machinery, was added to the company's production capabilities. At
the same time a range of standard ship-assist tugs was developed for
handling large, modern container ships.
