GNIC…
Guyana National Industrial Company Inc., formerly GNEC, formerly Sprostons Ltd., has been quietly making a huge contribution to the marine industry in Guyana and the Caribbean and to the energy, services and manufacturing sectors as well. Just recently, the company was tangibly rewarded by the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) for “sustained contribution of a consistently high standard for over half a century in ship building, ship repairs, technological and engineering skills and other maritime-related services rendered to both the public and private sectors.”
GNIC has been known always for its capacity to build and repair oceangoing and riverine vessels in large and small dry docks located some 1.2km from the Atlantic Ocean.  Coastal trawlers, transport vessels, passenger ferries, tugs, pontoons, suction and hopper barges, and launches are only some of the multitude of maritime vessels that bear the distinctive mark of the well-tested skills of GNIC’s technicians and engineers. 
Private companies, agencies and state-owned organisations have recruited their expertise in fabricating and constructing large and small industrial components.  The Guyana Oil Company is one such entity.  Just last October, a massive 40’ x 15’ fuel storage tank with a capacity of 40,000 IG was designed, fabricated and assembled for GUYOIL’s Providence, East Bank Demerara terminal by a team of GNIC fabricators and welders.
Julian Archer, Divisional Manager, Maritime Services pointed out that from the 1970s to date, the shipyard has constructed and delivered in excess of 125 ships, 20 of which were for overseas owners operating in the Caribbean and South America. 
He said, “when the repair and maintenance activities of the shipyard are merged with the numerous fabrication jobs we have undertaken over the years for Linmine and the BCGI (RUSAL) … the Demerara Bridge … and a number of private sawmillers, it is clear that the GNIC shipyard has made and continues to make an invaluable contribution to the sustenance and improvement of the major production and services sectors of Guyana.” 
It was “with a deep sense of pride” that Shipyard Manager, Ronald Bourne, received the GMSA award on behalf of his company in November.  “It felt as if it was a personal achievement,” Bourne said, having himself chalked up 51 years of unbroken service in the Shipbuilding/Ship Repair division of GNIC. 
His long sojourn began in 1959 as a Sproston’s Apprentice.  That training scheme had as its main component hands-on and theoretical tutelage that produced qualified welders, fabricators, fitter- machinists, electrical repair and installation technicians and steel fabricators.  The current GNIC apprenticeship programme has retained the same trainee curriculum that is overseen by the national Board of Industrial Training (BIT).  The apprenticeship scheme remains the chief source for their particular skills needs. 
Mr. Bourne is extremely proud of the fact that GNIC continues to win national tenders for major construction and repair work.  He was, in early December, preparing the shipyard and dry dock to receive passenger ferry, MV Malali that plies The Mighty Essequibo between Parika and Supenaam.  The vessel is scheduled to receive a total overhaul to its steel structure and propulsion unit over 8 weeks.  GNIC stands on its reputation, and expects to hand the vessel back to T&HD (Transport and Harbours Department) before the end of February 2011.

Consistency
Every passenger ferry that plies the Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice Rivers, and those that traverse the Atlantic Ocean and rivers to ferry passengers, equipment and goods into remote interior regions, has spent time in the large GNIC dry dock undergoing major and minor repairs and reconstruction. 
The MV Torani was actually built in this same shipyard, and handed over, spanking new, to the T&HD in October 1960.  This one is touted as the largest shipbuilding job ever to have been undertaken in British Guiana, and in Guyana’s more recent history.   More than 300 men worked on this 172 ft x 37.5 ft vessel.  The main deck was designed by Messrs. Ferguson Brothers of Port Glasgow, Scotland in the 1950s, and history has it that it was this same Scottish shipbuilder who constructed the Torani’s sister ship, the MV Makouria.
The history of GNIC goes back more than 150 years to the colonial era, when the company was owned by a private Scottish entrepreneur, Messr. Hugh Sprostons, an international shipbuilding and ship repair specialist.
Many will remember the MV R.H. Carr that was, in the 1960s, the sole means of transport between Mackenzie [today’s Linden] and Georgetown.  The journey took eight hours, ferrying people from all walks of life — shoppers, businessmen and women, vendors and their goods.  “It seemed to hold a quiet romance,” one senior citizen reminisced, “slipping through virgin jungles on either side of the Demerara River.”  This ship was powered by steam originally (it was built in Saltney, Wales 1927), then was converted by Sproston’s in the 1950s to use diesel.
Sprostons Ltd. had installations on Arvida Road, Mackenzie, Upper Demerara and on Lombard St., in Charlestown, here in the city. In Georgetown, Sproston’s biggest boast was having the largest dry-dock in British Guiana.  That has not changed.  Numerous docks have sprung up in Berbice and on the East Banks of Essequibo and Demerara, but the GNIC dock, with a maximum capacity of some 800 tons, remains one of the chief ship repair facilities in coastal Guyana, possessing the required human and machine expertise. 
Back in 1976, 10 years after British Guiana won Independence, all Sprostons facilities which were then owned by the Aluminum Company of Canada (ALCAN) were nationalized into the Guyana National Engineering Corporation.  ALCAN had also been playing a significant role in the production of alumina at the Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA), which was itself nationalized in 1971.  
The company changed ownership again in 1995 “by the leasing of the infrastructural facilities and compulsory acquisition of plant and machinery under the umbrella of the Guyana National Industrial Company Inc. (Laparkan and GNIC (70%/30% share distribution).” (www.laparkan.com). 
The shipyard continued operations through the years, unhindered by political, social and ownership changes.  The operations as a whole now involve handling of containerized and break-bulk cargo, inland inter-modal transportation logistics services, naval architecture and marine engineering services, steel construction and equipment and machinery sales. 
The range of services is wide and diverse, and management all around insists on quality and meeting deadlines.  For GNIC, Quality Assurance is the main reason why their customers return to have their vessels repaired, equipment and cargo properly handled and transported, and their steel structures and facilities constructed to last.
GNIC is now operating on a more competitive basis and they have expanded the customer base to marine vessels used mostly in the agriculture, transport, mining, fishing, construction, housing and water sectors.