New direction for Damen Shiprepair Curaçao

In recent months, a new management team has been assembled at Damen Shiprepair Curaçao. The team, together with a newly appointed commercial representative for Central and South America, are focused on increasing the level and quality of support available for vessel operators in the region.

Cultural insider

Heading the team is Managing Director (MD) Surldric Rojer. Born and raised on Curaçao, he knows the island, its culture, and way of working inside out. He’s also familiar with the shipyard.

In 1999, following his studies in naval architecture in the Netherlands, Surldric started work at the yard – then known as the Curaçao Drydock Company. He moved through the ranks as Project Manager, Head of Steel Department and Production Manager. In 2014, he took a change of direction, going to work as MD at the Curaçao Towage Company (KTK Tugs), a position he would hold for eleven years.

“I always had the idea of coming back to the yard, but I didn’t know when. Or how.”

Sujit Mathoera and Surldric Rojer

Coming home to Damen

So, when Damen Shiprepair approached him with the opportunity to become the yard’s MD last year, his reaction was positive.

“Damen is a well organised company. With its different divisions covering the entire scope of shipbuilding and repair, its extensive network, access to technology and structured way of doing business, it offers the yard stability for the future.”

His colleague, Commercial Manager Sujit Mathoera, was also no stranger to the yard when he arrived in mid-2025. Born in Suriname, but raised in the Netherlands, Sujit relocated to Curaçao in 2004, where he has fulfilled commercial and management  roles for both Radio Holland and Alphatron Marine – roles that brought him into regular contact with the yard and its people.

“Having worked in the maritime industry, and having had close interaction with Damen, and many of our clients, for years already, this role feels like coming home. I am looking forward to getting further acquainted, not only with the commercial aspects, but with the whole operation here, and to working together with our excellent team to increase our support to clients in the region.”

Cristhian Mar

Closer to the client

The Curacao yard is commercially supported by a sales team of fourteen Sales Managers, led from the headquarters in the Netherland. To focus on the local area, Colombian Cristhian Mar has joined the sales team. Cristhian brings with him eighteen years’ experience of working in ship repair. He is based on the island and will focus on Central and South American customers.

“This role gives me the opportunity to work with larger and more complex projects. My function is all about enabling Damen to provide better support to its customers in the region. Not only for the repair yards within the group, but also for the flying squad for Harbour and Voyage repair and services.”

Forward to success

The colleagues are looking to the future with optimism, says Sujit.

“There will be challenges ahead, for sure, but that’s the dynamic nature of the maritime industry and part of what makes our work so interesting. We are all very motivated and very excited. There is hard work to be done, but we have a lot of fun along the way, too. If you have the right management in place, everything else will follow. I feel very confident that we have a team that is committed and can inspire our employees to take the yard forward to a successful future.”

The management team has been quick to develop a plan of action, explains Surldric.

“Initially, we want to demonstrate our capabilities to complete projects on time and to a high standard. We’ve recently been re-certified for ISO 9001 and ISO 45001, which confirms the quality of our work and our high regard for safety. We are also working towards ISO 14001 environmental certification.

“In the next phase, we want to diversify, developing our capabilities and infrastructure further in order to take on more complex, high tech projects. With this, we aim to grow our operation. We currently operate two drydocks, and there is space for a third, as well as room to undertake projects alongside.”

Heart of the Caribbean

A driver for this intended growth is the yard’s strategic location in the heart of the Caribbean.

“Curaçao is the perfect place to develop a ship repair yard,” says Cristhian. “There is plenty of vessel traffic from Asia, Europe and the Americas. We also have good logistics with daily flights from the US and Europe – it’s very easy to get parts here quickly.

“And then there is the weather. We are located outside of the Hurricane Belt, which is a big plus. It is also very sunny here – we have over 3,000 hours of sun a year, that works out at around eight hours a day – it’s ideal for painting vessels.”

“There are a lot of opportunities,” agrees Surldric, “especially with all the developments in the offshore energy industry that are taking place in the region. There are a lot of vessels that are going to need to be serviced in the coming years, and we’ll be here to provide that support.”