Imagine saving hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for the ship with the same functionality. That's the power of construction cost estimation.

There are two basic approaches. The first is a detailed calculation, gaining offers for equipment and materials supply, and preparing the estimate. The second is an assessment by similar projects.

The first approach is more appreciated by the shipyards preparing commercial offers to your request. Of course, this approach is more precise and guarantees that the shipyard is ready to construct the vessel for this price. The disadvantage of the detailed calculations is its labor-consuming and long await of assessment as a result. Therefore it is rarely applicable at the feasibility study stage, especially when many possible solutions need to be compared. Even a simple motor vessel or barge takes about one month or more to get the shipyard's price. Those, who have experience, perfectly know how the shipyards don't like to prepare commercial offers for low-probable projects. Even if they do it, the price is often higher than the market one. This happens because the shipyards don't pay enough attention to details and put a security margin on all unknowns.

The second way, the assessment by similar projects, is much faster and more suitable in many cases, especially in the early stages of the project development, including feasibility study. The appraiser must have a sufficient knowledge base and evaluation skills to perform his job well.

To summarize, the detailed construction cost estimation more applicable on the tender stages, when it's time to appoint the shipyard and fix the price. In other cases, the assessment by similar projects becomes more suitable.

For us, estimating the construction cost and operational costs of the vessels is an everyday task. We constantly monitor changes in steel markets, shipbuilding prices, equipment prices. We are ready to provide you with actual information in a short time and with the necessary degrees of accuracy, from indicative to firm prices.

For reference, the accuracy of an indicative cost is about 20-30%. Evaluation by similar projects can give +/- 10-20% of the accuracy. The estimate or contractual cost is 5-15% accuracy to the vessel's final price, provided that no significant changes are made to the project. Yes, Yes! The vessel's price at the end is almost always higher than the initial contract price. An accuracy of 10% is considered to be a sign of professionalism. If the ship's final price the same as the initial, this either a sign of the highest professionalism or an initially overpriced contract.