Seven Ships Back in the Yards
Banias port, on Syria's Tartous coast, is hosting simultaneous maintenance and refit work on seven ships at its berths, in what the General Authority for Ports and Customs has presented as the revival of a sector that had been largely idle for years. The work is being carried out exclusively by Syrian technical workshops and national engineering crews.
The scope extends beyond routine upkeep to full re-engineering of vessels, complete overhauls of hulls, engines and mechanical systems, and periodic inspections to keep ships compliant with international classification-society standards.
From Cargo Ships to Livestock Carriers
One of the headline jobs at Banias is the conversion of bulk and general-cargo ships into vessels specialised in moving live animals. On 31 March 2026, a ship sailed from Banias as a dedicated livestock carrier after a six-month conversion executed entirely by local crews; the six-deck vessel is fitted to carry around 20,000 head of sheep under international animal-transport standards.
Officials say maintenance jobs take anywhere from 10 days to several months depending on the vessel, and that each refit puts more than 50 workers on a single hull, supporting livelihoods along the coast.
Reactivating a Dormant Sector
Marine welding, metal fabrication, engine maintenance and mechanical services around Banias had been shut down for years before activity resumed. Traffic at Syria's ports has picked up since 8 December 2024, with dozens of ships docking each month at Latakia and Tartous for cargo and logistics, which fuelled pressure to bring Banias back into the maritime-repair business and to organise it under proper legal and union frameworks.
Easing the Cost of a Refit
Mazen Aloush, director of relations at the General Authority for Ports and Customs, said the authority has cut docking fees inside the port, eased entry and exit procedures for technical workshops, and exempted maintenance and repair materials from customs duties to lower the cost of operating at Banias.
Aloush said the authority is also moving to give the trade a formal status, setting clearer contracting rules and protecting workers through unions or specialised professional associations, alongside support programmes intended to turn marine repair into a leading local industry.
A Bigger Yard on the Drawing Board
Syria currently has no stand-alone port dedicated to marine maintenance; some berths inside Banias's fishing and leisure harbours have been adapted for the purpose and handle mid-sized and light craft. A pre-existing technical and economic study, drawn up under the previous administration, proposed a full ship-building and repair basin at "Arab Al-Malik" north of Banias, on a site with depths of seven to ten metres and a 920-metre sea frontage.
According to the study, the planned yard could accommodate ships of up to 30,000 tonnes and 200 metres in length, and would generate more than 3,000 jobs if built.