Mick Holding, chief financial officer, said the shipyard has grown significantly in 10 years.
"In the space of a short 10-year period, we have become one of the premier ship repair yards in the world, and by far, the largest cruise-ship repair yard in the world," he said.
Mr Holding was speaking at the graduation ceremony held at the shipyard for 33 newly-trained scaffolders.
He noted that the shipyard in Freeport repairs more cruise ships than any other shipyard.
"And we probably have repaired more than the others put together in any one 12-month period," he added.
Mr Holding said that by the end of this year they would have repaired 20 cruise ships. He also reported that there are already bookings for 22 cruise ships in 2011, and 23 cruise ships booked for 2012.
The shipyard was opened in 1999 as Lloyd Berth, with operations commencing in 2000. In 2001, the first dry dock was acquired and the name was changed to GB Shipyard.
In December 2001, a second dry dock - the largest in the Western Hemisphere - was acquired. As business grew, a third dry dock was acquired towards the end of 2008.
Mr Holding indicated that with the growth in workload there has been a commensurate growth in the workforce.
Just over 700 persons are currently employed at the facility. Of that, 333 are considered permanent workers, 275 of which are Bahamians.
Mr Holding said the remaining workforce has been traditionally comprised of expatriate workers.
This working group, he said, is a flexible workforce that can be expanded and contracted based on workloads at any one point in time.
According to Mr Holding, the shipyard sold 143,000 man hours in January; it dipped to 86,000 in February; and back up to 128,000 in April.
"Our workload does vary greatly from month to month ... and we have accommodated these fluctuations by employing expatriate contract workers.
"However, I have said for a long time that given equivalent spill levels, I would rather recruit contract workers as and when needed from Grand Bahama, rather than the Philippines or Romania," he said.
Mr Holding said they have started discussions towards the end of last year with the principals of a local company, Clear Blue Maritime Agency Limited, to become the shipyard's provider of local contract labour.
