The deal has seen the yard get $430 million in support from federal state and local governments. Not surprisingly, there has been some controversy about what the public is getting for its money,the most recent criticism in the form of a scathing report from Pennsylvania's Auditor General--who just happens to be an political opponent of Governor Tom Ridge.Of the $430 million of public support, $260 million is going into physical plant and equipment and $170 million into areas such as training.

Kværner's commitment includes building three ships at the yard.

FINDING A MARKET
Kværner Philadelphia may be a shipbuilding showcase. But does the market need its products? The Kværner executive with the job of demonstrating that it does is Eero Makinen, VP sales & marketing.

Initially, the yard will be targeting the U.S. commercial market, but after a few years the yard will also be looking for international customers.

According to Makinen, markets for Kværner Philadelphia include oceangoing dry cargo ships (container vessels and RO/RO’s) and product, crude and chemical tankers up to 100,000 dwt. Other vessel types suited to what has been designed as a very versatile yard are large barges (including ITB’s and ATB’s) and “one off” vessels such as ferries and dredges.

The yard also has the capacity to subcontract units for government ships building at other yards.
The yard has the in-house capacity to design all the ships it plans to build—from concept to the detail design with working drawings.

For conceptual and preliminary design the yard uses NAPA. This complete package has capabilities for hullform development, speed-power prediction and hydrostatics. Naval architectural calculations can be made at all phases of design.

The yard is currently using both FORAN and TRIBON for structural design of the steel hull. Both allow for topographical description of the steel hull structure.

FORAN is the package of choice for outfitting design. With FORAN, the design departments can create a complete 3-D product model of the vessel, including all pipe tracings, cable trays and major pieces of equipment.

Meanwhile, the yard is now building its first ship. Hull No. 1 is a CV2600 Containership.
Production of this 217 m, 30,000 dwt began in March. It’s a Warnow design that has been customized to meet the needs of the American market. One hold has been stretched to take 45 ft boxes and the transom has been stretched to carry 53 ft units and the ship is designed to carry containers with an average weight of 20 tons/FEU.

The ship has been designed using ABS SafeHull and the ship is ABS classed, with the ACP (Alternate Compliance Program) in mind.The customer for the ship at this time is Kværner Shipholding, a subsidiary set up for the purpose and when it is completed in 2002 the possibility exists for the ship to be chartered out by this subsidiary.

Previous

Next

Print highlights index