2003: Milestone year for U.S. shipyards

It isn’t back to the production records of the Victory ship days and commercial orderbooks are a whole lot slimmer than in, say, South Korea. But the past year has seen a number of U.S. shipyards mark major milestones. Indeed several of them were passed last month.

General Dynamic’s NASSCO, for example, floated out the first in a series of four 1.3 million barrel Alaska Class tankers that it is building for BP and laid the keel for the second of the quartet.

Somewhat lower down the size scale, Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Conn., launched the largest fast ferry thus far built in the U.S.

Meantime, Bollinger Shipyards delivered its 100th vessel for the U.S. Coast Guard. And while it’s hard to be too celebratory about a bankruptcy auction, last month’s sale of the ill-fated Baltimore Marine Industries was to a single buyer whose announced intention is to reopen the facility as a shipyard.

Another commercial shipbuilding milestone was the delivery of the first vessel from Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyards, the Manukai, the first of two 2,600 TEU containerships for Matson.

On the military shipbuilding front, there was good news for the Big Two defense contractors that own the six yards building large military ship came in two parts. The first was that spending on Navy ships has increased a little. Once House and Senate conferees agreed on the FY 2004 Defense Authorization Bill, they put $8.5 billion for the construction of five new ships in FY 2004, including one submarine, three destroyers, and one Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD).  The procurement of two T-AKE’s is budgeted at $722 million in the National Defense Sealift Fund. 

Conferees agreed to an additional $20 million over the Administration’s budget request for the modernization of the DDG-51. Very significantly, multi-year procurement authority was granted for the Virginia-class submarine. An authorization of $75 million was included for the advance procurement of the LPD-23 to move production of that ship to FY 2005. Conferees matched the Administration’s $1 billion request for the continued development of DD(X), the next generation of surface combatants, and added $25 million to the Administration’s request for development of mission modules for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

The American Shipbuilding Association, which represents the Big Two (or Big Six depending on how you count) says it “applauds the two ship increase over the FY 2003 budget.” However, it says, “the seven ships procured for FY 2004 are three ships fewer than the 10 ships needed to sustain a 300 ship Navy, and five ships fewer than the 12 ships the Nation must procure annually to rebuild to the requirement of a 375 ship Navy to meet current and emerging threats.”

If you agree with this view, by the way, the ASA would like to sign you up as a “Seapower Ambassador.”

VERSATILITY
What seems to enable U.S. shipyards to survive when supposedly more productive and efficient yards across the Atlantic close is a mixture of versatility, flexibility and the ability to know a good niche when you spot it. This is borne out by an eclectic sampling of some of the activity reported in these pages and on www.marinelog.com in the past year.

Thus in January we reported that Kvichak was building a U.K. designedhovercraft for Crowley.

In February, the news included the decommissioning of an Islander-class U.S.C.G. cutter at Bollinger, the first step in a program that will see Bollinger and VT Halter Marine transform 49 of these 110 ft vessels into 123 ft vessels with enhanced capabilities as part of the Project Deepwater.

March saw Kvaerner Philadelphia float out the Manukai while NASSCO laid the first keel block for the Alaska Class tanker.

In April we reported that VT Halter Marine was to complete the construction of the PCTC (Pure Car Truck Carrier) started by the bankrupt Halter Marine and that Pasha Hawaii Transportation Company planned to go ahead with the second of these vessels—the first of their kind to be built in the U.S.

May brought news that VT Halter Marine had won an order for a 272 passenger ferry for the Puerto Rico Port Authority.

June saw the announcement that Austal USA had secured its largest order to date—an $18.75 million contract with Milwaukee-based Lake Express LLC for a 58 m vehicle-passenger ferry capable of carrying 253 passengers and 46 cars at 34 knots.

In July, the Navy announced the three finalists in the competition to build the LCS. Each of the selected teams included at least one second tier shipbuilder.

In August, contracts included three oceangoing deck barges booked by Gunderson in Portland, Ore., that took its marine backlog to over $35 million, while Manitowoc’s Marinette Marine Corp., was awarded a $40.5 million contract (with options that could take it to $404. 8 million) for the U.S. Navy’s Improved Navy Lighterage System (INLS). Initially, Marinette Marine will build 29 barges for the system, six of which will be powered by 360-degree rotating water-jet thrusters.

September’s contracts included another 80,000 bbl double hull oil barge for Rhode Island’s Senseco Marine. And, here’s one that will take you back in time: Leevac got an order for a a 330 ft x 225 ft x 13 ft paddlewheel casino vessel. It will be the largest casino boat built in Louisiana and won’t actually go anywhere once it’s been placed in its Lake Charles location.

October brought perhaps the year’s most unpredictable order: a $73 million contract for AMFELS from Boeing to convert a semisubmersible into part of a missile detection system. See what we mean about versatility? ML