More operators look to refurbish hopper barges
Written by Nick Blenkey
Hopper barges are getting new sides at C&C Marine & Repair as refurbishment becomes an increasingly attractive option. [Photo: C&C Marine & Repair]
As steel prices hover around record high rates, barge operators are facing tough decisions. Recently, Belle Chasse, La., based C&C Marine and Repair, LLC signed a contract to re-side over 200 hopper barges for one of its customers. The process involves replacement of the outer hull walls of the barges, and usually the knuckles, with internals typically being replaced as required, on a case-by-case basis.
C&C Marine is now delivering a refurbished hopper barge every week and says the demand for repair work has never been greater.
“With current steel prices, operators are choosing to repair their existing fleet of barges rather than building new,” says C&C Marine and Repair’s owner Tony Cibilich. Since 2019, steel prices have risen sharply, and are still nearly triple the pre-COVID rates.
“In the past the industry norm was to scrap older hopper barges, but with current steel prices this practice needs to be reevaluated. Many of our customers are realizing that building new hopper barges is cost prohibitive,” adds Cibilich.
C&C Marine notes that one recent survey found that, over the next five years, over 7,425 dry cargo barges operating on the Mississippi River system will be over twenty-five years old. Many of these barges, it says, are potential candidates for re-siding.
“Operators should evaluate their existing fleet to see whether any of the older hopper barges have good bottoms,” says Ciblich. “For those barges with good bottoms that can be economically re-sided, there is a potential to add 25 more years to the life of the barge, for less than half the price of building a new hopper barge.”
During the re-siding process, C&C Marine typically renews approximately 130,000 pounds of steel per barge. The company has ramped up its production to accommodate the reside program without affecting its normal repair business.
The increase in the company’s repair business also coincides with the hiring of Nick Bergeron as head of C&C Marine’s repair division.
“I have worked at other shipyards for over twenty-five years, C&C Marine’s facility is far and away the best I have ever seen,” says Bergeron. “As soon as I got here, I knew I was home.”
In addition to re-siding the barges, C&C Marine is blasting and painting each hopper barge in less than 24 hours. Five years after building its state-of-the-art blast and paint building, C&C Marine continues to improve on the blast and paint process, increasing efficiency and delivery times.
“The great thing about C&C Marine and Repair is that we can provide every barge repair service at a single location,” says Bergeron. “As the industry continues to struggle with high steel prices, re-siding older hopper barges has become the industry’s most cost-effective way of trying to maintain a stable fleet size.”
