Halter Marine again wins prestigious AEU Safety Award

L-R: Cody McCoy, Safety Manager; Alvin Erkhart, Vice President of Production; Bob Merchent, Halter Marine President and CEO; Stephenie Murray, Director of Human Resources; Kevin Amis, Executive Vice President of Engineering/Operations; Robert McPherson, Executive Vice President of Administration & CFO; and Matt Johnson, Safety Supervisor. [Photo: Halter Marine]

For the second year in a row, Pascagoula, Miss.-based shipbuilder Halter Marine has been been honored with the American Equity Underwriters Safety Award.

Each year, AEU recognizes the best safety and health programs among the members of the American Longshore Mutual Association. Halter Marine is one of 25 companies among 1,400 members to receive this prestigious safety award.

Eligibility for the awards is based on the frequency and severity of workers’ compensation incidents for the 2020 calendar year, as well as safety-related metrics determined by AEU’s loss control team.

“Winning the AEU safety award two years in a row speaks volumes,” said Bob Merchent, President and CEO of Halter Marine. “It says to our employees and to our customers that safety is number one here at Halter Marine.”

The three considered factors are:

• Frequency of lost time cases: Halter Marine has reduced its lost time injuries by 95% since 2016.

• Severity of lost time cases: Halter Marine has reduced its incurred cost by 81%.

• Safety inspection overview: Halter Marine’s score has risen by 4.0 since 2016 for an overall score of 8.64 for 2020. AEU’s shipyard average score is 6.0.

“This year’s winners truly are the safest in the industry,” said Jimmy Burgin, Senior Vice President and Director of Loss Control at AEU. “The commitment of their management teams, supervisors, safety staff, and employees all combine to create safety programs that are worthy of this recognition.”