Maritime News Headlines
March 2003
Kvaerner Philly floats out hull #1 (3/31)
"Copa Casino" sinks off the Dominican Republic for no apparent reason, while under tow from Mobile to breakers in India (3/31)
Mississippi legislature approves $48mm bond issue for Northrop Grumman's shipyards (3/31)
EU transport ministers agree to phase-out all single-hull tankers by 2010 (3/28)
GD's shipyards report operating profit in 2002 of $287mm on revenues of $3,650mm (7.9%) (3/27)
NG's shipyards report operating profit in 2002 of $306mm on revenues of $4,712mm (6.5%) (3/27)
Italian shipyard workers refuse to do emergency work on USNS Cape Horn (3/27)
Conrad opens its new Amelia ship repair yard (3/26)
Blount-Barker Shipbuilding files for receivership (3/26)
North American Shipbuilding delivers world's largest, most powerful AHTS (3/23)
Trinity Industries' Inland Barge Group reports operating profit in 2002 of $4.7mm on sales of $211.7mm (2.2%) (3/23)
NASSCO lays keel for first BP tanker (3/22)
MSC charters two more foreign-flag ro-ros (3/21)
DoT IG's report - not yet released - reported to be more bad news for Title XI (3/21)
Sargeant Marine wants to bring Asphalt Commander into the domestic trade for 6 months: MARAD seeks comments (3/20)
MARAD approves Title XI for two Rowan jack-ups (3/20)
Mike Toner, a professional shipbuilder, takes over as head of all GD's shipyards, remains Pres of EB (3/15)
Ingalls unions accept new contract terms (3/15)
Ships belonging to Horizon Lines investor Niki Group arrested (3/14)
MARAD and EPA talking to China about scrapping NDRF ships (3/14)
EB and NNS prices for the next round of SSNs said to exceed by far the Navy's budget and breach the Nunn-McCurdy ceiling (3/13)
MARAD to fund use of old NDRF ships for artificial reefs (3/12)
Matson looking to time-charter rather than own the ships being built by Kvaerner (3/11)
Ingalls and Metal Trades Council reach tentative deal: wages to increase by $1.95 over 4 years (3/11)
Strike over at Marinette Marine (3/7)
ENSCO orders another jack-up from FELS (3/7)
53-year-old US-flag Quincy-built cruise ship Independence sold at auction to California Mfg. Corp., of Lorton VA, for $4mm, much more than its scrap value (3/6)
US Army to buy at least 12 high-speed catamaran freight vessels (3/6)
Trinity Industries' Inland Barge Group reports an operating profit for 2002 of only $4.7mm on revenues of $211.7mm (3/5)
Two of the six LCS teams - those led by Lockheed Martin and Gibbs & Cox - join forces (3/4)
Carnival to base the 110,000-gt Carnival Conquest in Gulfport MS! (3/4)
Ron McAlear to run Alabama Shipyard (3/4)
Senator Cochrane (R-MS) to chair appropriations subcommittee on homeland security (3/4)
Senator Shelby (R-AL) to chair appropriations subcommittee covering MARAD (3/4)
Federal mediator moves in at Ingalls (3/3)
Metal Trades reject Ingalls contract: strike Monday? (3/1)
February 2003
Over-priced sale of CSX Lines to Carlyle closes (2/28)
Lott aide Womble joins Northrop Grumman (2/27)
Titan Corp. and Nichols Bros. get $60mm ONR contract to build the Navy's X-Craft (2/25)
MSC charters in two US-flag and three foreign-flag ro-ro ships (2/20)
Tidewater buys ENSCO's 27 elderly OSVs for $79mm (2/20)
Conrad Industries reports a net loss of $0.5mm on sales of $41.0mm for 2002 (2/19)
Ron Sugar to succeed Kent Kresa as CEO of Northrop Grumman (2/19)
Hard times: the U.S. Navy is reduced to buying second-hand planes from the Swiss Air Force (2/14)
ABS puts the ABS Record on its web site: total visibility of 9,000 ABS-classed vessels and structures (2/13)
The omnibus FY03 appropriations bill reported out of conference today gives zero to Title XI, effectively killing the program (2/13)
MARAD gets $11.6mm for ship scrapping (2/13)
Senator Inouye's waiver of the PVSA for NCL survives the conference (2/13)
Gunderson to build 100,000-barrel tank barge for Sause Bros. (2/13)
First of 49 "Island"-class cutters starts its deepwater upgrade at Halter Bollinger JV (2/12)
Two more RRF ships activated: total now 38 (2/12)
Manitowoc Marine reports operating profit of $20mm on sales of $219mm in 2002 (2/10)
US-owned product carrier aground in Denmark (2/7)
Six competing LCS design concepts submitted (2/7)
ConocoPhillips buys Amerada Hess' share of the TAPS (2/6)
Marinette Marine's workforce goes on strike (2/6)
DoJ files suit against Newport News for charging tanker design costs to DoD (2/4)
Marine Chemist aground in the Columbia en route to the breakers (2/3)
DDGs 97, 98 and 99 to be named Halsey, Sherman and Farragut (2/1)
President's FY04 budget request reported to include $12.2 billion for naval shipbuilding, but this will still only buy 7 new ships (2/1)
MARAD approves $150mm in Title XI financing for Matson containerships (2/1)
January 2003
ACL files under Chapter XI (1/31)
MARAD finally approves transfer of Title XI financing and sale of FGO to Signal Int'l. closes: FGH finally dead (1/30)
Holland America Line and others trying to jump on NCL's PVSA gravy train (1/29)
MARAD activates 13 more RRF ships, bringing total now in service to 36 (1/29)
No MARAD issues on DoT's list of its top ten challenges in 2003 (1/24)
WorldCom to sell Intermarine USA to Palmer Johnson for only $7mm (1/24)
Kvaerner Philly hires John Graykowski to take charge of marketing (1/24)
Northrop Grumman to seek $144mm bond financing from State of Mississippi for 50% of the cost of yet another shipyard expansion program (1/22)
Quincy shipyard sold to a used-car dealer for $9mm (1/20)
Senate considers legislation that would allow the foreign-owned, foreign-built, former Project America ships into U.S. domestic trade (1/16)
Military Sealift Command pays $96mm to buy four of the five 16-year-old T-5 tankers (1/15)
ExxonMobil to scrap double-hull tanker S/R Galveston (1/15)
Keystone to scrap single-hull tanker Cherry Valley (1/15)
Consolidation on the Lakes as Oglebay Norton buys Erie Sand & Gravel (1/14)
MARAD will take no further action on FastShip's 3-year-old Title XI application: the project's proponents, however, dream on (1/9)
SeaRiver becomes just Sea: Exxon Mobil ends all inland operations, sells most of its inland fleet to Kirby for $35mm plus some debt (1/8)
NASSCO to design and maybe build ExxonMobil's new Alaska-trade tankers (1/7)
Leading maritime law firm Dyer, Ellis & Joseph merges with Philadelphia's Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley (1/6)
New York columnist attacks Mississippi, Pascagoula and Ingalls, wants USS New York built in New York (1/4)
ST Engineering appoints retired US Army logistics expert BGEN Butch King to be CEO of VT Halter Marine (1/2)