Maritime News Headlines
June 2004
MARAD has sent three more NDRF ships to shipbreakers Marine Metals, Inc., in Brownsville TX (6/27). The three are "American Banker", built by Todd San Pedro in 1962; "Mormacmoon", built by Sun Ship in 1964; and "Santa Cruz", also built by Sun Ship in 1964. Evocative names! Read MARAD's announcement here.
Crowley Marine has sold the 140,000-dwt Jones Act crude carrier "Marine Columbia" for scrap (6/25). The ship was built by Mitsui in 1974 and brought into the Jones Act fleet via the Wrecks Act in 1983. Interestingly, her OPA90 phase-out date does not come up until November 2006, but her MARPOL 13G phase-out date was last month. This reduces the single-hull crude fleet to 10 active ships, one of which must go this year, three in 2005 and four more in 2006.
Halter Marine has confirmed a contract that was originally secured over three years ago, by the pre-FGH Halter. The Mississippi shipyard will build two Voith-Schneider harbor tugs for Lockheed Martin, for onward sale top the Government of Egypt. Read Halter's announcement in the Press Releases section of their web site, here.
Tradewinds reports that Horizon Lines is planning to raise $250mm by means of a private placement of senior notes due in 2012 (6/20). If true, that would be just about enough to replace two of their fleet of antiquated ships, leaving only 14 still to go.
Cruises occasionally get cancelled but who ever heard of this before? NCL America has cancelled the second cruise of its newly re-flagged "Pride of Aloha" (ex-Norwegian Sky), because, wait for it, the crew is exhausted (6/20). Poor babies, what happened to their pride?
Crowley's subsidiary, Vessel Management Services, has been revealed as the "undisclosed" buyer of 2+2 180,000-bbl ATBs from Halter Marine (6/20). No surprise there, of course.
NCL America has formally introduced its first US-flag cruise ship, "Pride of Aloha", (ex-Norwegian Sky), to predictable fanfare (6/11). Read NCL's announcement here and MARAD's here. The MARAD announcement is odd in that they seem to think that the other two ships planned for NCL's Hawaiian service are also to be re-flagged Norwegian ships, whereas they are, of course, the notorious "Shame of America" and her never-built sister ship.
Newport News and the United Steelworkers have apparently executed a new 4.5-year agreement, although I haven't seen any announcement yet (6/11). The deal allegedly includes, among other things, a 4% annual wage increase. 4%? Wow! That would take their current average wage of $17.50 to almost $21.00 over the term of the contract.
VT Halter Marine has signed a contract with an undisclosed (but not unknown) client to build two large ATBs, with a capacity of 180,000 barrels (about 24,000 deadweight tons) (6/5). The contract includes options for two additional vessels. The barges will be built at Halter's Pascagoula shipyard and the tugs at its Moss Point Marine shipyard. Deliveries are scheduled for March and August of 2006.
Bender Shipbuilding has announced the opening of its shipyard in Tampico, called Astilleros Bender de R.L. de C.V. (6/5). Read Bender's press release here.
Tradewinds reports that NASSCO's price for ExxonMobil's two planned 100,000-dwt Alaskan-trade crude carriers is going to be around $220mm per ship (6/4).
May 2004
In another sign of the decline in offshore activity in the U.S. Gulf, Otto Candies has transferred the OSV "Rita Candies" to the Mexican register (5/31). The 5-year-old boat was built by Bender Shipbuilding.
The Navy has selected the General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin teams to design and build prototype Littoral Combat Ships, eliminating the Raytheon/Northrop Grumman team (5/28). Read the DefenseLink announcement here. Read the Lockheed announcement here. Read the GD announcement in the News section of their web site here.
Reliable sources report that Matson Navigation is no longer interested in buying Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines' long-delayed car carrier, still under construction at Halter Pascagoula and not now expected to be delivered before mid-2005 (5/28).
Todd Shipyards, Inc., reported net income of $4mm in 2004, on sales of $148mm (5/28). Read Todd's 10-K here.
JeffBoat, which has been struggling somewhat since its parent company entered Chapter 11 and it lost many of its key managers, has secured a contract to build an additional two 52,000-barrel bunkering barges for Vane Line Bunkering, of Baltimore MD, with options for two more (5/28).
This may be old news to some but I think it's new to most: ExxonMobil has apparently sold the "S/R Charleston" to US Chemical Shipping, which has renamed it "Charleston" (5/28). Another step toward the exit for XOM.
NASSCO and BP christened the first of BP's new class of Alaskan-trade tankers, the "Alaskan Frontier", on Friday (5/24). NASSCO has put out a press release but it's not on their web site yet.
Ignore the preceding item! Carlyle Group has sold Horizon Lines to the New York-based private equity firm Castle Harlan for the astonishing sum of $650mm (5/24). Read Horizon's press release here. Read Carlyle Group's press release here.
Industry sources say that Goldman Sachs has hooked Chicago-based investment bankers Madison Dearborn as prospective buyers of Horizon Lines (5/21). Horizon's current owners, Carlyle Group, put the company up for sale in February, less than a year after buying it from CSX for $315mm.
Norwegian Cruise Line has moved most of the material for the second "Shame of America" class cruise ship from Lloyd Werft to Meyer Werft, for use on other NCL newbuildings (5/21). Does this mean that the second ship will not now be built, or what?
New ways of financing shipping investments #27: Stamford-based Burke Investments has offered $26mm for Monte Carlo-based MC Shipping (5/21). Burke Investments is owned by Bob Burke, former head of marine finance at GE Capital, who quit GE after winning umpty-ump millions in the Connecticut lottery.
MARAD has approved an application by GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company to transfer four US-built, US-flag jack-ups to Vanuatu registry (5/21). Read MARAD's announcement here.
The Alaskan ferry "LeConte" that ran aground last week has been refloated, patched and towed to Ketchikan shpyard for repairs (5/21). Meanwhile, the Coast Guard has determined that the accident was caused by human error.
Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the tank-barge "B. No. 242" and the tug "Morton S. Bouchard IV" to Bouchard Transportation (5/15). This is Bouchard's 12th double-hull tank barge.
The House Armed Services Committee has amended the DoD Authorization bill to reduce the maximum term for which MSC can charter a foreign-built ship from five years to one (5/14). U.S. shipbuilders believe that this would result in a significant increase in the domestic construction of sealift ships.
The end of the line may be approaching for the veteran cruise ship "Monterey", which was built by Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point as the "Free State Mariner" in 1952 (Hull #4507) (5/11). Owner Mediterranean Shipping Company is to retire the old girl and has offered her for sale, with an asking price of $14mm.
The Alaskan ferry "Leconte" (built by Peterson Builders in 1974) ran aground in Peril Strait yesterday and is apparently sinking (5/11). All aboard have been safely evacuated. Read the Coast Guard's announcement here.
Overseas Shipholding Group has bought the Jones Act product carriers "S/R Galena Bay" and "S/R Puget Sound" from Attransco, for about $20mm each (5/8). The ships, which are on long-term bareboat charters to SeaRiver Maritime, were built by NASSCO in 1982 and 1983, and have OPA90 phase-out dates in 2012 and 2013. This transaction finally takes Attransco out of the shipping business. Read OSG's press release here.
Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding has been awarded a contract for two Incat-designed fast ferries for New York Water Taxi (5/8). The 22-meter, 149-passenger boats will be delivered in April and June 2005.
Hornbeck has exercised the first of the three options on its contract with Manitowoc Marine, for a second 110,000-barrel tank barge (5/8). Read Manitowoc's announcement here.
First Wave has sold its Brady Island and Pasadena facilities to Southwest Shipyard, leaving it with just the Galveston operations (5/8). Read First Wave's announcement here.
April 2004
Has Horizon Lines been sold already? The rumor mill says that Carlyle Group has found someone to take them out of their expensive and ill-conceived acquisition of Horizon Lines (4/30).
The Great Lakes fleet loses another as "Kinsman Independent" (built by Defoe Shipbuilding in 1952) is sold to a Canadian operator (4/30). Read MARAD's announcement here.
Promotions at the top of ABS (4/30). As widely anticipated, Bob Somerville succeeds Frank Iarossi as Chairman of ABS, while continuing as CEO, and Bob Kramek becomes COO. The big I is still there, however, as Chairman of ABS Group. Read ABS' announcement here.
MARAD delays bid date for its unfunded tanker program by 45 days (4/30). Is anyone actually going to bid on this program? Read MARAD's announcement here.
General Dynamics may buy shipbuilding group from BAE Systems (4/30). The three shipyards involved are basically all that's left of Britain's big-ship shipbuilding industry - Vickers, in Barrow, which builds submarines, Yarrows, in Glasgow, which builds surface combatants, and Govan, also in Glasgow, which builds amphibs and auxiliaries. The only competing bidder is believed to be Britain's Vosper Thornycroft group.
Kirby buys one third of Osprey Line for $4.2mm (4/30). Osprey operates a container barge feeder service between Houston, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Read Kirby's announcement here.
Liberty Maritime recently took delivery of the US-flag bulker "Liberty Eagle" from Japan's Oshima Shipbuilding (4/9). This ship is, I think and hope, the last to be built under Section 615 of the Merchant Marine Act.
Testifying before the HASC Subcommittee on Projection Forces on March 30, Ron O'Rourke, the veteran defense analyst at the Congressional Research Service, (CRS), ripped the Navy's shipbuilding plan to ribbons, for lack of structure and analytical basis (4/4). Read his testimony here and weep for the Navy's incompetence. Selected excepts to follow on the comment page.
Jerry Myers has resigned as President and CEO, and from the Board of Directors, of Conrad Industries, and Tom Kitchen has also resigned from the BoD. John P. Conrad, Jr., is the new President and CEO. Read the announcement here.
A patent has been issued to Maritrans for its design of an approach to double-hulling tankers (4/2). Read about it in the Press Releases section of the Investor Relations section of Maritrans' web site, which can be found by clicking here. Looks like a money-maker to me.
The former U.S. Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point in San Francisco has been sold to the City, only 30 years after it was closed (4/2). Read the report in the San Francisco Chronicle here and an editorial here.
Bouchard Transportation has been fined $10 million for Buzzards Bay oil spill (4/2). Read the report here.