Maritime News and Comment

December 2005

   MORE RANTING ABOUT KATRINA.  I make no apology for ranting about the Administration's and the Congress' apparent inability to do anything about the mess on the Gulf Coast.  What happened to all the promises the President made in that carefully staged and televised speech in Jackson Square?  Read that speech here and read John Grisham's op-ed article in today's New York Times here.  Why are people still living in tents?  Why has Secretary Jerkoff not yet been fired?  Why do we need more tax breaks for the rich when we cannot take care of the people made homeless in Mississippi?  How much longer before the subject of impeachment begins to be discussed?  December 26, 2005.

   DBL 152 HEADS FOR MOBILE BAY.  K-Sea's barge DBL 152, which hit a submerged platform in the Gulf of Mexico while en route from Houston to Tampa, has now been successfully lightered and is under tow to a pier in Theodore, Alabama.  Read the Coast Guard's latest bulletin here.  December 23, 2005.

   SOME KATRINA STATS.  While most of the media continue to focus on the mess in Nawlins, which was not really caused by Katrina at all, coastal Mississippi continues to be largely ignored.  The Biloxi Sun-Herald has an excellent editorial on this subject today, entitled "Mississippi's Invisible Coast", which you can find here.  I reproduce below the table accompanying this editorial.  December 21, 2005.

   PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES.  So the relief funds being appropriated this week by our myopic Congress include the $2 billion that the Navy wants to spend on getting Northrop Grumman's programs back on track - although Northrop Grumman says it doesn't want any of this money - but absolutely zero for any other industry on the Mississippi Coast.  See if I ever vote for Lott or Cochran again.  December 21, 2005.

   BENDER GETS FIVE AHTSs.  No announcements yet but Bender Shipbuilding has apparently been awarded a contract to build five anchor-handling tug-supply vessels, for an undisclosed client.  (In this business, we all know who the "undisclosed client" is.  Why do they have this mania for secrecy, especially when everyone in the industry is in on the secret?)  The boats in question have been designed by Aker Marine (the former Kvaerner Masa Marine): rumor has it that they are about 245 feet long, DP of course, electric drive, 120-ton bollard pull.  Expensive boats - probably more than $20mm each.  December 21, 2005.

   HILLMAN BARGE TO REOPEN.  In another sign of the recovery in inland shipbuilding, Heartland Transportation has bought the former Hillman Barge shipyard in Brownsville PA, near Pittsburgh.  Hillman closed in 1989 and was sold to Trinity Marine, which operated it until 1995: since then there have been two short-lived attempts to revive the yard.  The new company will be called Brownsville Marine Products and will be managed by Kent Hoffmeister, well known and respected in the industry, who will demonstrate his versatility and apparently inexhaustible reserves of energy by continuing to run his consulting company, Global Marine Technologies, in Mandeville LA.  December 17, 2005.

   SIGNAL TO BUILD JACK-UP FOR ROWAN.  Rowan Companies has ordered a "Tarzan"-class jack-up from Signal International.  The rig will be built in Signal's Orange, Texas, shipyard and delivered in the third quarter of 2007.  December 10, 2005.

   LPD 17 NEARS COMPLETION AS THE NAVY WORRIES ABOUT ITS COST.  The future USS "San Antonio", (LPD 17), moved from Pascagoula to Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, over the weekend: she will be commissioned there on January 14.  Read Northrop's press release and see a photo here.  Our sources tell us that she is very different from the ship that was delivered back in July: significant clean-up of all the thousands of deficiencies has apparently been accomplished.   At our expense, of course, since this was a cost-plus contract.  A report in Bloomberg.com last week indicates that the Navy is looking for ways of modifying the terms of cost-plus contracts so that they don't require the taxpayer to pay for rework.  This initiative came from ASN John Young, as a direct result of the LPD 17 fiasco.  Fixing the deficiencies on LPD 17 has apparently cost over $40 million and the total cost of this fine ship is now over $1.6 billion: the original contract price was $641 million.  And the cost of the PSA is yet to come: any bets on how many more tens of millions?  Good for Secretary Young, anyway.  December 5, 2005.

   NGSS CONSOLIDATING PURCHASING.  Further indication of the phasing out of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Avondale shipyard comes with the news that NGSS has consolidated its purchasing activities, except for pumps and valves, in Pascagoula.  Not that this doesn't make sense, mind you, it does, but it's just more bad news for Avondale.  December 4, 2005.

   NGSS OUTSOURCING HULL BLOCKS.  Further indication of the decline in productivity and spiraling costs at NGSS: the MMA reports that another batch of hull blocks has been subcontracted to Signal International's shipyard in Orange, Texas.  (Historical note: This is the yard that was Consolidated Steel in WWII, building over 200 DDs and DEs, later an American Bridge  fab. yard: it's across the river from where Levingston Shipbuilding used to be and employs many ex-Levingston folks, which might help to explain its high productivity and quality.)  This is another intelligent move by NGSS, although, again, it's bad news for the workers at Ingalls and Avondale.  It's in NGSS', the Navy's and the taxpayers' interests that NGSS should outsource anything that others can do better and cheaper, and only do themselves what they can do better and cheaper, (whatever that might be).  December 4, 2005.

   LETOURNEAU TO BUILD TWO MORE RIGS.  Rowan Companies has ordered two jack-ups from its LeTourneau subsidiary in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  The new rigs will be of Letourneau's new 240-C design, which can drill in 400 feet of water.  The cost is about $165 million each, with deliveries in 2Q 2008 and 1Q 2009.  Read Rowan's announcement in the News section of their web site, here.  December 3, 2005.

   HORIZON FOLLOWS MATSON, RAISES RATES.  Horizon Lines has announced increases in its rates for its Hawaiian service which are, (surprise, surprise), almost identical to those announced by Matson Navigation last month.  Ah, the pressures of competition in the Jones Act trades!  Read Horizon's announcement in the News section of their web site, here.  December 2, 2005.

   BOLLINGER GETS TWO BARGES FOR MORAN.  Moran Towing has ordered two ocean barges from Bollinger Shipyards, to be built in the Amelia yard.  One is a 60,000-barrel tank barge, to be delivered in September 2006, the other a 15,000-ton dry bulk barge, to be delivered in May 2006.  Read Bollinger's announcement here.  December 2, 2005.

   BAY GETS ANOTHER ATB.  Vane Line Bunkering has ordered a 145,000-barrel ATB from Manitowoc Marine's Bay Shipbuilding unit, for delivery in the third quarter of 2007.  Read Manitowoc's announcement here.  December 2, 2005.

   OGLEBAY SELLS "BUCKEYE".  Oglebay Norton has sold the laker "Buckeye", which was built at Sparrows Point as the "Sparrows Point", in 1952, (Bethlehem hull # 4505).  The buyer is K & K Warehousing, which paid $4 million and will convert it to serve as floating storage.  Read Oglebay's announcement here.  December 2, 2005.

   APSI STARTS ITS SECOND TANKER.  Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc., (APSI), has cut steel for its second product carrier.  Read the announcement here.  I think we need to track the milestone dates on this series, don't you?  I'm sure that if I miss a date, someone will fill me in.  December 1, 2005.

   NEWPORT NEWS GETS CARRIER OVERHAUL.  The Navy has awarded a contract to Newport News Shipbuilding, which is, I believe, a subsidiary of the No Good Corporation, for the refueling and complex overhaul, (RCOH), of the USS "Carl Vinson", (CVN 70).  The contract is valued at $1,940,000,000 and runs through March 2009.  Read the DefenseLink announcement here.  Actually, they've been working on this project since July.  This is the stuff that only Newport News can do, and they are good at it.  Go to it, guys.  December 1/5, 2005.

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