Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (January 2012)

24MNJanuary 2012 All U.S. Coasts enjoying upswing in business.Build & Repair Work Accelerates by Susan Buchanan For many U.S. builders, last year closed on a happier note than 2010 ? when the BP spill, offshore drilling ban and weak U.S. and global economies hurt business. In 2011, new orders for vessels for the oil industry and for the U.S. and foreign governments promised to keep a number of builders busy in 2012. A need to comply withnew federal regulations created work, and repair activity grew. The upshot is that coastal economies are getting a needed boost. But some companies find themselves with more customers than they can immediately handle. Paul Candies, President and CEO of Otto Candies in Des Allemands, La., said ?Interest in new construction for large, platform supply vessels seems to be considerable now. Following the end of the moratorium last year, drill rigs are coming back to the Gulf, oil-and-gas lease sales have resumed, and people are getting back to work in anticipation of more drilling." At the company's shipyard in Houma, LA, Candies added, ?We have two inspection, maintenance and repair vessels under construction, scheduled for 2012 delivery and under contract to Petrobras in Brazil. We also have three, large 285-to300-foot platform supply vessels under construction for 2012-2013 delivery, and they'll go to work for oil companies in the Gulf. Because we build for ourselves and stay as close to schedule as possible, we don't have backlogs at our yard.? MOREGOODNEWS Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La. is similarly busy with work for the government and other clients. In September, the Coast Guard awarded a $179.7 million contract option to Bollinger to produce four Sentinel- class, fast-response cutters to be delivered in 2014. That brought the total number of FRC?s under contract with Bollinger to twelve, valued at $597 million. If all options are exercised, the company's current FRC contract for up to 34 cutters will be worth $1.5 billion. Separately, in a new $720 million build program announced in November, Hornbeck Offshore Services plans to construct sixteen, 300-class offshore supply ves- sels, and has contracted eight of them to VT Halter Marine in Pascagoula, and eight to Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, FL, with options to build more. Meanwhile, in Tampa, RiverHawk Fast Sea Frames has been building naval vessels for Iraq and one for Lebanon. BOLLINGERSTAYS DIVERSIFIEDBollinger has a backlog spread out between government and commercial work, said Robert Socha, the company's Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing. ?We continue to see our new construction backlog increasing, with minimal, available keel space at this time,? he said. ?Our backlog consists of Sentinel Class, fast-response cut- ters for the Coast Guard; ocean-class tugs for Crowley; sludge ships for the City of New York; a 55,000-barrel, Oil Pollution Act of 1990-compliant, offshore tank barge for Bouchard Transportation; and a Terrebonne Levee District flood gate.? 134-feet multi-mission, survey catamaran for Lafayette, La.?s, C&C Technologies. MN#1 (18-31):MN 2011 Layouts 1/5/2012 2:29 PM Page 24