Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2014)

28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • DECEMBER 2014

SEA-Vista a series of three ECO Tank- ers that last month started construc- tion. SEA-Vista LLC is a joint venture between Seacore Holdings and Avista

Capital Partners. The tankers on order are 50,000 dwt, measuring 610-ft. long with 330,000 barrel cargo capacity. The

LNG-conversion ready Jones Act tanker series was designed by DSEC, a subsidi- atry of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine

Engineering (DSME). The ECO MR tanker is designed for fuel effi ciency courtesy of optimized hull design and the inclusion of the G-Series MAN ME slow speed main engine, dual-fuel ca- pable with the ability to accommodate the future installation of an LNG fuel- gas system and tanks.

The vagaries and uncertainties of shipbuilding and repair markets makes forward planning – for even the most seasoned veteran – part art, part science, part luck. When asked how long he sees the current run U.S. shipbuilding bull market, Graney was blunt; “if you would have talked to me two years ago, I would have told you that we would not build another tanker for fi ve years or so. Well here we are today, and we have eight in the backlog.”

While the shipyard is fi lled and bus- tling with work, Graney fi gures that it has not reached its capacity. NASSCO asked its DSME colleagues to evalu- ate yard ‘as is’ and, while the ship type mix is a critical factor in determining to- tal yard output, “if we’re talking about product carriers, they think we could do nine ships per year. We have eight tank- ers in the backlog, and in 2016 we’ll deliver six tankers, and that’s the most we’ve ever done in our history.”

While the current situation is impres- sive, Graney and his colleagues are not likely to rest on their laurels, and he considers maintaining a strong, steady order book one of the chief challenges of his job. “My main challenge? How do we sustain this. We have 11 ships in the backlog which will sustain us for three years, which is the longest time horizon apart from T-AKE that we’ve ever seen.

When we’re building commercial ships, being able to see three years out is big,” said Graney. “So the big challenge: We are hiring all of this fresh young talent, developing them rapidly, but it won’t mean anything if we don’t have work beyond the next three years to help retain them and their skills. How do we keep those guys gain- fully employed in this business? That to me a challenge.”

He’s not alone.

Building for the U.S. Navy: While the MLP – Lewis B. Puller – is actually the third in the series, in some respects it has lead ship quality as it is designated MLP 3 / AFSB, the fi rst to be equipped with a fl ight deck, a hangar and accommodations for about 250 people. “The MLP is really like the Ford F150 pick-up truck; you can put anything you want in the bed; in this case we put a fl ight deck on it,” said Kevin Graney.

SHIPBUILDING

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