Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1973)

General Dynamics Awarded Four Additional

LNG Tankers—Total Cost $380 Million

Workmen are nearing completion of the concrete slab floor on Building Basin Twelve at

General Dynamics, Quincy Shipbuilding Division. The Basin will be the site of the first liquefied natural gas tanker to be constructed in the United States.

General Dynamics Corporation has announced that it has received firm orders totaling $380 million to build four additional liquefied na- tural gas tankers at its Quincy (Mass.) Shipbuilding Division.

It is the largest single commercial order ever received by a U.S. ship- yard.

The new four ships to be built at Quincy will !be identical to the three 125,000-cubic-meter ships al- ready in Quincy's backlog. They raise Quincy's current commercial backlog to $650,000,000.

Buyers of the four LNG tankers will be 'Cherokee I Shipping Corp.,

Cherokee II Shipping Corp., Chero- kee III Shipping Corp. and Chero- kee IV Shipping Corp. The ships will be chartered to subsidiaries of

Energy Transportation Corp., a re- cently formed U.S.-flag vessel oper- ation which will also operate the three other LNG tankers being built at Quincy.

The new vessels will be used to transport liquefied natural gas un- der a contract between Burmah Oil

Limited and the Indonesian state- owned oil and gas company Per- tamina. The pact covers gas sold by Pertamina to buyers in Japan.

All four LNG tankers will carry

American registry and American crews.

The U.S. Maritime Administra- tion will issue mortgage guarantees for the four tankers under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act. How- ever, the tankers will not require construction subsidies.

David S. Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer of General

Dynamics, said the first of the addi- tional four LNG tankers will be delivered in December 1976, and the last in July 1978. "These orders for seven indenti- cal ships at fair prices settle once and for all the long-term future of

Quincy and confirm our decision of a year ago to keep the yard open to meet the increasing requirements of the growing worldwide market for LNG tankers," Mr. Lewis said.

General Dynamics reported on

November 8 its earnings for the first nine months of 1973 were the highest of the past six years.

Nine-month earnings were $2.62 per common share, or $27,530,000 on sales of $1,209,846,000. The earn- ings for the nine months were ap- proximately 52 percent greater than in the same period last year, when earnings were $1.71 per common share, or $18,150,000 on sales of $1,151,435,000.

Third quarter earnings were $1.06 per common share, or $11,080,000 on sales of $382,986,000. This com- pares with earnings of 63 cents per common share, or $6,714,000 on sales of $382,288,000 for the third quarter of 1972.

Mr. Lewis said strong perform- ances in both the commercial and

Government areas of business were responsible for the earnings in- crease.

Telecommunications, building materials and resources earnings were particularly significant, he said.

Earnings of Stromberg-Carlson

Corporation, a leading producer of telephones and telecommunications equipment, increased substantially in the nine months over the same period last year, Mr. Lewis said.

This increase was due to increased sales and earnings of its CROSS-

REED electronic and electrome- chanical switching equipment and telephone instruments. The backlog for telephone equipment is now at an all-time high.

The substantial earnings increase by M.arblehead Lime Co., the na- tion's leading lime producer, re- flected the increased production by the_ steel industry, Marblehead's major customer.

Material Service Corp., the Mid- west's leading supplier of building materials, also made sizeable earn- ings increases due primarily to in- creased construction activity in the

Chicago area.

Interest costs decreased sharply during 1973 because of continuing reductions in borrowings under the corporation's line of credit. Mr.

Lewis said.

He pointed out that the company had recently received contracts to- taling about $880 million for seven 688-class attack submarines and four liquefied natural gas tankers which strengthened the company's position as one of the nation's larg- est shipbuilders. "We believe that these orders will insure profitable operations at the Electric Boat and Quincy Ship- building Divisions for the rest of this decade," he said.

These orders brought the total funded backlog to $2.6 billion, the highest level in the company's his- tory, Mr. Lewis said.

Total funded and unfunded back- log is now $3.2 billion, or approxi- mately 35 percent greater than at the end of 1972, he said.

General Dynamics is a leader in aircraft and aerospace, electronics, nuclear submarines, telecommuni- cations, tactical missiles, building materials, lime, coal and asbestos, in addition to design and construc- tion of large surface ships.

MarAd Revised

Publications Catalog

Now Available

The Maritime Administration's

Eastern Region Technical Library has prepared a revised catalog of publi- cations. The catalog also lists Mari- time Administration Government

Printing Office publications which can be purchased at the Library, to- gether with prices.

Many booklets, brochures and cop- ies of Maritime Administration press releases and speeches may be obtained from the Library free of charge.

The 49-page catalog is free upon re- quest to Technical Library, Maritime

Administration, Room 3752, 26 Fed- eral Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10007.

Hanissian Joins Sanko

As Operations Manager

Sanko Steamship (U.S.A.) Corp. announced that John Hanissian will be joining the firm as its op- erations manager. Mr. Hanissian was formerly associated with Tex- as Transport & Terminal as assist- ant sales manager.

DOCKING SYSTEM i - ""MODEL 482 h wli 1 "i - • h f- H-i $ * r

The most sophisticated navigation and docking systems ever designed are now available from Edo Western Corporation.

Super tankers world-wide are being outfitted with our Model 482

Navtrak Docking System which has proven to be the leader in its field.

Incorporating the very latest "state-of-the-art", all models assure unequalled accuracy and reliability. Developed specifically to meet the docking requirements of super vessels, this precise doppler sonar system provides exact "over-the-bottom" infor- mation for docking, plus speed log information while the vessel is underway.

If your present or future requirements include an exceptionally accurate and somewhat elaborate docking system, contact: 2645 South 300 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 (801) 486-7481

December 1, 1973 15