Page 6: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2002)

arine activities surrounding the security of U.S. shores will contin- ue to present a ripe opportunity for business in 2002 and beyond. Simply put, significant political emphasis and commensu- rate amounts of tax dollars are starting to flow, as evidenced by President Bush's recent request for an additional billion dollars for the perenni- ally cash-strapped U.S. Coast Guard.

The first half of 2002 alone should effectively shape the defense/gov- ernment side of the marine business in the U.S. for decades to come, as decisions on both the U.S. Navy's DD(X) and the Coast Guard's Deep- water project are due in before the summer starts.

A news item that may have slipped under many radars, yet could prove vital to the health and well-being of U.S. ship repair facilities and suppli- ers serving the U.S. Navy, was news of the aircraft carrier John F.

Kennedy's current condition. According to wire reports, upkeep and maintenance on the ship was deferred for a good many years, the likely victim of a repair and maintenance budget shrinking faster than the U.S.

Navy fleet. The problem is, the ship was due to relieve another carrier serving ongoing operations in Afghanistan, and now it is in such shape that it will be unable to set sail for another nine months or so. It is assumed that this will serve as a wake-up call to Navy number-crunchers that adequate levels of financing to maintain an already shorthanded fleet is not an issue for compromise. The inability of a U.S. warship to per- form when called to duty due to "deferred maintenance" is as astonishing as it is alarming.

On the commercial side of the marine market, business as usual — with all of the ups and downs — is the mood of the day. A particularly noteworthy event was held by Izar's Astillero de Sestao yard in Bilbao, with the launching of the 138,000-cu.-m. LNG Carrier Ifiigo Tapias.

Sliding down the building way into the water, the 933-ft. (284.4-m) ship made a splash in both the literal and figurative sense on January 29.

It marks the return of the Spanish shipbuilding industry to a niche that of late has been dominated by shipyards in the Far East, and its hopes to leverage its massive, diverse and talented shipbuilding infrastructure to capitalize on what it terms "the decade of gas." Inigo Tapias is the first of five identical LNG carriers the company is currently contracted to build, and Izar is aggressively seeking to fill four additional building slots in the coming months. Also, the organization is doggedly pursuing cruise ship :ontracts.

Despite the prevailing poor market conditions, there are indications hat a contract signing could be close at hand. vww.marinelink.com

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