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VT Halter Invests in its Facilities. The company has invested more than $120m over the last ? ve years – including direct com- pany investment and grants – that have helped to build the new repair yard (left).

properly structuring management to deal ships will provide opportunities as well, that’s an area where you are going to see maintain a fairly solid and steady work with the two separate entities.” and we’re now positioning ourselves to more activity.” base, and in fact one of the bright spots support that market. There are a lack With this historically strong backlog, in the oil market downturn has been a

A Lifetime in Shipbuilding of (LNG) ‘service stations,’ and I think VT Halter has been able to attract and loosening of the labor market, in that

Bill Skinner is a walking encyclope- dia of shipbuilding knowledge, having started his ship construction career at Al- abama Drydock in 1969. While he will soon have 46 years experience under his belt, he remains humbled and committed to a management philosophy rooted in ? nding the right people and letting them do their jobs. “Our greatest asset is our people, and my style is to stay close to our personnel, listening to the thoughts of our long-tenured employees. I believe in surrounding yourself with good peo- ple and letting them do their jobs.”

While he has worked under a number of corporate entities as shipyards have changed ownership hands, Skinner es- sentially has worked for two companies in his career, and in that time he has his fair share of challenges to building, run- ning and maintaining an ef? cient and pro? table shipbuilding business. He considers his primary challenge, though, as maintaining an adequate backlog to keep the yard and its workers gainfully employed.

“In our business, particularly on new construction, we need about ? ve years of backlog, and building backlog is always a challenge,” said Skinner. “You’ve seen recently the oil prices plummeting, and we’ve seen a lot of the owners now pulling back on capital expenditures.”

To date, VT Halter has not received any cancellations because of the fast- falling oil prices, but Skinner said there has been a noticeable downturn in inqui- ries. And while a downturn in activity is never welcome news in a manufacturing entity, Skinner relies on VT Halter’s sol- id reputation for garnering repeat busi- ness, such as Bouchard and Crowley, which have had near continuous new- build programs with the yard for nearly 15 years each.

But Skinner has seen enough market ? uctuations in his 46 years experience to know that when one door closes, another one opens. “We stay close to our customers and listen to what they’re saying, which gives us an indication of what will be coming down the pike,” said Skinner. “Some of the customers in the oil ? eld service industry are pulling back, but we think it will be short lived. At the same time we see there will be opportuni- ties with the transportation of crude oil.

Also, the bunkering and fueling of LNG www.marinelink.com 75

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