Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2017)

Matt Paxton, President, SCA oices

U.S. Navy photo by Nathan T. Beard

U.S. Shipbuilding: The aircraft carrier Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Gerald

R. Ford (PCU 78), left, and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) sit pierside at Naval Station Norfolk.

Matt Paxton, president of the Shipbuilder’s

Council of America, shares with Maritime

Reporter & Engineering News his insights on the opportunities and challenges ahead.

BY GREG TRAUTHWEIN

Image: SCA

The United States shipbuilding mar- commercial shipbuilding, commercial We also see excitement growing re- encouraging. ket is diverse and geographically wide- ship repair; government/navy shipbuild- garding the business to build Arctic spread, tasked to build everything from ing and government/navy ship repair,” icebreakers (for the U.S. Coast Guard), Speaking of energy, the depressed the most sophisticated military warships said Paxton. “Many of our shipyards are a project which will have a huge ripple pricing for energy is well into its third on the planet to small ferries, and every- diverse, and appear in all four of those effect throughout our industry, as these year. It has impacted a number of thing in between. As president of SCA quadrants.” With that, Paxton gives his are complex vessels. (On the commer- traditional offshore players. How do since 2007, Matt Paxton has made it job insights on what is hot, what is not, and cial side), in the Paci? c northwest and you see the energy markets?

one to make SCA a unifying voice for what will drive the U.S. shipbuilding and offshore Alaska you are seeing a big re- The price of oil has impacted a large the collective industry, a champion of the repair market further faster in the com- capitalization of the ? shing ? eet. These segment of our industry. We answered the industry in raising its pro? le and stature ing years. are big, complex vessels, a real success bell when the price of oil was skyrocket- in political and business circles. “Having story, and there is more to come. We are ing and there was a need to build tankers that singular voice is good for the indus- What is the ‘state of the industry’? now delivering our ? rst offshore wind quickly for that market. Shipyards were try, as it helps us to work more effective- I think it depends on where you sit, vessel. We would like to see that seg- able to recon? gure themselves quickly, ly here in Washington, D.C., and it helps but to start there is tremendous excite- ment grow, but we are realistic about the and that experience helped to show the us to build up in all four quadrants of the ment with the prospects of meeting the price of energy right now. Offshore wind level of innovation at shipyards in the shipbuilding industrial base, which is: challenge of building a 355 ship navy. is a potential market, and long-term it is United States to ramp up.

22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • OCTOBER 2017

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