Page 59: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2018)

Seaspan Shipyards:

Building Canada’s Future

There’s a shipbuilding resurgence underway in Canada that’s be- ing driven by a long-term multibillion dollar government initiative to rebuild the federal ? eet of Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian

Coast Guard vessels and breathe new life into the country’s shipbuild- ing industry. Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards is an active player.

BY ERIC HAUN

Under Canada’s National Shipbuild- a backlog of work ever such as we have to get us started; engineering contract to “That supply base is growing with ev- ing Strategy (NSS), the Vancouver, B.C. today, nor have we had the promise of do all the design and engineering – pre- ery successive program that we engage shipbuilder was selected in 2011 to de- that backlog of work because there has production, if you will; a long-lead item in with our federal government,” Page liver several types of large non-combat not been a federal, national commitment contract that allows us to go to market said. “We’re creating an ecosystem, if vessels for the Navy and Coast Guard, to a long-term strategic recapitalization to acquire vendor furnished information, you will, that will sustain the efforts of while another shipyard on the East program for our maritime forces prob- to mature design work and ultimately get Vancouver Shipyards and responding to

Coast, Irving Shipbuilding, will deliver ably since the Second World War.” costing so that we can have a pretty good the demand of our customer for a long, the combat ships. The NSS also calls for Prior to the NSS, the shipyard had idea what it’s going to cost to build the strategic build program.” a number of smaller vessels from several mostly built tugs, barges and ferries. ship so that the government can then get The Canadian government estimates other yards throughout Canada. “Currently, we have three active and us under contract to build.” that contracts awarded through the NSS concurrent and shipbuilding programs “We don’t have build contracts for the (overall, not just at Seaspan) have con-

Vancouver Rising underway, which is a rarity in North oceanographic science vessel yet,” Page tributed some $7.7 billion to the nation’s

Seaspan Shipyards won the open com- American shipbuilding,” Page said. said, “and we have no formal contracts gross domestic product and create or petitive bid to build non-combat vessels Seaspan is well into the program to pro- for our polar icebreaker program yet, nor maintain an average of more than 7,000 over 1,000 gross tons in Vancouver. That duce the three ? sheries science vessels, do we have anything but a commitment jobs per year.

backlog currently includes three Off- and in June it began building the ? rst by our federal government to build up to shore Fisheries Science Vessels (OFSV), of two joint support ships. The yard is 10 additional vessels after we’ve com- Seaspan Invests one Offshore Oceanographic Science also designing, planning and procuring pleted the polar icebreaker.” The build With the promise of steady work

Vessel (OOSV) and one Polar Class Ice- long-lead items for our oceanographic schedule will ultimately be determined through the NSS, Seaspan has invested breaker for the Canadian Coast Guard, science vessel. Work to produce a polar by federal government demand, he ex- heavily in its facilities and staff required plus two Joint Support Ships (JSS) for icebreaker is also due to join the mix. plained: “We see this as a 20-year build for the large-scale, long-term project. In the Royal Canadian Navy. The company program. It’s for [the government] to de- 2014, the shipyard completed a two-year anticipates further work on non-combat ‘Considerable Risk’ cide how they want to manage that.” $170 million modernization program vessels to be de? ned by its federal cus- Balancing such a workload has its that included the addition of a very large tomer in the coming years. challenges. “It’s a portfolio that includes An Ecosystem of Suppliers gantry crane (named Hiyí Skwáyel, the

This current and future activity is re- considerable risk, given the soft-toothed All the while, an expanding pool of Squamish language translation of “Big vitalizing an entire industry by creating nature of program – three vessels, one, suppliers is pitching in with Seaspan for Blue”), four fabrication buildings and a new work up and down the shipbuild- then two, then one,” Page explained. the long-term endeavor. “The Canadian load-out pier. ing supply chain. To date, thanks to its “So, over the ? rst seven vessels that we market is keenly interested in support- “We’ve created here, in our opinion,

NSS-related work alone, Seaspan has will be producing here at Vancouver ing us,” Page said. “They are, like we, the most modern shipyard of its kind in $600 million in committed contracts and Shipyards, there will be four prototypes, inexperienced in the business by virtue North America,” Page said. Addition- engaged approximately 500 Canadian which is a pretty tall order for an indus- of not having built any large vessels in ally, in April this year, Seaspan opened a ? rms, the vast majority of which are try that has recently been reborn.” this country for 30 years. So, we’re all new 7,800 square meter of? ce next to its small- and medium-sized enterprises. “The federal government has decided learning together; we’re all in the same yard that will serve primarily as a collab- “The National Shipbuilding Strategy is that the best way of managing the pro- classroom, if you will, all trying to ? g- orative space for Vancouver Shipyards causing a rebirth of shipbuilding on the gram in the year to years is to have a se- ure out how to anticipate our federal cus- to execute preproduction work under the

West Coast, simply put,” said Tim Page, ries of contracts for each project. So, for tomer’s needs, and then how to procure NSS.

Vice president of Government Relations the ? sheries science vessel we have four those needs in a timely, cost-effective, With a project of this magnitude also at Seapsan Shipyards. “We have not had separate contracts: an ancillary contract quality-driven perspective.” comes demand for a new and larger tal- www.marinelink.com 59

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