just another sad sign that our industry is withering away into a pathetic insignificant existence…
except for a period in the 1970’s, this yard has been in continual operation full century and during WWII was a major builder of T2 tankers…a brief summary of their history is here
I was the unfortunate participant in a 10 year special survey there about 6 years ago. I’m quite surprised it lasted this long. It was a shitshow of a yard. At that time they had sold the entirety of their machine shop equipment and were subcontracting everything. The writing was on the wall.
whatever their merits (or lack of) it is still sad to see yet more of our industry go away and as a result it get continually smaller each year. the world’s powerhouse of industry is dying before our very eyes.
how much you wanna bet now that Gary Chouest makes some sweetheart deal with Alabama to take over this yard too so that when there is a rebound, he will own every big drydock in the GoM?
A 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariff will be the death knell for a lot more small and medium yards, and small craft builders.
I don’t dispute this. It sucks. But BAE ran this yard into the ground trying to run it on a shoestring budget and not giving a shit about their customers.
There are yards like Signal or Detyens that seem to be able to make it work, but if your product is crap, the shipowners are not going to come back.
Surely everybody will just buy American steel and aluminum, which is not affected?
Or do do imply that American manufacturers will be so unpatriotic that the increase their prices???
Isn’t this a subsidiary of a very large British military contractor who were looking to cash in on US Navy contracts??
Did those somehow not materialize and thus they lost money rather than cashing in??
BAE still has Norshipco in Norfolk and Atlantic Marine in Jacksonville so are doing quite well with naval work I am sure.
Yeah I’d say so , 8 ships at the Norfolk yard right now
Dude don’t make me laugh and spit my coffee…as you know, steel is a commodity and the price will rise across the board no matter who produces it. Ask Electrolux why they decided to shelve plans to expand their Tennessee plant.
Don’t give him ideas. I’m sure small appliances are next.
Yes you and I know that, but apparently it is a mystery to some commentators to this article about how the steel tariffs will affect US Shipbuilding:
Another that do not understand how things actually work in world trade is Donald Trump:
Don’t let simple facts get in the way of a good campaign promise.