Has anything been mentioned yet about this new company building a US Jones Act fleet?

American Feeder Lines

All I can say is , DAMN I hope they can get off the ground and running!

Any of us who have been to Europe or the Far East have seen the hundreds of small coaster sized vessels operating in those waters and how many have wished we could have the same types of ships in the US?

Hell, If Jack Hearn wins the AMO election, I won’t mind if the company has a contract with that union vs. the MMP/MEBA.

Great article. Thanks for posting it.

Hope McCain doesn’t torpedo this.

There will be a fight with the Teamsters over this.

[QUOTE=c.captain;44264]American Feeder Lines

All I can say is , DAMN I hope they can get off the ground and running![/QUOTE]

It would be GREAT to see this come to fruitation. Reduce road and rail congestion. More ships for US shipyards. More jobs for US, the merchant mariners to man these vessels. Hoping for this ASAP!

From the AFL website:

“AFLH currently has LOI’s signed with two major U.S. shipyards to build 5 vessels each. AFL will monitor container traffic and vessel utilization over the first three years of AFL’s existence to establish the proper purchasing processes going forward. AFL anticipates that once the Marine Highway system is in place, the Company will continue to expand and order more ships as its service network expands. It is estimated that eventually a total fleet of between 30 and 50 modern Feeder ships will be needed to properly service a fully functioning U.S. coastal Marine Highway as well as replace the existing Jones Act fleet.”

It would reduce rail and truck congestion however it could significantly increase waterborne traffic. Anyone who has transited the English channel or sailed off the coast of China knows all too well the horrors of “coaster” traffic. But then again more jobs for America=success in anyone’s book. If you talk to any logistics personnel for APL, Matson, etc, they will tell you that short-sea shipping has some major advantages and see it as a definitely viable option in the future of American merchant marine. It would make previously unused and dried up ports inland see smaller draft vessels, but this would be ok since most of those older ports don’t have the equipment or infrastructure to handle a 600’+ cargo ships on a regular basis.

In this article it states they plan to have the first of their 1,300 TEU container ships operating by 2012:

http://www.americanshipper.com/NewWeb/FC/FLC_story.asp?news=166266

Now I wonder, what will the crew size be? And will the crews be union or non-union?

Another bit of News I found surprising

[B]Shipowners team up on AHL tanker[/B]

US owners Gary Chouest and Charles Fabrikant are said to be behind a bid to purchase a 90%-built products tanker.

Two unfinished vessels in the failed three-ship newbuilding programme of AHL Shipping are set to be sold for $12.25m while the third, nearly completed 49,000-dwt products tanker may find a buyer after all.

A surprising team of US shipowners Gary Chouest and Charles Fabrikant is said to be behind one bid to buy and operate one US-flag tanker left over from the innovative but doomed project.

The unconfirmed reports of a Chouest and Fabrikant tie-up come after a US bankruptcy judge approved an offer to buy the makings of two more tanker newbuildings for the surprisingly high price of $12.25m — significantly better than scrap, although both projects are in pieces. The bid is from a group including machinery and equipment liquidator Hilco Industrial.

New Jersey-based brokerage Compass Maritime is handling the sale on behalf of AHL’s bankruptcy trustee. Bidding is still open through the end of this week. The New Orleans bankruptcy court will hold a hearing on 23 November and auction the vessel if competition emerges.

Compass broker Evan Sproviero says he also expects imminent new developments in Compass’s efforts to sell the nearly complete ship. But Sproviero declines to reveal anything about the possible buyers.

Other sources point to Connecticut-based Nickel Van Reesema, reorganised New Jersey-based tanker owner US Shipping Corp and the cash-rich team of private offshore shipowner Chouest and New York-listed Seacor.

The multi-yard AHL-Shell programme to build tankers in modular segments and assemble them at Mobile’s Atlantic Marine Alabama shipyard was halted by the bankruptcy of three shipowning subsidiaries in November 2009 after delays and overruns.

AHL Shipping’s trading tanker fleet threw in the cards as well in April of this year.

TradeWinds understands that oil major Shell, the biggest creditor with at least $368m sunk in the project, has offered a long-term time charter to whoever buys and completes the ship. The charter would have a duration of up to seven years at a rate of $42,000 per day with increases.

Shipowners involved are said to be more or less ignoring the Shell offer, which is not very generous by the standards of the expensive Jones Act trades and would moreover require the winner to buy the uncompleted ship from the bankruptcy trustee for at least $30m — cutting its embarrassing losses somewhat.

But a price of around $17m or $18m for the 90% complete tanker is said to be on the high end of realistic expectations and some observers go much lower to around $10m — in part because buyers are unsure how much of that 90% will have to be redone because of hidden technical flaws.

Fabrikant’s interest in the stranded tonnage is an about-face.

Fabrikant’s Seacor, among other US tanker owners, was a harsh critic of AHL’s expansion of the overtonnaged Jones Act market.

More surprising is the involvement of Chouest, the private owner of major offshore company Edison Chouest, a dynamic player in its field but not until now involved in Jones Act tankers — unlike Seacor with its legacy fleet of Seabulk tankers alongside its offshore and tug fleets.

Observers point to some interesting complementarities. Chouest is very close to Shell, operating with near exclusivity for the oil major in the US Gulf workboat market. Also, Chouest has its own large yard, the former Bender yard at Tampa, and could take over the completion from Atlantic Marine.

Others add that taking on Chouest as an equity partner, rather than merely contracting the completion to his Tampa yard as some had expected, could give Seacor more confidence in the deal.

From what I have seen/read this is a PR brochure being put out as a ‘feeler’ by a consortium of companies who want to see what kind of response they get. The Government has put up no money for this. Actually Obama removed this from the current budget. If you recall the ‘Short Sea Shipping’ initiative from several years ago, this is the renaming, rejuvenation of it. Firstly some couldn’t say SSS. And some felt it needed snazzier name recognition.

I heard an interesting rumor from an Icelandic company subsidiary. They were looking into building three Jones act 500-700 TEU ships for the east coast market. But then the economy dropped out. The idea was to capture the feeder market from Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philly, NY and Boston And make it all dump into one port for overseas transshipment. Awesome idea. Just hasn’t taken hold yet.

This ain’t nothing new. Seatrain is the first I remember. Trailerbridge, Crowley and others have tried and some still are still in the business. There’s no way a small ship can compete with a tug and barge in SSS.

[QUOTE=injunear;44342]This ain’t nothing new. Seatrain is the first I remember. Trailerbridge, Crowley and others have tried and some still are still in the business. There’s no way a small ship can compete with a tug and barge in SSS.[/QUOTE]

Just wondering (and showing my ignorance of the towing industry here) are there any ATB’s that are container barges/tugs? I know there are many ATB’s that are tank barges as well as tugs pulling container barges in a traditional configuration, but what about container ATB’s?

There are many tugs towing container and ro/ro barges on the East Coast/gulf and Carribean runs. There a few bulk ATBs on east Coast/Gulf/Carribean runs. I’ve heard talk of large ro/ros and container ATBs to be built. The Canadians have a couple of ro/ro ATBs on the West Coast and building more.

id like to see a pic of one of the ro/ro atbs

I was involved with one being built by Robert Bludworth back when I was with ABS. Let me see if I can find any pictures.

Here is an article. The bow opens. http://www.navyshipnews.com/2007/12/msc-sends-thunderlightening-to-iraq.html

[QUOTE=anchorman;44313]Another bit of News I found surprising

[B]Shipowners team up on AHL tanker[/B]

US owners Gary Chouest and Charles Fabrikant are said to be behind a bid to purchase a 90%-built products tanker.

Two unfinished vessels in the failed three-ship newbuilding programme of AHL Shipping are set to be sold for $12.25m while the third, nearly completed 49,000-dwt products tanker may find a buyer after all.

A surprising team of US shipowners Gary Chouest and Charles Fabrikant is said to be behind one bid to buy and operate one US-flag tanker left over from the innovative but doomed project.

The unconfirmed reports of a Chouest and Fabrikant tie-up come after a US bankruptcy judge approved an offer to buy the makings of two more tanker newbuildings for the surprisingly high price of $12.25m — significantly better than scrap, although both projects are in pieces. The bid is from a group including machinery and equipment liquidator Hilco Industrial.

New Jersey-based brokerage Compass Maritime is handling the sale on behalf of AHL’s bankruptcy trustee. Bidding is still open through the end of this week. The New Orleans bankruptcy court will hold a hearing on 23 November and auction the vessel if competition emerges.

Compass broker Evan Sproviero says he also expects imminent new developments in Compass’s efforts to sell the nearly complete ship. But Sproviero declines to reveal anything about the possible buyers.

Other sources point to Connecticut-based Nickel Van Reesema, reorganised New Jersey-based tanker owner US Shipping Corp and the cash-rich team of private offshore shipowner Chouest and New York-listed Seacor.

The multi-yard AHL-Shell programme to build tankers in modular segments and assemble them at Mobile’s Atlantic Marine Alabama shipyard was halted by the bankruptcy of three shipowning subsidiaries in November 2009 after delays and overruns.

AHL Shipping’s trading tanker fleet threw in the cards as well in April of this year.

TradeWinds understands that oil major Shell, the biggest creditor with at least $368m sunk in the project, has offered a long-term time charter to whoever buys and completes the ship. The charter would have a duration of up to seven years at a rate of $42,000 per day with increases.

Shipowners involved are said to be more or less ignoring the Shell offer, which is not very generous by the standards of the expensive Jones Act trades and would moreover require the winner to buy the uncompleted ship from the bankruptcy trustee for at least $30m — cutting its embarrassing losses somewhat.

But a price of around $17m or $18m for the 90% complete tanker is said to be on the high end of realistic expectations and some observers go much lower to around $10m — in part because buyers are unsure how much of that 90% will have to be redone because of hidden technical flaws.

Fabrikant’s interest in the stranded tonnage is an about-face.

Fabrikant’s Seacor, among other US tanker owners, was a harsh critic of AHL’s expansion of the overtonnaged Jones Act market.

More surprising is the involvement of Chouest, the private owner of major offshore company Edison Chouest, a dynamic player in its field but not until now involved in Jones Act tankers — unlike Seacor with its legacy fleet of Seabulk tankers alongside its offshore and tug fleets.

Observers point to some interesting complementarities. Chouest is very close to Shell, operating with near exclusivity for the oil major in the US Gulf workboat market. Also, Chouest has its own large yard, the former Bender yard at Tampa, and could take over the completion from Atlantic Marine.

Others add that taking on Chouest as an equity partner, rather than merely contracting the completion to his Tampa yard as some had expected, could give Seacor more confidence in the deal.[/QUOTE]

I wonder, could this have anything to do with the “Seacor Hub”? This video is on the homepage of Seacor Marine’s website: http://seacormarine.com/video/kelly_hub/index.html

Double post, sorry.

atb with deckbarge http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1023052

another is the STRONG AMERICAN

[QUOTE=c.captain;44760]another is the STRONG AMERICAN[/QUOTE]

I believe there were 2 of those units built. I remember them laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet in the early '80s. They were painted blue back then.