It seems like his most recent rant was all about the build requirement, is that what’s he’s after, or doing some backpedaling? I don’t trust the guy about this at all but I’d love to hear some more info in depth about it, nothing I have read goes that specific.
Need to know the exacts and be educated on this to fight it as hard as possible.
Looks like the petition has crawled to a stop. I thought for sure mariners would get together and sign this. Oh well, we tried.
From McCain’s recent speech:
[I]“Just recently, U.S. container-line Matson placed a $418 million order for two 3,600 twenty-foot equivalent unit (T.E.U.) containerships in a U.S. shipyard. The high price of $209 million per vessel reflects that the ships will be carrying goods within the U.S. and, therefore, governed by the protectionist Jones Act.
“The fact is that Matson’s order at $209 million per ship is more than five times more expensive than those same ships were procured outside the United States. Ships of that size built outside the U.S. would cost closer to $40 million each. For comparison, even Maersk Line’s far larger 18,270 T.E.U. ships cost millions less, at an average of $185 million apiece.
“Further, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has found that the cost to operate U.S. flag vessels – at $22,000 per day – is about 2.7 times higher than foreign-flag vessels – just $6,000 per day. A significant factor in these increased costs is obviously the Jones Act."[/I]
On the cost of ships: The Costa Concordia cost just under $500,000,000 to build, in Italy. The Queen Mary II cost about $690,000,0000 to build in France. Neither of those countries are cheap countries to operate in. Due to amenities, the cost of a giant cruise ship is absurdly more expensive than a container ship. There’s something REALLY wrong when Europe can build for far less than the US.
I don’t know what causes such a wide differential. I’m guessing it’s due, not to one or two things, but to hundreds of little things that add up to create one big mess.
The same thing goes on operating costs. I don’t think that Danes or Norwegians would make that much less than Americans. Again, I’m guessing that it’s due to lots and lots of little things adding up to one big mess.
Of course, the US doesn’t look at what those foreign countries are doing right and make an attempt to emulate them. Instead, the US just piles on more and more regulations and costs and then blames “fate”. Unless the US takes steps to put ourselves on an equal playing field with other countries, we’re heading down the tubes.
Like buying light bulbs for $30 a piece from Grainger that retail for $6 at Home Depot. I don’t care there’s no way you’re getting a %80 discount off graingers retail. Companies in the US are braindead when it comes to buying the things it it takes to run.
If we had had the same regulations that we have today at the beginning of World War II, we would all be speaking German now.
[QUOTE=z-drive;152435]I
In Europe, say Italy, are the workers Italians, or foreigners from poor nations working for peanuts? If skilled shipyard workers make low wages, or foreigners are paid shit, that doesn’t help the economy either.
Avondale should be kept open for some of this new tonnage being built![/QUOTE]
I spent a few months at Fincantieri, shipyard in Palermo last year. Most of the supervisors were Italian. The general labor was around 50% Italian, the rest from Eastern Europe, mostly Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. I can say they were making crap for wages. I have a couple Romanian motorman and they tell me when they were working for a local dredging company in Romania, basically being a deck hand/deck mechanic, they were making the equivalent of 500 U.S. dollars a month, and happy to get that.
[QUOTE=z-drive;152623]Like buying light bulbs for $30 a piece from Grainger that retail for $6 at Home Depot. I don’t care there’s no way you’re getting a %80 discount off graingers retail. Companies in the US are braindead when it comes to buying the things it it takes to run.[/QUOTE]
One of my pet peeves is insisting on buying 110V tools for a 220V ship and about five sets of battery tools from three different manufacturers with seven different battery types. I can understand why they buy tools with the wrong plug shape when they source locally, but then it takes a month for them to send you new plugs, and they’re liable to be the wrong kind anyway. One time I ordered fluorescent starters out of the standard catalog, and they sent these wacky Japanese threaded ones I’ve never seen used in my life. Of course, the Chief explains that I “must’ve wrote the number wrong,” when I did it in an Excel spreadsheet. I looked back, and saw -[I]wow![/I]- the part number didn’t match what they sent. Fuck me, right?