Ship Production News

Big data, advanced computers and AI are allowing vessel designers to prepare models that leave essentially nothing to chance.“Lastly, it may be of considerable importance to form from the draught a block model of the vessel from which a still more accurate judgment may be formed of the fitness and beauty of the body. And should any defect be discovered, farther alterations must still be made, till the draught and the model are perfectly approved of. These different alterations and repeated calculations may appear very tedious…

A new council aiming to improve the way U.S. government does business in ship acquisition and ship maintenance convened at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore on Thursday.In kicking off the inaugural meeting of the Government Shipbuilders Council (GSC), Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro underscored the council’s mission to address common and singular challenges among those that contract in shipbuilding; identify opportunities to leverage each organization’s resources to maximize government savings in costs…

Austal USA Vice President of Engineering, Tom Perrine, has retired after eight years of service with the company and over 40 years in the shipbuilding industry. During his tenure, Perrine led Austal USA’s engineering department overseeing the work of over 250 engineers, naval architects, designers, and other engineering support staff and overseeing the department’s shift to include steel design and construction.During Perrine’s tenure with the company, Austal USA delivered 23 surface combatants and auxiliaries to the U.S.

Tom Perrine, Austal USA vice president of engineering, was recognized by the University of Michigan as the 2022 Rosenblatt-Michigan Award recipient. The award is presented annually by the University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in recognition of outstanding professional achievement, integrity and devotion to excellence and innovation in ship design.The award honors the name of its first recipient, Lester Rosenblatt…

U.S. shipyards are making improvements to building ships for the Navy and Coast Guard today and in the future. In some cases, it means phasing out one class of ship and getting ready for the next. Or, it can be a drastic make-over.The yards include mid-tier yards all the way up to very large facilities devoted exclusively to warships. The ships range from the 353-ton Fast Response Cutter to the 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin…

As a rudderless U.S. Navy debates maritime strategy, fleet futures and platform performance, America’s naval shipbuilding industry can look forward to another year of relative stasis.Barring a major geopolitical incident or unexpected maritime provocation, government shipbuilding isn’t going to change course. With Admiral Michael Gilday approaching the final “lame duck” year of his four-year term as Chief of Naval Operations and the 2024 election season looming, the prospect for major changes in the Navy’s demand signal seems limited.Aside from the U.S.

As the geopolitical landscape continues to quickly transform with the Russia/Ukraine war, Europe's over-dependence on Russian energy has become painfully apparent. VSM – the German Shipbuilding and Ocean Industries Association that represents the political and commercial interests of the German maritime over a diversity of maritime market segments – issued the following statement and overview of the global shipbuilding market, highlighting how highly subsidized shipbuilding markets…

Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku on Monday commenced production of Royal Caribbean International's next cruise ship Icon of the Seas. The start of production and the revealing of the ship’s name were celebrated at the shipyard's plate hall, where Meyer Turku CEO Tim Meyer, Chairman of the Board of Meyer Turku , Bernard Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, Richard Fain, and Harri Kulovaara, Executive Vice President of Maritime & Newbuilds, were present. CEO and president of Royal Caribbean International…

CADMATIC Ltd and Floorganise BV have entered into a strategic partnership to expand their product porfolios and enhance production planning and control at shipyards. The partnership includes joint software products as well as technical and commercial cooperation under the Cadmatic Floorganise brand name. Building on previous cooperation on integration projects with customers in the superyacht and workboat industries, the partnership facilitates joint development of a shipbuilding planning and control platform that integrates engineering data with planning and control functions.

Japan's biggest shipbuilders Imabari Shipbuilding and Japan Marine United (JMU) have formalized their business alliance by agreeing to enter into a capital tie-up amid blockbuster mergers in South Korea and China.According to Jiji Press, with the alliance, the shipbuilders aim to strengthen their international competitiveness at a time when South Korean and Chinese rivals are going through major realignment to grow stronger.Under the basic deal Imabari Shipbuilding plans to buy a nearly 30 pct stake in JMU via a shares purchase. The duo plans to finalize the agreement within the 2019 fiscal year, ending in March 2020.The partners will establish a new company that will design, build and market commercial vessels, including tankers, cargo ships and vehicle carriers.

The engineering and technology SENER and the world's largest shipbuilding company Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  to work together in the field of computer-aided systems for ship design and production.Both companies agreed to share knowledge on requirements and roadmaps to set new paradigms for the design, building and operation of future ships, including Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twin, Internet of Things and Virtual Commissioning, among other conceptsSENER will continuously monitor HHI requirements to promote the collaboration for the development of new systems and facilitate the…

Secretary of the Navy, The Honorable Richard V. Spencer, visited the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, the home of Freedom-Variant Littoral Combat Ship production. The Lockheed Martin-led Team Freedom has delivered five ships to the U.S. Navy to date, with two more scheduled for delivery this year. "It is truly great to see what is being produced up here with the American worker," Secretary Spencer said during a shipyard tour. "We're producing a ship that based on price is exceptional. Spencer visited to view the modernized production line and tour LCS 13, the future USS WICHITA. Over the past 10 years, the Freedom-variant industry team invested more than $120 million to modernize the shipyard, hire more than 1,000 people and train a new workforce.

While orders for new vessels have continued to decline worldwide in 2017, the situation in the German and European shipbuilding market is different, with an increase of incoming orders. As shipping experts state: “…this is not a trend but a snapshot, but it indicates a high competitiveness of the German shipbuilding industry, particularly on technologically advanced projects.”The global mood barometer of the maritime industry had reached its lowest point in 2016. From the abyss confidence and order have carefully increased…

General Dynamics NASSCO has started construction on the second ship in a two-ship series of Kanaloa-class containerships for Matson Navigation Company, Inc. Construction of Matsonia began with a ceremonial first cut of steel at NASSCO's San Diego shipyard where the first ship in the series, Lurline, is 15 percent complete. Both ships will transport containers, automobiles and rolling stock between the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii. Using proven design standards, the ship design incorporates liquefied natural gas-capable main and auxiliary engines, which are compliant with Tier III emission requirements. Future installation of a LNG fuel gas system can be accommodated on the 870-foot-long, 3,500 TEU platform combination container and roll-on/roll-off ("Con-Ro") vessels.

When it comes to shipbuilding, the numbers are staggering: hundreds of millions of parts in one aircraft carrier. Billions of dollars proposed for Naval fleet development in the latest NDAA. Hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs in the U.S. alone. A 2015 MARAD report, for example, pegged the total economic impact associate with the industry at 400,000 jobs, $25 billion in labor income, and 37 billion in GDP (based on data from 2013). When the financing, jobs, technological developments and supply chain trade dedicated to shipbuilding around the world are added in…

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to build dozens of new warships in one of the biggest peace-time expansions of the U.S. Navy. But interviews with ship-builders, unions and a review of public and internal documents show major obstacles to that plan. The initiative could cost nearly $700 billion in government funding, take 30 years to complete and require hiring tens of thousands of skilled shipyard workers - many of whom don't exist yet because they still need to be hired and trained, according to the interviews and the documents reviewed. Trump has vowed a huge build-up of the U.S. military to project American power in the face of an emboldened China and Russia. That includes expanding the Navy to 350 warships from 275 today.

Two Greek shipping companies were sentenced to pay corporate penalties totaling $2.7 million after being convicted for obstructing justice, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), tampering with witnesses and conspiracy. Each company was ordered to pay part of its penalty to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary in recognition of the threat posed by illegal discharges of oily waste to the marine environment. The case stems from an inspection of the M/V Ocean Hope, a large cargo ship, conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard at the Port of Wilmington, N.C. in July 2015. During that inspection, senior engineers for the companies tried to hide that the vessel had been dumping oily wastes into the ocean for months.

Cassius Samson, 52, and Rustico Ignacio, 66, both of the Philippines, were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard for the Eastern District of North Carolina to serve jail time for obstructing a U.S. Coast Guard inspection that took place in July 2015 aboard the cargo ship Ocean Hope at the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina. Samson was sentenced to a term of 12 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release and Ignacio to a term of nine months followed by a year of supervised release. Ignacio was the chief engineer and Samson the second engineer of the Ocean Hope. In September 2016, both were convicted of conspiracy, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, by a federal jury in Greenville, North Carolina.

The 14th International Conference on Computer and IT Applications in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT) will take place from 11th to 13th May 2015 in Ulrichshusen, Germany. First held in the year 2000, COMPIT has established itself as a key conference in information technology (IT) for the maritime industries, bringing together software developers and users. Most participants come from industry, reflecting the practical relevance of the event. DNV GL will be the main sponsor of the event which covers the lifecycle of ships, offshore structures and equipment, from design to operation. E-navigation (or sea traffic management) could be considered as the maritime equivalent of air traffic control systems.

The global company ESI Group, a virtual prototyping and testing software developer, has joined efforts with SENER, a company in marine engineering and the development of CAD/CAM system for the shipbuilding industry, with the aim of marketing and integrating their respective solutions, IC.IDO and FORAN. Nowadays shipbuilding is dominated by vessels with highly complex and sophisticated designs. There is also a growing trend of distributing the engineering tasks between multiple remote agents, and a need to produce integrated designs for effective ships with no margin of error.

The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, joined by Andrew Saxton, Member of Parliament for North Vancouver and John Weston, Member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, announced that Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards (VSY) has started construction on the first National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) ship, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG)’s Offshore Fisheries Science Vessel (OFSV). It was also announced that the first ship will be named CCGS Sir John Franklin in honour of a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. Found in September 2014, Franklin’s ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions…

John C. Daidola has joined Webb Institute as Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering. Dr. Daidola is a structural engineer with over forty-years of experience. His early experience was as Design Engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company and as Chief Naval Architect at Storm-Master Boat Corporation. He was employed for 28 years at M. Rosenblatt & Son, Inc., where he worked as Senior Vice President and Engineering Branch Manager. For the last 15 years he worked at the AMSEC LLC, serving as Senior Vice President and Commercial Operations Manager. Dr.

Ferries for Alaska’s harsh conditions, built in Alaska by Alaskans. Vigor and Elliott Bay Design Group team up for a winning combination as the new Alaska Class Ferry Project takes shape. With its network of islands and fjords, rugged mountains and spectacular tidewater glaciers, Alaska’s Inside Passage may make a perfect summer cruise destination, but locals can’t choose when they travel. So when Alaskans need transport, the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) must find a way to move them.