AETI and L-3 Westwood to Deliver Power Systems
L-3 Westwood has contracted AETI to develop custom-built, commercially oriented marine switchgear for the two separate projects totaling slightly more than $5 million. The end customers are VT Halter Marine, a domestic ship engineering and construction company in the , and affiliates of AHL Shipping Company, a petroleum product transportation company that provides double hull tankers to the domestic petroleum industry. L-3 will provide twin shaft line electric propulsion systems to affiliates of AHL Shipping Company for the building of three, shallow-draft, 49,000 deadweight ton Jones Act and OPA90-compliant chemical product tankers in connection with a charter agreement with Shell Trading (U.S.) Company (Shell Trading). The vessels will have a cargo capacity of 330,000 barrels.
U.S. Shipbuilding: Prospects Abound, but Where’s the Money?
While the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry outperformed the U.S. economy between 1992 and 2001, this period witnessed the construction of barely a dozen large ocean going vessels for our U.S. domestic trades with an aggregate cost of not much more than $500 million. In contrast, U. S. national transportation needs for the current decade will require the construction of four to five dozen such commercial vessels which, taken together with the building of smaller vessels to meet our other domestic needs, will involve shipbuilding contracts in excess of $6 to $7 billion. The majority of this work is federally mandated by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, or involves the replacement of vessels in our U.S. non-contiguous trades that have reached the end of their useful lives.
MaK Power for U.S. Tankers
Caterpillar Marine Power Systems will propel a series of 49,000 dwt tankers, built and operated in the US according to domestic Jones Act regulations. Propulsion will be diesel-electric using three MaK 12 M 32 C generating sets equipped with Siemens alternators. Each set will weigh about 120 tons and provide 5760 kWe at 720 rpm. The tankers have been ordered by AHL Shipping Company, San Antonio, Texas, following a charter agreement with Shell Trading (US) Company, Houston, Texas, to transport crude oil, chemicals and products within domestic US trade lanes from 2009/2010. Approximate vessel dimensions: length 188 metres, breadth 32 metres, draft 11 metres, cargo capacity 330,000 barrels.
ABS Classes First CSR Tankers Built in the U.S.
International classification society ABS confirmed it will class the first common structural rules (CSR) tankers built in the United States. Three, shallow-draft 49,000 dwt Jones Act product tankers built for Texas-based AHL Shipping Company are currently under review by the society. ABS is most familiar with the tanker design having been involved since 2004 when it applied its proprietary SafeHull analysis to the initial design. SafeHull is a dynamic-based ship design evaluation system founded on engineering first principles. According to Tom Kirk, Director, Technology & Business Development, ABS Americas, this design was originally…
U.S. Shipbuilding 2003: A Congested Attempt to Fund
Meeting national transportation needs during the current decade should involve a surfeit of new contracts for our domestic shipbuilders. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) mandates double hulls for all vessels engaged in U.S. petroleum carriage. In our non-contiguous trades, renewal programs are needed for the replacement aging container and RoRo fleets. Moving freight containers and trailers on RoRo barges and vessels, and moving people on passenger and passenger-vehicle high speed ferries, provide the obvious solutions to traffic congestion in the population corridors served by at least two of our Interstate highways. Some of these vessel needs are now immediate because of private sector decisions to postpone projects.
