Aker Philadelphia Shipyard (Oslo:AKPS), a leading U.S. commercial shipyard, cut steel on Hull 014, the tenth product tanker in the series of twelve to be built for American Shipping Company (Oslo:AMSC). Production of this vessel begins a few days after the successful delivery of Hull 010, the Overseas Boston.
A small ceremony was held this afternoon to commence production and was attended by representatives of Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, OSG, the Philadelphia Metal Trades Council and Philabundance. Last week, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard and the Philadelphia Metal Trades Council held a yard wide food drive to help support Philabundance in its mission to be the largest hunger relief organization in the region. Together, employees of the shipyard and union representatives collected over 1,500 pounds of non-perishable food. To commemorate this accomplishment, a Philabundance representative made the first cut on the yard's plasma cutter to begin production of Hull 014.
When completed, the MT-46 Veteran Product Tanker will be sold to American Shipping Company, and in turn, will be bareboat chartered to OSG America. The 46,000 dwt vessel will be 600 feet long and carry refined petroleum products.
Aker Philadelphia Shipyard was reconstructed ten years ago from the ground up, and since, has delivered ten ships in ten years. Including Hull 014, there are currently four vessels under construction.