Gmd News

Wärtsilä, a solutions and services provider, has signed new licence agreements with seven of its long-term Chinese partners. CSSC (China State Shipbuilding Corporation) has been a Wärtsilä licensee since 1978, and four of its engine companies have signed new agreements giving them licence to manufacture, sell, and service Wärtsilä low-speed engines for a further ten years. The four companies are HHM (Hudong Heavy Machinery Co Ltd), CMD (CSSC-MES Diesel Co Ltd), CME (Zhenjiang CME Co Ltd) and GMD (CSSC Guangzhou Marine Diesel Engine Co Ltd).

Bayonne Dry Dock and Repair Corporation President Michael Cranston held a press conference on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, on the top side of Bayonne Dry Dock, to highlight the economic and environmental punch of the dry docking business on the Port of New York and New Jersey and its positive impacts on homeland security. Following the press conference, Cranston led a tour of the facility where the U.S.N.S. Watson, a military ship that carries supplies to troops overseas, is currently undergoing repairs.

Bayonne Dry Dock and Repair Corporation President Michael Cranston held a press conference on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, on the top side of Bayonne Dry Dock, to highlight the economic and environmental punch of the dry docking business on the Port of New York and New Jersey and its positive impacts on homeland security. Following the press conference, Cranston led a tour of the facility where the U.S.N.S. Watson, a military ship that carries supplies to troops overseas, is currently undergoing repairs.

Interocean American Shipping Corp., Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $28,189,899 firm-fixed-price contract for the operation and maintenance of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar platform (SBX-1). SBX-1 will be deployed to the Pacific Ocean to provide ballistic missile-tracking information to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System (GMD). SBX-1 will also provide advanced target and countermeasures discrimination capability for the GMD interceptor missiles. This contract includes four one-year option periods, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $165,204,573. Work will be performed at sea, and is expected to be completed by September 2012. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Wärtsilä Corporation and CSSC Guangzhou Marine Diesel Co.Ltd (GMD), a member of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) Group, have jointly signed a licence agreement for the manufacture and sale of Wärtsilä 2-stroke engines in China. It covers the entire engine portfolio with a power range of between 4,300 and more than 80,000 kW per engine. The signing ceremony took place today in Guangzhou, China and was attended by representatives of both companies, headed by Mrs. Lu Xiaoyan, Vice President of CSSC and Dr. Martin Wernli, President of Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd. With the shipbuilding industry increasingly concentrated in Asia, the local manufacture of Wärtsilä's marine engines is a key element in the company's growth strategy.

On June 15, MAN Diesel & Turbo added another two-stroke licensee to its roster at a signing ceremony in China with CSSC Guangzhou Marine Engine Co. Ltd. (GMD). An off-shoot of the state-owned CSSC Group, GMD is based close to the major Chinese city of Guangzhou and the special administrative region of Hong Kong, and has undertaken to produce 3 million hp of engines in an initial building period. Construction will take place at a purpose-built facility that will begin production at the beginning of 2012.

A down economy, a disabled drydock and a nation under heightened security measures — not exactly the best position for a ship repair facility to be in — or so one would think. Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation (NORSHIPCO) however has managed to stay on top with its steady stream of government and commercial work coming in into its yard. With 70 percent of NORSHIPCO's work on the government side, the yard has still had a steady stream of commercial work. According to Krekich, the work that was performed on MSC ship M/V SSG Edward A. Carter was successful in terms of schedule, costs and customer satisfaction. The 950-ft. (289.5 m) vessel, which arrived at NORSHIPCO on March 1, 2001, is under a long-term charter to MSC.

Priding itself on its drydock capabilities in both New York and New Jersey, the GMD Group is comprised of a young, ambitious team of individuals, who work together to provide ship owners with the quickest turnaround possible on each job that comes into its yards. Comprised of GMD Shipyard in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bayonne Drydock & Repair Corp. in Bayonne, N.J. and JenMar Electric in Staten Island, N.Y., the parent company has all its bases covered in terms of full ship repair service for its clients, which range from cruise ship owners to local tug boat companies. Situated on a piece of New York history is GMD Shipyard, which is housed in Building #595 of the historical Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Boeing Company announced that the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) mooring system has been installed at SBX's homeport in Alaska, completing a key piece of infrastructure for the missile defense sensor. Manson Construction, a Boeing subcontractor, used tugs, barges and cranes to place the mooring system's eight anchors on the bottom of Kuluk Bay. Heavy machinery aboard a barge then dragged the 75-metric-ton anchors, embedding them into the sea bed. The construction team completed the installation three weeks ahead of schedule. When SBX visits its homeport of Adak, Alaska, a small island in the Aleutian Islands, it will be chained to the anchors to keep it stationary in Kuluk Bay. SBX is a new sensor developed by Boeing for the U.S.

According to WNYC, an ironworker who had gone to work on his day off to earn extra cash died Saturday when a massive metal plate weighing thousand of pounds fell and crushed him. 51-year-old Christopher Thomas of the Bronx was working at the GMD Shipyard in the Brooklyn Navy Yard just after 10 a.m. when the plate, which was being used to repair a dry-docked barge, came loose and fell. Thomas, who was working beneath the barge, was struck in the head and pinned underneath the heavy plate. Michael Cranston, the president of the GMD Shipyard, released a statement saying that the company is helping investigators to determine the cause of the accident. Thomas had two children. He had started working at the shipyard last week, according to his wife. Source: WNYC Newsroom

This past November, the GMD Group performed emergency repairs to Evergreen's 46,411-gt containership M/V Ever Goods, when its rudder failed in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world — midway between New York and New Jersey, underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Rather than pay anywhere between five and six million dollars to tow the broken vessel to its homeport in Japan, the owners opted to call on GMD's Bayonne Drydock & Repair, which was conveniently located just a few miles from the bridge. Originally the plan called for the fabrication of a new rudder stock, but when GMD located a never-before used tailshaft with ABS certification papers in San Francisco, Calif. those plans were quick to change.