Supplier Network News

Hapag-Lloyd and Seaspan Corporation announced plans to retrofit and convert five 10,100 TEU containerships powered by conventional MAN S90 engines to dual-fuel engines capable of operating on methanol. Following the engine retrofit, the vessels will continue to be on long-term charter from Seaspan to Hapag-Lloyd.The vessels scheduled for retrofits are the Seaspan Amazon, Seaspan Ganges, Seaspan Thames, Seaspan Yangtze and Seaspan Zambezi. The retrofit is expected to take approximately 80-90 days per vessel starting in the first quarter of 2026.

HII announced Friday that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss. has received a $1.3 billion modification to a previously awarded contract from the U.S. Navy for the procurement of the detail design and construction of amphibious transport dock LPD 32. The resulting fixed-price-incentive contract totals $1.54 billion. The ship will be the 16th in the San Antonio class and the third Flight II LPD.In June 2022, Ingalls Shipbuilding was awarded a $240 million advance…

HII announced Thursday that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a $240 million, cost-plus-fixed-fee advance procurement contract from the U.S. Navy to provide long-lead-time material and advance construction activities for amphibious transport dock LPD 32. The ship will be the 16th in the San Antonio class constructed at Ingalls Shipbuilding.“Our shipbuilders are proud to continue building these amphibious ships that are integral to the Navy fleet,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a nacelle assembly facility in the Port of Taichung in Taiwan that will be its first offshore  assembly facility outside Europe.Construction is due to begin in 2020 at the site located in the port of Taichung. This represents an important milestone for the company in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. Siemens Gamesa currently has offshore nacelle assembly and manufacturing facilities in Germany and Denmark.The parcel of land being developed in Taiwan measures over 30,000 square meters, and will be used for nacelle assembly, testing, warehousing, office buildings, and outdoor storage.

Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan) hosted an event celebrating the launch of the second Offshore Fisheries Science Vessel (OFSV). In addition to dignitaries from the Government of Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard (Coast Guard), the Government of British Columbia and Seaspan’s supplier network, hundreds of proud employees attended the event with their families.The launch of OFSV 2 is the culmination of years of work by hundreds of dedicated Seaspan employees and supply chain partners from across Canada.

The U.S. Navy awarded a contract modification to shipbuilder Austal USA to build two additional Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships, LCS 32 and 34, its 16th and 17th vessels in the class. The specific value of each contract is under the congressional cost cap of $584 million per ship.“To be awarded these contracts in such a highly competitive environment is a great honor,” said Austal USA president, Craig Perciavalle. “This is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our talented employees and dedicated supplier network…

Austal USA won a construction contract by the U.S. Navy Friday to build an additional Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship, its fifteenth ship in the class. The award of LCS 30 is a clear sign of the Navy’s confidence in Austal’s LCS program. The specific value of the contract is under the congressional cost cap of $584 million per ship. The littoral combat ship has been identified as a key component to the Navy’s ability to gain sea control through distributed lethality. Austal USA employs 4,000 people at its headquarters and ship manufacturing facility in Mobile, Ala., while its supplier network includes over 2,200 businesses across 43 states.

A Shanghai district government plans to spend about 5 billion yuan ($739.97 million) to develop a cruise ship industrial park to house foreign firms that it hopes will help build China's first luxury passenger vessels, a local official said. China's government has earmarked cruise shipbuilding as a major objective in its "Made in China 2025" programme to upgrade its manufacturing and support jobs at its shipyards, as domestic demand for cruise trips increases 30 percent a year. Firms who set up shop in the new zone could expect financing support from banks and recently established government funds, Lei Shuguang, director on the administrative committee of Shanghai Baoshan Industrial Zone, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Naval architecture and marine engineering company 3GA Marine Ltd has teamed up with marine technologies company Alfa Laval to provide engineered turnkey solutions to support ship owners in their response to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) ballast water management regulations. “The retrofitting of ballast water treatment systems in existing vessels is challenging because of their size and required capacity to maintain ballast operations. It can also prove to be complex in integrating the system with existing systems and congested machinery room spaces…

Blohm+Voss has announced  that it has won the tender for the set-up of a new maintenance and refit facility for megayachts in La Ciotat, in the South of France. The company will partner with “La Ciotat Shipyards” (managed by SEMIDEP-Ciotat), the local company in charge of the site development which is providing a large dry-dock and neighboring workshop premises embedded within the existing shipyard. Blohm+Voss will utilize this new facility in the heart of the Mediterranean to maintain and service megayachts over 80 meters in length. Operation is planned to start in November 2016.

A new whitepaper from the Rolls-Royce led Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) outlines the project’s vision of how remote and autonomous shipping will become a reality. “This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when,” said Oskar Levander, Rolls-Royce, Vice President of Innovation – Marine, speaking at the Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium 2016 in Amsterdam. “The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist. The AAWA project is…

The Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA), launched by Rolls-Royce and funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), will bring industry partners together with universities, research institutes, ship owners and other stakeholders to explore the economic, social, legal, regulatory and technological factors which need to be addressed in order to make autonomous ships a reality. Participating in this project is Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile satellite communications services…

The start of production of Tallink's new generation LNG powered fast ferry for the Tallinn-Helsinki route was celebrated on the 4th of August 2015 at Meyer Turku shipyard. The new ferry will be approximately 212 metres in length with a gross tonnage of 49 000. The ship will operate on the route between Helsinki and Tallinn and she is designed for carrying 2800 passengers. The service speed is 27 knots. The ship will be delivered from Meyer Turku in the beginning of 2017. The project gives approximately 2000 person-years of employment for the shipyard and the supplier network. The new environmentally friendly ship uses LNG as fuel and she will comply with the new and stricter emission regulations for the ECA areas including the Baltic Sea.

Rolls-Royce announced it will take the lead on a €6.6 million project that could pave the way for autonomous ships. The Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative will produce the specification and preliminary designs for the next generation of advanced ship solutions. The project is funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and will bring together universities, ship designers, equipment manufacturers and classification societies to explore the economic…

Continuing a time-honored shipbuilding tradition, Ship Sponsor Annie Mabus laid the keel of the submarine Colorado, on Saturday, March 7, marking the ceremonial start of construction for the 15th ship of the Virginia Class. The event was hosted by General Dynamics Electric Boat at its Quonset Point facility and attended by local and Congressional dignitaries, Navy officials and more than 1,000 employees and family members. Mabus, the daughter of Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, chalked her initials on a steel plate to be affixed in the submarine. Electric Boat employee John Alves then welded Mabus' initials onto the plate. "Here in Quonset Point and in Groton…

German cruise ship builder strengthens its yards. MEYER WERFT joins forces with the STX Finland shipyard in Turku. Following weeks of negotiations the Finnish Government and MEYER WERFT signed a share purchase agreement with the current owner STX Europe. With its 70% stake MEYER WERFT takes the industrial leadership of the new company. At present some 1,300 employees and a specialized supplier network are involved in the construction of the cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 for the German cruise operator TUI Cruises from Hamburg.

Today’s marine and offshore industry faces increasing challenges: the need to work faster on more complex marine products with an extended supply chain in a very competitive environment; to deliver on-time information to customers on the project’s status at any time; and to reduce program management costs as well as design and production time. In order to keep a competitive advantage, shipyard executives are pressuring both their suppliers and their own organizations to integrate…

Lyme Bay returned to Falmouth after three years in the Persian Gulf supporting coalition naval operations and as 'mothership' to the UK Mine Countermeasure Fleet. The major refits, carried out every five years, have been completed on the RFA Argus, RFA Mounts Bay, RFA Largs Bay and RFA Cardigan Bay between 2009 and earlier this year. The grey ships, which have become a familiar part of the Falmouth skyline over the past four years, are in the docks as part of the Cluster Support…

Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, part of the Anglo-Norwegian engineering and construction group, to date, has placed supply orders for nearly $60 million with local and regional businesses in and around Philadelphia for ship construction materials and services. Additional amounts are spent regularly with local suppliers to support the shipyard's daily operations. "This is evidence that the promises made to tax-payers in 1998 are now starting to have a real impact in the community," said Ron McAlear, newly appointed President & CEO of the Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard. "We're in the process of establishing a strong supplier network that can service the yard in the years to come. Work on the construction of the yards' first ship - a container vessel - started at the end of March this year.

On 8 April 2011, STX Finland Oy and Finferries signed a contract for the construction of a Double Ended Ferry to operate in Finland, Turku Archipelago. The ship will be built on STX Rauma shipyard and it will be delivered at the end of 2012. The ship will be 65 metres in length and 12.8 metres in breadth. The construction of the environmentally friendly ferry will bring some 100 man-years of work to STX Rauma shipyard personnel and the personnel of its supplier network. The value of the contract will not be published.

Start of Production of Double Ended Ferry at STX Finland Rauma Shipyard. On Tuesday, 13 December 2011, STX Finland Oy's Rauma Shipyard started a production of a Double Ended newbuilding no. 1380 for Finferries. The vessel will be delivered at the end of 2012. Construction of the 65-metre ferry will bring 100 man-years of labour to STX Rauma shipyard per-sonnel and the personnel of its supplier network. The start of the production was attended by representatives of Finferries, STX Finland, the classification society Det Norske Veritas, and members of the press.

On December 21, 2011, STX Finland Oy and the Finnish Border Guard signed an agreement on construction of a next generation offshore patrol vessel. The vessel will be built at the STX Rauma ship­yard and delivered to the customer in November 2013. The highly advanced vessel will be 96 metres long and 17 metres wide and will be capable of serving a large variety of functions. Construc­tion of the vessel will bring over 400 man-years of labour to STX Rauma shipyard person­nel and its supplier network. The domestic content of the project is estimated to be 90%. The main duty of the offshore patrol vessel is to operate in open sea patrol.

Statoil and its partners are considering developing the Skrugard discovery in the Barents Sea by means of a floating production unit with the additional capacity to process and transport from other prospects in the area. A feasibility study has identified a technical and commercial solution for the Skrugard field in the Barents Sea. The solution involving a floating production unit will result in the rapid and cost-efficient development of the discovery. The production unit will have separate oil storage and offshore loading capability with a production capacity of 95…