Tampa Bay Business Journal News

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., the company that bought Maritrans Inc., said it will build three articulated tug barges, each with a construction value of about $90m. The barges will be constructed at Tampa Bay Shipbuilding & Repair Co., while the tug boats will be constructed at Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. in Mobile, Ala., according to a release from Overseas Shipholding. Tampa Bay Shipbuilding, which is an affiliate of Bender and located at the Port of Tampa, previously handled projects for Tampa-based Maritrans, which was sold in November for $455 million. A call to Tampa Bay Shipbuilding for additional details was pending. The barges will have a carrying capacity of about 290,000 barrels.

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. has a definitive agreement to acquire Maritrans Inc., for $455 million. Terms call for New York-based Overseas Shipholding to acquire Maritrans in an all-cash transaction for $37.50 a share, a 47 percent premium over Maritrans' closing price of $25.50 on Sept. 22. OSG also will assume Maritrans' debt outstanding as of June 30, according to a release from the companies. OSG will finance the deal through a combination of available cash and borrowings under existing credit facilities, the release said. Maritrans ships crude oil and petroleum products, and owns and operates one of the largest fleets of double-hull vessels serving the East coast and U.S. Gulf coast. OSG is one of the largest publicly traded tanker companies in the world.

Tampa Bay Business Journal has reported that the Tampa Port Authority has received a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security that will be used to purchase floating small craft intrusion barriers to protect security zones around critical infrastructure. Skip Volkle, legal counsel at shipper Maritrans, raised concerns about the barriers at Tuesday's board meeting, saying that no discussion had taken place with the Harbor Safety Committee. Wainio said the Port of Tampa would meet with the Harbor Safety Committee but that the impact of the devices to the maritime community was going to be minimal. At the close of the submittal period, one bid had been received from Siemens Building Technologies & Wave Dispersion Technologies Inc.

Maritrans Inc. reported net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $5.8 million, or 48 cents a share, compared with $3.7 million, or 43 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the first quarter of 2006 was $47.4 million, compared to $43.5 million in the year-ago period. Tampa-based Maritrans which primarily provides marine transportation services for petroleum products in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic seaboard, said utilization of its fleet was lower in the first quarter of 2005 than in the year-ago period. In a release, Jonathan Whitworth, chief executive, said higher than expected refinery maintenance cut the volume of products available to move and lowered results.