Cool Runnings: R.W. Fernstrum's Engineered Solutions
A hallmark of the global maritime industry is the proliferation of smaller, family founded and managed businesses. R.W. Fernstrum is one such company: a ubiquitous presence for more than 65 years providing engineered cooling solutions to maritime and offshore markets. MR went to Menominee, MI, to meet with Sean Fernstrum and his team for insights on the unique products it produces and the markets it serves. R.W. Fernstrum & Company of Menominee, Mich., is a leader in engineering and manufacturing keel cooling technologies…
“Moratorium” is a Four Letter Word
While ten letters in all, “moratorium” might as well be the foulest four-letter word in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch right now. On May 27, the Obama Administration ordered a halt to drilling in water depths more than 500 feet, effectively cancelling 33 drilling projects and reversing a tide of industry optimism in the region. Bill Foret, president of Golden Meadow, La.-based Abdon Callais Offshore LLC, said the company could have placed 50 OSVs to work on April 19 — a day before BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 crew members and set off a gusher of crude 5,000 feet below the Gulf’s surface for more than 80 days. “The OSV market was showing signs of improving,” Foret said. Kurt Crosby, CEO of Crosby Tugs Inc., based in Golden Meadow, La., agreed.
OMU Holds Rally Today At WorkBoat Show
Offshore Mariners United, (OMU), a federation of five U.S. maritime unions organizing workers in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch offshore service industry, will hold a rally in front of the Ernest N. Memorial Convention Center in New Orleans at 12 p.m. today to coincide with the International WorkBoat Show. The event is to protest the denial of worker's right to organize by the boat companies doing business in the Gulf of Mexico. Union leaders from around the world, including David Cockroft of the International Transport Workers Federation, Michael Sacco, president of the Seafarers International Union and Rene Lioeanjie, president of the National Maritime Union and the head of maritime unions in Australia, Norway and Great Britain are expected to address the rally.
Owners...Start Counting the Cash
The much anticipated turnaround in the Gulf of Mexico Oil Patch is happening, and the companies that supply boats and services in the area are feeling the impact. Consolidation has touched every facet of the marine business — every facet of business — for nearly a decade. Following the economic slowdown and resultant "weeding out of the weaklings" in the early 1990s, a new business plan stressing size and economic resource emerged. The plan, obviously, has not worked universally, as some companies overextended just as the market came crashing down in 1997. Today, for better or worse, a handful of enormous companies reign over the business of owning and operating vessels and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico region.
