3 New Boats

[wheelman]

Seven cargo vessels under construction in a Chinese shipyard represent the future of Niagara's shipping industry, says the head of Algoma Central Corp.
These ships are being built to replace ships in our fleet that are very old," said Algoma CEO Greg Wight. "They aren't creating new jobs, but they are allowing us to maintain the workforce we have now."
The ships, which are expected to enter service on the seaway in 2013, are being built at the Nantong Mingde shipyard on the Yangtze delta in China.
Of the seven Equinox Class ships, two will be owned by the Canadian Wheat Board, one by the Upper Lakes Group -- the parent company of the Port Weller dry docks -- and four by Algoma. When it's all done, the ships will represent an investment of around $500-million.
Wight said all seven ships will be chartered to Seaway Marine Transport, the company that operates vessels for both Algoma and Upper Lakes.
They will eventually replace the aging fleet currently on the Great Lakes. Wight said ships in the fleet have crews of about 20 to 25 people, along with relief crews to handle vacations. Those sailors will transfer to the new vessels as they come into service.
The new ships are only the first of what will become the new fleet, Wight said.
"We have a large fleet and we expect to stay in the business for a long time to come," Wight said. "These ships will help us do that."
Wight said the ships are being built in China because it is not possible to build them at home. The Port Weller dry docks are a repair and refit facility and while shipyards on the east and west coasts do work for the Canadian Navy, they don't have berths large enough for the commercial vessels.
"We'd love to be able to build our ships here, but the cost is too great. Frankly, we'd never build a ship in Canada because of the cost," said Wight.
He said it is likely the ships would never have been built at all, putting the future of the fleet in jeopardy, had the federal government not eliminated a 25% tariff on imported ships.
St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra said it took about four years to eliminate the tariff .
"It wasn't an easy decision. The question was, if we did that, would Canada's shipping industry make the investment (and build ships overseas)?" he said. "So I am very pleased to see they are."
He said the political decision was a "high stakes" game that would decide the future of shipping on the lakes.
"The older ships have to be replaced. They are not economicallyor technologically or environmentally efficient," he said.
These kinds of vessels had not been built in Canada in three decades, he said, so the government had to find a way to help the industry develop a solution.Wight said the new ships will also help the industry cope with changing environmental regulations.
New York state, for example, wants to enforce stricter regulations when it comes to the fuel emissions of ships and the dumping of contents of ballast tanks that might contain invasive species that can harm the Great Lakes environment.
The new ships are being built with room for emissions scrubbers and ballast tank cleaners, Wight said, so they can adapt to the new regulations when they come into effect.
Algoma looked at 20 shipyards around the world before settling on the Yangtze docks. Wight said the facility employs about 10,000 people.
"This is large-scale work, complicated work on sophisticated designs," he said.

[Guest]

Who will be crewing the CWB vessels, ULS or Algoma?

[fireman12]

Still though it is a sad state of affairs indeed when we will no longer see a laker design from a Canadian inland based shipyard . I kind of doubt that will happen on the American side of the lakes . Just thinking of nothing but Chinese built , inferior steel with poorly installed machinary Canadian` lakers ` , just makes me gag . Just have to look at the problems with the Algoma newbuilds . I would not set foot on one of these Chinese jobs if I was paid twice what I got as second when I sailed the last decade . A wheelhouse is a wheelhouse , down in the Engine Room , it will be another story , believe me . I can`t believe the Graingrowers even got involved in this deal . I guess next thing will be building rail cars over there as well .

[Guest]

Do not forget Davie,they have all kinds of financial problems but still the biggest one in Canada,these govt. contracts are great for them.

[Mac Mackay]

For the record there is no shipyard in Saint John, New Brunswick. Irving Shipbuilding closed that yard and it is no more.
Irving Shipbuilding has active yards in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Georgetown, Prince Edward Island and a repair yard in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, but their corporate headquarters is still in Saint John.
In addition to the list of shipbuilders in correspondence above, Peter Kiewit has a shipbuilding operation in Newfoundland at two sites, Marystown and Cow Head. They are also in the running for government contracts, and are currently building two small coastal ferries for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

[TWilush]

So these 4 new vessels will likely replace 5 of the currently operating SMT bulkers; those already laid up and retired have already been replaced by the Guardian/Spirit/Discovery.
Pretty much, this is the death knell for Gordon C. Leitch, Canadian Provider, Quebecois, Montrealais, and Algocape.

A cause worthy and full of foresight would be to save one of these post Seaway classics. There are plenty of vessels preserved built from 1900-1925, but nothing later,and in many respects these (relatively) newer vessels would have more personal significance to many when comparing boats retired decades ago.

Is there truth to the rumor that Upper Lakes offered the Seaway Queen to Hamilton before her scrapping?

[oldseadog]

As someone pointed out earlier, Canadian Shipbuilding companies are more interested in Gov. contracts, Canadian Coast Guard and Defence vessels for repairs, thats where the money is, not in commercial shipbuilding. Some of the City class frigates are close to 15 years old or more, (commissioning time)and are due for refit soon.
Another Canadian shipping company also reported that they ordered 5 newbuilds S/U, raging in size from Panamax to Seawaymax. Delivery will begin with 2 in 2012.

[Mike St Catharines]

The main Canadian shipyards, Port Weller,Victoria B.C. and St John Shipbuilding are not interested in building new lakers.

The yards are gearing up to bid on a huge government program called NSPS.

they are going to build in Canadian yards only:

1) 3 Supply ships for the navy
2) modernise the Halifax frigates
3) Artic Offshore Patrol Ships-6-8
4) Surface Combtants 15 assumably to replace the Halifax class at some point
5) 6 Icebreakers
6)Multi Task vessels 11
7)Search and Patrol ships 12
Long term money-jobs etc for the yards as opposed to building a few low cost lake ships.

[BigB]

Gearless means that the ships won't have self-unloading equipment, that is they are straight-deckers. I have no idea what the bidding process was like but I'm quite sure that Canadian shipbuilders couldn't bid competitively on this contract. The days of Canadian shipbuilders building lake freighters are gone and not coming back. Just look at what the Canadian Wheat Board is paying, 65-million-dollars for two ships. One ship constructed by a Canadian shipbuilder would probably cost just as much as two ships from China.

[Beege]

I see in the news there are 3 new bulk carriers that will be built in China for Canadian owned company. Is there any details available on any bid process to see what the proposals were from North American ship builders. Sure would be nice to keep the jobs close to home. Also what is meant by "Gearless" in design?1