Halter has bright future

VT Halter Marine landed $500 million in sales of new ships in September and, just as the Island Home ferry is nearly ready to head for its homeport in New England, another major contract is about to be announced.

CEO Boyd “Butch” King says he will likely announce a $165 million contract for the Pascagoula-based company in the next few days. He says with about a $600 million backlog now, “the future is bright for Halter Marine.”

A lack of affordable housing on the coast, however, makes it challenging to find qualified employees to build the ships. “At one time I was 100 short,” King said, as the workforce increased from 702 pre-Katrina to 910 employees today. He still needs about 20 more.

The yard will be delivering the $33.5 million Island Way ferry to Massachusetts in mid-January, later than King wanted but still within the original timeframe. Lon Billings, yard superintendent, says Katrina put them back about six months because the ferry’s two diesel engines were flooded and had to be removed and rebuilt. All the spools of wiring for the ship also went underwater, and although it could have been salvaged with 95% success, King said, “I’m not going to take a 5% chance. We replaced every bit of it.”