BOOST FOR ORDER-STARVED PHILADELPHIA YARD

The US$630 million initial contract was awarded by TOTE Services of Jacksonville, appointed by MARAD as construction manager for the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) programme, and carries options on three further newbuilds. While primarily intended as replacements for the country’s ageing fleet of state maritime academy training ships, the NSMVs will have a much broader capability, including disaster response and humanitarian assistance.

Should the options be exercised, and all five ships built in series, the total contract value of the programme for Philly Shipyard would be approximately US$1.5 billion. The first two vessels are scheduled to be handed over in the spring and winter of 2023, respectively.

The lead ship is expected to be allocated to the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College, to supersede the steam turbine-powered Empire State VI. The latter is the oldest in the fleet of MARAD-owned training ships assigned to the six maritime academies in California, Main, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Texas.

The MARAD-sponsored design has been developed by California-headquartered Herbert Engineering Corporation. Each will be laid out with accommodation for up to 600 officer cadets and instructors, classrooms, workshops, auditorium, simulator, laboratory and other teaching spaces, and a full training bridge will be located below the main navigating bridge.

So as to also serve national security interests and undertake emergency and humanitarian missions, the vessels will incorporate ro-ro garaging and container storage, accessed by a sideport ramp and 35t deck crane.

A diesel-electric power and propulsion system had been nominated for the new generation of multi-role training ships, based on four main gensets installed in dual engine rooms, and two 4,500kW electric propulsion motors, but final details have yet to be revealed.

The bastion of shipbuilding on the Delaware River, where it is located on the site of the 1995-closed Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philly has shown its mettle in the commercial field over the past 20 years by turning out around 50% of large, sea-going ‘Jones Act’ vessels built nation-wide in that time. The Jones Act construction market, however, has been depressed for several years, as the unprecedented high level of commercial shipbuilding in the US during the last decade has resulted in the recapitalisation of almost the entire domestic Jones Act fleet of large mercantile ships.

Consequently, there has been hiatus in shipbuilding at the yard since the completion in March 2019 of the second of two 3,600TEU container vessels for Matson Navigation. In the interim, acting on a strategy of entering the market for repair and maintenance, conversion and construction of US government-owned vessels, work has been carried out on two MARAD sisterships managed by TOTE Services. The first was redelivered in December, and recommissioning of the second was anticipated for the 2020 second quarter.

There has been intense lobbying of government by local interests and trade unions for the NSMV programme to go Philadelphia’s way, so as to safeguard the yard’s future and retain the skills base. The idling of newbuild production facilities that has taken place in the absence of new orders has led to a considerable decrease in the workforce. The NSMV programme will now allow Philly Shipyard to reconstitute its workforce in the preparation for the production start in early 2021.