Bayou shipyard gets $80M tugboat contract
Horizon Shipbuilding in Bayou La Batre has a new $80 million contract to build up to nine 140-foot tugboats, designed to push massive lines of barges full of refined oil products through the nation's inland river transport system.
The three-year deal will mean hiring about 120 new workers at the Bayou facility, said J.V. Collier, vice president of Horizon Shipbuilding.
"This contract will provide a huge economic boost for the Bayou area as a whole," Collier said, "and God knows we need it."
Collier said he did not want to discuss exactly what the company pays its workers. "Our business model is to hire the best people and pay them appropriately for their skills so that we increase efficiency through the quality of each person's work," Collier said. "We are a quality-driven company, and we understand the price of quality."
Horizon signed the deal last week with Florida Marine Transporters of Mandeville, La., to build a series of what the companies called a "new era," 6,000-horsepower, crew-friendly tugboat. Florida Marine has about 50 vessels.
Most of the company's barge-pushing tugs are outfitted with 2,000- or 3,000-horsepower engines and commonly push two to eight barges at a time, said Blake Boyd of Florida Marine.
The "new era" tugboat designed for Florida Marine by John W. Gilbert Associates of Hingham, Mass., will be able to push as many as a dozen barges at a time, Boyd said.
Each conventional barge carries about 30,000 barrels -- roughly equivalent to 300 tanker trucks -- of refined oil products, such as diesel, gasoline or jet fuel, he said.
The tugboats will also differ from others in many less obvious ways, generally to be appreciated by their crews, Boyd said.
For instance, the engineer's office overlooks the engine room to allow him quick access, Boyd said.
Also, the generators will be enclosed within a separate room rather than installed in the engine room. That way, the crew won't be assaulted by the earsplitting noise of the generators as they work to repair a dead engine, he said.
Florida Marine involved its captains and crew members in the design process, Boyd said. The company's chief executive officer, Dennis Pasentine, started out as a deckhand in the 1970s and worked his way up in the company, Boyd said.
"He's coming at this from the standpoint of someone who's worked on these boats," Boyd said.
Horizon, which has been in Bayou La Batre for the past decade, builds and repairs steel, aluminum and fiberglass vessels.
As Hurricane Katrina flooded the Bayou in August 2005, the storm did $2 million in damage to the facility. But since then, the company has not only rebuilt but so far has grown from fewer than 50 workers to 150 workers, Collier said.
The company will add to that success with another 120 or so workers over the next few months as the company ramps up operations to build the nine new tugs, Collier said. According to the contract, all nine are to be built by the first quarter of 2011, Boyd said.
Boyd said Florida Marine picked Horizon at the end of a nationwide competition.
The three-year deal will mean hiring about 120 new workers at the Bayou facility, said J.V. Collier, vice president of Horizon Shipbuilding.
"This contract will provide a huge economic boost for the Bayou area as a whole," Collier said, "and God knows we need it."
Collier said he did not want to discuss exactly what the company pays its workers. "Our business model is to hire the best people and pay them appropriately for their skills so that we increase efficiency through the quality of each person's work," Collier said. "We are a quality-driven company, and we understand the price of quality."
Horizon signed the deal last week with Florida Marine Transporters of Mandeville, La., to build a series of what the companies called a "new era," 6,000-horsepower, crew-friendly tugboat. Florida Marine has about 50 vessels.
Most of the company's barge-pushing tugs are outfitted with 2,000- or 3,000-horsepower engines and commonly push two to eight barges at a time, said Blake Boyd of Florida Marine.
The "new era" tugboat designed for Florida Marine by John W. Gilbert Associates of Hingham, Mass., will be able to push as many as a dozen barges at a time, Boyd said.
Each conventional barge carries about 30,000 barrels -- roughly equivalent to 300 tanker trucks -- of refined oil products, such as diesel, gasoline or jet fuel, he said.
The tugboats will also differ from others in many less obvious ways, generally to be appreciated by their crews, Boyd said.
For instance, the engineer's office overlooks the engine room to allow him quick access, Boyd said.
Also, the generators will be enclosed within a separate room rather than installed in the engine room. That way, the crew won't be assaulted by the earsplitting noise of the generators as they work to repair a dead engine, he said.
Florida Marine involved its captains and crew members in the design process, Boyd said. The company's chief executive officer, Dennis Pasentine, started out as a deckhand in the 1970s and worked his way up in the company, Boyd said.
"He's coming at this from the standpoint of someone who's worked on these boats," Boyd said.
Horizon, which has been in Bayou La Batre for the past decade, builds and repairs steel, aluminum and fiberglass vessels.
As Hurricane Katrina flooded the Bayou in August 2005, the storm did $2 million in damage to the facility. But since then, the company has not only rebuilt but so far has grown from fewer than 50 workers to 150 workers, Collier said.
The company will add to that success with another 120 or so workers over the next few months as the company ramps up operations to build the nine new tugs, Collier said. According to the contract, all nine are to be built by the first quarter of 2011, Boyd said.
Boyd said Florida Marine picked Horizon at the end of a nationwide competition.