Post by ferryfast admin on Oct 12, 2011 10:12:35 GMT -5
Anticipation mounts in Halifax about $35-billion navy contract
By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1267877.html
Wed, Oct 12 - 4:53 AM
You can almost feel the tension these days as Halifax anticipates the potential awarding of a federal contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct $35 billion worth of ships for the Royal Canadian Navy over the next 20 or 25 years.
Nobody really knows when the Conservative government will make the announcement, but most people expect it to happen sometime next week. The sooner, the better, I say.
And considering that Irving Shipbuilding, the owner of Halifax Shipyard, already has a track record as the builder of most of Canada’s existing naval fleet, the expectation is that most of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy contract will land here.
The company is based in Halifax, but all the work couldn’t be carried out here. Irving would be expected to distribute work to the other shipbuilding and fabrication yards it owns: East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, P.E.I.; Shelburne Ship Repair; and Steel & Engine Products in Liverpool.
There is plenty of work to go round to non-Irving subcontractors, too, but Irving spokeswoman Mary Keith says she can’t reveal the potential subcontractors.
Tony Goode, a former Canadian naval officer and now a consultant with CFN Consultants (Atlantic) in Halifax, says if Irving wins the contract, there are a myriad of components, systems and subsystems that it will need.
For instance, Goode says, Irving will need to acquire the main engines, the main propulsion system and radars, but who will supply those components is proprietary information at this stage.
According to the schedule outlined in the procurement strategy, he says the program’s first phase will essentially decide which of three shipyards vying for the work is going to build large ships for the Canadian Coast Guard.
"(The) first thing that will be given will be an umbrella agreement with the winning shipyards, which will determine the sort of baseline commitments the yard will be making. But this is not a financial contract, in the classic sense of the word.
The first actual contract to be negotiated, which will involve costs, etcetera, and provide the government with firm pricing for the next class of ships, will be for the Arctic and offshore patrol ships."
Goode says negotiations on that first contract, worth about $5 billion, will start next January, with a deal to be sorted out by June or July.
As part of the negotiations, a detailed statement of work will be outlined and then the winning shipyard will go and get bids from a variety of subcontractors that will provide the systems, subsystems and components needed to complete the work.
"At this stage in the game, they really don’t know who those subcontractors are going to be," Goode says.
As the main naval shipbuilder, Irving already works with a several trusted subcontractors, including Lockheed Martin Canada, which are expected to be part of the team if it wins the contract.
Irving is also expected to make some changes to its Barrington Street shipyard, most notably the creation of a gigantic hall-like structure that will allow work to be carried out indoors.
While there is heavy pressure, locally, for Halifax to win the big contract, there seems to be an early effort to soften the blow if the decision goes against Halifax.
It has been pointed out that the coast guard contract may be about $5 billion initially, but it will have to replace its fleet of ships over the next 20 years, too, so there could be more work where that came from.
Despite the peddling of the coast guard contract, it is the fat navy contract that provides the most secure long-term prospects for the Maritime economy.
By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1267877.html
Wed, Oct 12 - 4:53 AM
You can almost feel the tension these days as Halifax anticipates the potential awarding of a federal contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct $35 billion worth of ships for the Royal Canadian Navy over the next 20 or 25 years.
Nobody really knows when the Conservative government will make the announcement, but most people expect it to happen sometime next week. The sooner, the better, I say.
And considering that Irving Shipbuilding, the owner of Halifax Shipyard, already has a track record as the builder of most of Canada’s existing naval fleet, the expectation is that most of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy contract will land here.
The company is based in Halifax, but all the work couldn’t be carried out here. Irving would be expected to distribute work to the other shipbuilding and fabrication yards it owns: East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, P.E.I.; Shelburne Ship Repair; and Steel & Engine Products in Liverpool.
There is plenty of work to go round to non-Irving subcontractors, too, but Irving spokeswoman Mary Keith says she can’t reveal the potential subcontractors.
Tony Goode, a former Canadian naval officer and now a consultant with CFN Consultants (Atlantic) in Halifax, says if Irving wins the contract, there are a myriad of components, systems and subsystems that it will need.
For instance, Goode says, Irving will need to acquire the main engines, the main propulsion system and radars, but who will supply those components is proprietary information at this stage.
According to the schedule outlined in the procurement strategy, he says the program’s first phase will essentially decide which of three shipyards vying for the work is going to build large ships for the Canadian Coast Guard.
"(The) first thing that will be given will be an umbrella agreement with the winning shipyards, which will determine the sort of baseline commitments the yard will be making. But this is not a financial contract, in the classic sense of the word.
The first actual contract to be negotiated, which will involve costs, etcetera, and provide the government with firm pricing for the next class of ships, will be for the Arctic and offshore patrol ships."
Goode says negotiations on that first contract, worth about $5 billion, will start next January, with a deal to be sorted out by June or July.
As part of the negotiations, a detailed statement of work will be outlined and then the winning shipyard will go and get bids from a variety of subcontractors that will provide the systems, subsystems and components needed to complete the work.
"At this stage in the game, they really don’t know who those subcontractors are going to be," Goode says.
As the main naval shipbuilder, Irving already works with a several trusted subcontractors, including Lockheed Martin Canada, which are expected to be part of the team if it wins the contract.
Irving is also expected to make some changes to its Barrington Street shipyard, most notably the creation of a gigantic hall-like structure that will allow work to be carried out indoors.
While there is heavy pressure, locally, for Halifax to win the big contract, there seems to be an early effort to soften the blow if the decision goes against Halifax.
It has been pointed out that the coast guard contract may be about $5 billion initially, but it will have to replace its fleet of ships over the next 20 years, too, so there could be more work where that came from.
Despite the peddling of the coast guard contract, it is the fat navy contract that provides the most secure long-term prospects for the Maritime economy.