Post by ferryfast admin on Dec 1, 2011 12:42:57 GMT -5
At boat show, optimism for 2012
Cara Bayles
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 7:40 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 7:40 p.m.
www.dailycomet.com/article/20111130/ARTICLES/111139939?Title=At-boat-show-optimism-for-2012
NEW ORLEANS- — Two coastal researchers from the University of New Orleans stood Wednesday on the deck of a workboat they were considering purchasing for the school’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences.
“We’ve looked on the Internet and seen some of the boats at the docks, but it’s good to talk to the people who actually make them,” said Dallon Weathers, who, along with Michael Brown, was shopping for a flagship vessel for the department.
The boat, built at Scully’s Aluminium and Fabrication company in Morgan City, was moored on the carpeting of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s exhibition hall for the three-day International WorkBoat Show, which ends Friday. The annual New Orleans event is more than 30 years old and draws boat builders, suppliers and buyers from all over the globe.
Scully’s owner, Elwood Scully, has been coming to the WorkBoat show for 15 years. He doesn’t make many sales there but said the networking opportunity is vital.
“It’s about the connections,” he said. “We get people from all over the U.S. and the world looking around here.”
The WorkBoat show saw its biggest crowd yet this year, with 1,000 booths and more than 12,000 people expected to attend the three-day exhibition, according to Ken Hocke, senior editor for WorkBoat magazine, which organizes the event.
A.J. Blanchard of Conrad Industries, which runs a construction and repair shipyard in Morgan City, said attendance remains high because the show is “the elite industry event.”
He added that with the sour economy and downturn of business caused by the BP oil spill and the subsequent drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, networking is more important than ever.
NEW ORLEANS- — Two coastal researchers from the University of New Orleans stood Wednesday on the deck of a workboat they were considering purchasing for the school’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences.
“We’ve looked on the Internet and seen some of the boats at the docks, but it’s good to talk to the people who actually make them,” said Dallon Weathers, who, along with Michael Brown, was shopping for a flagship vessel for the department.
The boat, built at Scully’s Aluminium and Fabrication company in Morgan City, was moored on the carpeting of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s exhibition hall for the three-day International WorkBoat Show, which ends Friday. The annual New Orleans event is more than 30 years old and draws boat builders, suppliers and buyers from all over the globe.
Scully’s owner, Elwood Scully, has been coming to the WorkBoat show for 15 years. He doesn’t make many sales there but said the networking opportunity is vital.
“It’s about the connections,” he said. “We get people from all over the U.S. and the world looking around here.”
The WorkBoat show saw its biggest crowd yet this year, with 1,000 booths and more than 12,000 people expected to attend the three-day exhibition, according to Ken Hocke, senior editor for WorkBoat magazine, which organizes the event.
A.J. Blanchard of Conrad Industries, which runs a construction and repair shipyard in Morgan City, said attendance remains high because the show is “the elite industry event.”
He added that with the sour economy and downturn of business caused by the BP oil spill and the subsequent drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, networking is more important than ever.
“You can’t not be here,” he said. “It gets your name out to the industry, it’s well-attended, and in these trying times, you want to make sure your name is out there and people know you haven’t gone away.”
But Hocke said the tone of the event was more upbeat than last year’s, which took place weeks after the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico had been lifted. At a WorkBoat executive summit on Wednesday, executives from shipbuilding companies across the country agreed that the Gulf is making a comeback, he said.
“That’s what the buzz was about. They think Washington and the oil companies have found a common ground,” Hocke said. “What we are hearing is that mid-2012, things will ramp up quickly.”
Robert Socha, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, said his company has signed contracts with Crowley Maritime, Bouchard Transportation and the Coast Guard and doesn’t have the capacity to take on many more jobs.
“The market is fairly upbeat,” he said. “Our capacity, and the capacity of the market in general, is questionable. It’s perceived as soft, but there’s been a lot of contracts signed in the last six months.”
Even with the Gulf’s anticipated recovery, international business also has helped buoy boat builders, particularly in the bayou region.
Ralph Hart of Planck and Meyer Limited, a small shipping company serving the Nigerian oil and gas industry, had flown to the show as part of a delegation of about 50 employees of Nigerian-based companies. He was interested in adding a new tugboat to the company’s eight-vessel fleet and was looking at what Bollinger had to offer.
“It’s worth its weight in gold,” he said of his trip from Planck and Meyer’s London offices for the exhibition. “This is the place to be to find out what’s going on in the industry.”
Staff Writer Cara Bayles can be reached at 857-2204 or at cara.bayles@houmatoday.com
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Cara Bayles
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 7:40 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 7:40 p.m.
www.dailycomet.com/article/20111130/ARTICLES/111139939?Title=At-boat-show-optimism-for-2012
NEW ORLEANS- — Two coastal researchers from the University of New Orleans stood Wednesday on the deck of a workboat they were considering purchasing for the school’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences.
“We’ve looked on the Internet and seen some of the boats at the docks, but it’s good to talk to the people who actually make them,” said Dallon Weathers, who, along with Michael Brown, was shopping for a flagship vessel for the department.
The boat, built at Scully’s Aluminium and Fabrication company in Morgan City, was moored on the carpeting of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s exhibition hall for the three-day International WorkBoat Show, which ends Friday. The annual New Orleans event is more than 30 years old and draws boat builders, suppliers and buyers from all over the globe.
Scully’s owner, Elwood Scully, has been coming to the WorkBoat show for 15 years. He doesn’t make many sales there but said the networking opportunity is vital.
“It’s about the connections,” he said. “We get people from all over the U.S. and the world looking around here.”
The WorkBoat show saw its biggest crowd yet this year, with 1,000 booths and more than 12,000 people expected to attend the three-day exhibition, according to Ken Hocke, senior editor for WorkBoat magazine, which organizes the event.
A.J. Blanchard of Conrad Industries, which runs a construction and repair shipyard in Morgan City, said attendance remains high because the show is “the elite industry event.”
He added that with the sour economy and downturn of business caused by the BP oil spill and the subsequent drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, networking is more important than ever.
NEW ORLEANS- — Two coastal researchers from the University of New Orleans stood Wednesday on the deck of a workboat they were considering purchasing for the school’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences.
“We’ve looked on the Internet and seen some of the boats at the docks, but it’s good to talk to the people who actually make them,” said Dallon Weathers, who, along with Michael Brown, was shopping for a flagship vessel for the department.
The boat, built at Scully’s Aluminium and Fabrication company in Morgan City, was moored on the carpeting of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s exhibition hall for the three-day International WorkBoat Show, which ends Friday. The annual New Orleans event is more than 30 years old and draws boat builders, suppliers and buyers from all over the globe.
Scully’s owner, Elwood Scully, has been coming to the WorkBoat show for 15 years. He doesn’t make many sales there but said the networking opportunity is vital.
“It’s about the connections,” he said. “We get people from all over the U.S. and the world looking around here.”
The WorkBoat show saw its biggest crowd yet this year, with 1,000 booths and more than 12,000 people expected to attend the three-day exhibition, according to Ken Hocke, senior editor for WorkBoat magazine, which organizes the event.
A.J. Blanchard of Conrad Industries, which runs a construction and repair shipyard in Morgan City, said attendance remains high because the show is “the elite industry event.”
He added that with the sour economy and downturn of business caused by the BP oil spill and the subsequent drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, networking is more important than ever.
“You can’t not be here,” he said. “It gets your name out to the industry, it’s well-attended, and in these trying times, you want to make sure your name is out there and people know you haven’t gone away.”
But Hocke said the tone of the event was more upbeat than last year’s, which took place weeks after the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico had been lifted. At a WorkBoat executive summit on Wednesday, executives from shipbuilding companies across the country agreed that the Gulf is making a comeback, he said.
“That’s what the buzz was about. They think Washington and the oil companies have found a common ground,” Hocke said. “What we are hearing is that mid-2012, things will ramp up quickly.”
Robert Socha, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, said his company has signed contracts with Crowley Maritime, Bouchard Transportation and the Coast Guard and doesn’t have the capacity to take on many more jobs.
“The market is fairly upbeat,” he said. “Our capacity, and the capacity of the market in general, is questionable. It’s perceived as soft, but there’s been a lot of contracts signed in the last six months.”
Even with the Gulf’s anticipated recovery, international business also has helped buoy boat builders, particularly in the bayou region.
Ralph Hart of Planck and Meyer Limited, a small shipping company serving the Nigerian oil and gas industry, had flown to the show as part of a delegation of about 50 employees of Nigerian-based companies. He was interested in adding a new tugboat to the company’s eight-vessel fleet and was looking at what Bollinger had to offer.
“It’s worth its weight in gold,” he said of his trip from Planck and Meyer’s London offices for the exhibition. “This is the place to be to find out what’s going on in the industry.”
Staff Writer Cara Bayles can be reached at 857-2204 or at cara.bayles@houmatoday.com
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