Post by ferryfast admin on Mar 29, 2005 2:10:51 GMT -5
Posted on Thu, Mar. 24, 2005
Smaller yards, smaller ships
SUN HERALD - MISSISSIPPI
www.sunherald.com/
Imagine people in the shipbuilding industry might have been taken aback by recent comments from Navy Secretary Gordon England that appeared in Defense Daily.
England said that, contrary to concerns in Congress, the shipbuilding industry in the United States is growing.
"We actually added three yards this year," England said. "In my view the industrial base is bigger. That doesn't necessarily favor yards used to building deep blue ships, but the Navy is changing. We are going to have smaller ships across the Navy."
So what gives here? Is the industry growing?
Cynthia Brown, president of the American Shipbuilding Association, says England is simply wrong. The three yards that were added are actually existing yards that are now seeking new Navy contracts. Two of them, Austal USA and Bollinger, are in the Gulf Coast.
Brown says that, contrary to what England said, the industry is not growing. A 2003 survey by the U.S. Commerce Department backs her up.
That survey showed that the number of major shipyards went from about 200 in the 1980s to today's 90. And the work force? From 112,000 two decades ago to 45,000 today.
But England's comment about the size of the industry was not nearly as important as what he said about the size of the ships. He said that the future is smaller yards, smaller ships.
For America's largest shipbuilders, the key customer - the one, in fact, keeping it afloat - is the U.S. Navy. If that customer says it's going to want something different in the future, a wise shipbuilder will take that to heart.
Some say we'll eventually have a 600-ship Navy, the size Reagan had envisioned in the mid-'80s. But they'll likely be smaller ships with smaller crews, and they'll have capabilities unimagined today.
That's not to say there won't be large warships. There will be, just not as many. And Mississippi's two major yards, Ingalls and VT Halter, likely will be building these ships well into the future.
Smaller yards, smaller ships
SUN HERALD - MISSISSIPPI
www.sunherald.com/
Imagine people in the shipbuilding industry might have been taken aback by recent comments from Navy Secretary Gordon England that appeared in Defense Daily.
England said that, contrary to concerns in Congress, the shipbuilding industry in the United States is growing.
"We actually added three yards this year," England said. "In my view the industrial base is bigger. That doesn't necessarily favor yards used to building deep blue ships, but the Navy is changing. We are going to have smaller ships across the Navy."
So what gives here? Is the industry growing?
Cynthia Brown, president of the American Shipbuilding Association, says England is simply wrong. The three yards that were added are actually existing yards that are now seeking new Navy contracts. Two of them, Austal USA and Bollinger, are in the Gulf Coast.
Brown says that, contrary to what England said, the industry is not growing. A 2003 survey by the U.S. Commerce Department backs her up.
That survey showed that the number of major shipyards went from about 200 in the 1980s to today's 90. And the work force? From 112,000 two decades ago to 45,000 today.
But England's comment about the size of the industry was not nearly as important as what he said about the size of the ships. He said that the future is smaller yards, smaller ships.
For America's largest shipbuilders, the key customer - the one, in fact, keeping it afloat - is the U.S. Navy. If that customer says it's going to want something different in the future, a wise shipbuilder will take that to heart.
Some say we'll eventually have a 600-ship Navy, the size Reagan had envisioned in the mid-'80s. But they'll likely be smaller ships with smaller crews, and they'll have capabilities unimagined today.
That's not to say there won't be large warships. There will be, just not as many. And Mississippi's two major yards, Ingalls and VT Halter, likely will be building these ships well into the future.