Marinette Marine just keeps ticking along with new contracts coming through their doors at least yearly, it seems. One of the shipyard's major customers, the U.S. Coast Guard, just signed on for another 40 boats to be built by the Wisconsin-based company.
While these won't be built at Marinette Marine's closest shipyards in Marinette and Menominee, they will mean a stronger presence for the company and guaranteed income through the next several years.
The 40 new boats are medium response boats, valued all together at about $89.6 million, and Marinette Marine will build and deliver them to the Coast Guard as part of a multi-year contract that gives the Coast Guard the option to commission up to 250 such boats. The whole contract could bring in up to $600 million in the long term.
"Marinette Marine looks forward to continuing its strong partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard," says Chuck Goddard, president and CEO of Marinette Marine. "They are a valued customer, and we are proud to build an additional 40 RB-Ms in support of their mission requirements."
Twenty of them will be built not too far away, at ACE Marine in Green Bay, while the other 20 will be built by another partner shipyard, Kvichak Marine Industries near Seattle.
The boats are scheduled to begin delivery to the Coast Guard in the second quarter of 2013. They are not the first installment on the contract, either; the newly-announced 40 boats actually bring the number of these response boats Marinette Marine will build up to 166.
Other major contracts the 70-year-old company has snagged currently include building littoral combat ships for the U.S. Navy, a regional research vessel for the University of Alaska--Fairbanks, and a fisheries survey vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Chuck Goddard, Marinette Marine Corporation
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