THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260422
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Metro Machine Corp.'s repair docks in Norfolk may be empty, but work is on the way.
Two Navy warships representing up to $23 million for the Norfolk-based ship-repair firm will arrive in the next two months.
The work comes just in time. Metro Machine just finished a major overhaul of the helicopter carrier Guam and has yet to firm up plans to build double-hull tankers at its Chester, Pa., yard.
Metro Machine employs about 750 people at its Norfolk yard and there have been no layoffs this year, said Metro Machine President Richard Goldbach.
Metro needs to keep its Norfolk yard busy with Navy repair work to stay afloat in the competitive shipyard business.
The Navy awarded Metro Machine a contract Monday worth up to $14.1 million to overhaul the cruiser Yorktown. Work on the Yorktown will begin Sept. 11 and continues until May 1996.
The amphibious assault ship Ponce is to arrive Aug. 13 in the shipyard, located across the Elizabeth River from downtown Norfolk. That job, scheduled to be completed by November, is worth about $9 million.
The Ponce will be followed in either November or January by its sister ship the Nashville.
Metro employs 130 people at its yard in Chester, Pa. It is doing maintenance work on the Navy combat supply ship Detroit there.
The Pennsylvania yard is the centerpiece of Metro's plan to wean itself from the Navy. The facility will be used to build double-hull tankers for commercial users.
``We still have significant obstacles,'' said Goldbach, who has been spending most of his time recently at the Chester yard.
Metro needs $139 million to developthe facilities to build the innovative tankers, Goldbach said. Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have agreed to kick in $29 million.
Metro is seeking the remaining $110 million through loan guarantees offered by the Maritime Administration.
But the administration ``would not consider loan guarantees to build the shipyard unless there's ship orders,'' Goldbach said.
Goldbach said he is negotiating with at least one buyer, which he declined to identify.
Any buyer would likely seek the same federal loan guarantees to help finance ship construction.
Goldbach hopes to have a deal in place with loan guarantees before the end of the year, so Metro can beat the implementation of an international shipbuilding treaty that will make the terms of U.S. ship construction loan guarantees much less attractive than they are now.
Metro plans to build the tanker hulls in sections in Chester and assemble the vessels at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, which Goldbach hopes to lease part of after that yard is closed by the Navy. ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo
Metro Machine employs about 750 people...
by CNB