THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607200218
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 56 lines
Two Norfolk shipyards are on competing teams trying to win a $100 million Navy contract to convert a civilian freighter to military use.
Norshipco and Metro Machine Corp. are subcontractors to team leaders that would operate a roll-on/roll-off ship after its conversion. Three other teams aligned with shipyards in Florida and along the Gulf Coast also are vying for the contract.
The contract will help secure jobs at the winning team's shipyard next summer.
Norshipco would do the work locally, and Metro Machine at a yard in Philadelphia.
``It is a nice contract for whoever does win it,'' said John L. ``Jack'' Roper IV, Norshipco's executive vice president.
The ship will become part of the Marine Corps pre-positioned fleet, a group of ships staged around the world and loaded with equipment and supplies to support a rapid Marine deployment.
Final proposals are due in the fall and an award could be made sometime in the winter. The conversion is scheduled to start in May.
``Basically, the Navy has said, `We have this much money, and we want the best ship we can get for that money,' '' said Richard Goldbach, Metro Machine's president.
The vessel will fill a military need faster and less expensively than building a new ship, Roper said.
If the Navy likes the first ship, it might order two more, Goldbach said.
The teams will be competing not on how low they keep their bids, but on how good a ship they can deliver for $100 million, Goldbach said.
If Norshipco's team wins, the work would be done at its shipyard in Norfolk's Berkley section. Norshipco employs more than 2,000 people.
``It would mean we would have employment for whatever amount of people for however long the work took,'' Roper said.
He declined to be more specific, citing government contracting rules.
Metro would do most of the work at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Its Norfolk shipyard is working near capacity. Metro employs about 900, mostly in Norfolk. It is part of a team led by Maersk Line, the giant Danish shipping company, Goldbach said. The program requires that the team leader be a ship operator, he added.
Norshipco is teamed with Ocean Marine Navigation Co., a Washington company.
The contract's $100 million value includes the cost of chartering, managing and maintaining the vessel for several years after the conversion.
Still, a sizable chunk of the money will go to the winning team's shipyard for the conversion and overhaul.
``It will be a significant amount of dollars,'' Roper said.
Other teams competing for the work are aligned with shipyards owned by Atlantic Marine Inc., which operates shipyards in Jacksonville, Fla., and Mobile, Ala., and Trinity Marine Group, which has several yards along the Gulf Coast. by CNB