
DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709050895

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: HAMPTON ROADS ALMANAC '97

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

SHIPBUILDING DROP IN NAVY WORK IS HARD TO RECONCILE THE REGION'S SHIPYARDS ARE IN THE HUNT FOR PRECIOUS COMMERCIAL WORK TO FILL THEIR SCHEDULES.

It hasn't been a good year for the region's shipyards, and next year doesn't look much brighter.

Metro Machine Corp. virtually shut down, laying off nearly 500 workers, as Navy repair work dried up in the early spring. Norshipco laid off 400 this summer as its workload slowed.

``Fleet maintenance requirements were just not funded,'' said Tom Odom, command deputy of the Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair in Portsmouth.

Some of the money that had been slated for upkeep of the Atlantic Fleet was spent on operations in places such as Albania. And most of the what was left to spend went to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to sustain that yard's 6,800-person workforce.

``The Navy's putting everything they can in the Naval Shipyard,'' said Doug Forrest, vice president of Colonna's Shipyard Inc.

``The thinking these days is they're paying for the Norfolk Naval Shipyard,'' Odom said.

It's a situation that may or may not improve when the new federal fiscal year starts Oct. 1.

``There's a lot of stuff on the schedule, but whether (the Atlantic fleet) puts money there to do it all is another question,'' Odom said.

The private yards say the Navy is indicating that they're not going to see much of it.

``Fiscal year '98 is looking like a very tough year,'' said John L. ``Jack'' Roper IV, executive vice president of Norshipco, which currently has about 1,500 people working. ``Even though the depot maintenance budget is rising from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion, the work coming to the private sector is dropping by 25 percent.''

Falling dollars translate to falling man-days, Roper said.

The drop in spending will be compounded, Roper said, because a lot of the work is slated to be done at Navy piers, ``which doesn't do any good for yards like Norshipco with their own facilities.''

The problem is that most Hampton Roads shipyards are largely reliant on the Navy as a customer and that customer doesn't have money to spend, Forrest said.

``There needs to be a reality check amongst our politicians in Washington as to what it takes to run the Navy,'' Forrest said. ``The Navy is as much a victim as everybody else.''

Despite slow Navy spending, Colonna's, which employs 400, has had a ``very good'' year thanks to a steady stream of commercial work on tugs, barges and ships, in addition to working on a couple of Navy ships, Forrest said.

Norshipco also has picked up several commercial repairs this summer and several cruise ships are due in the fall. But those jobs don't make up for Navy repair work, which by its complex nature is more labor-intensive and brings in more dollars, Roper said.

Metro Machine, meanwhile, has recalled about 200 workers for a job at an affiliated yard in Chester, Pa., but executives there also see an uncertain future.

The only yard with relative stability in the coming year may be Newport News Shipbuilding, the region's largest with 18,000 workers. Construction and repair of aircraft carriers will continue in the coming year, even as the yard starts delivery of its first commercial ships since the 1970s - petroleum product tankers. MEMO: BUSINESS ALMANAC ILLUSTRATION: Graphics

The Virginian-Pilot

SHIPYARDS

SOURCE: Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

Metro Machine Corp. laid off nearly 500 workers; Norshipco laid

off another 400 this summer.

Newport News Shipbuilding, the area's largest yard by far, may be

the most stable with aircraft carrier work and commercial tanker

construction.

Shipyards anticipate much of the Navy's repair budget will go to

Navy yards, such as Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.