C&C Marine & Repair Acquires Fabrication Building
C&C Marine & Repair, a Belle Chasse, La.-based full-service marine fabrication and repair shipyard located along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, announced May 20 the acquisition of a 35,000-square-foot fabrication building from Versabar Inc. With the new building, C&C now offers a total of 540,000 square feet of indoor, under-roof fabrication space.
The building comes equipped with four 40-ton overhead gantry cranes outfitted with 10-ton auxiliary cranes. With that equipment already in place, C&C plans to begin using the facility for its new-construction projects almost immediately.
“We will make some minor modifications to the building, but otherwise we should be able to start vessel fabricating by June,” said Tony Cibilich, owner of C&C Marine & Repair.
The acquisition is the conclusion of a 2018 purchase and “lease-back” agreement between C&C and Versabar. Founded in 1981, Versabar specializes in the development and application of heavy-lift and pulling systems, particularly for the offshore oil and gas industry.
The new facility is just the latest expansion for C&C. In March, the shipyard completed a new 6,600-square-foot pipe-blasting shop, equipped with a Viking automatic pipe-blasting machine and an automatic pipe fitting-blasting machine. The 120-foot by 55-foot facility is under-roof, in keeping with C&C’s operational strategy, and offers the ability to blast pipe between 1 inch and 12 inches in diameter. The new pipe-blasting shop gives C&C Marine & Repair more flexibility with their production schedule by moving blasting and painting for pipe and fittings in-house.
The added space and capabilities come at a busy time for the shipyard. In the first quarter of 2020, C&C Marine & Repair completed construction of a 6,600 hp. triple Z-drive inland towboat for Marquette River Transportation, a 2,600 hp. towboat for Maritime Partners, two deck barges, a spud barge and two 30,000-barrel tank barges. By the end of the second quarter, the shipyard will have completed and delivered a second 2,600 hp. towboat, a deck barge and a 23,000 hp. diesel-electric cutterhead suction dredge, along with other projects in various stages of construction. Besides the 15-vessel series for Maritime Partners, also in the queue for C&C are three 6,000 hp. towboats for Hines Furlong Line, a 4,400 hp. vessel for Parker Towing Company, and two as-yet-unassigned 2,000 hp. towboats.
“We have been fortunate to remain busy during the coronavirus pandemic,” Cibilich said. “C&C Marine & Repair has had to implement new policies and make changes to our facilities to adapt to the impact of COVID-19, but there has been little impact to our production schedule. The new fabrication building will help with our current production, while providing the additional capacity for new jobs.”
