Vessel Repair Powering Ahead On New Construction

Kurt Moerbe, vice president of Vessel Repair, said the company is looking ahead — and investing — for next year and the years beyond. Vessel Repair is in the midst of a 25-barge contract for Westlake Chemical, having delivered six so far and producing a new barge every three to four weeks.

The company, occupying 70 acres in Port Arthur, recently installed a 325-foot by 80-foot building for blasting and painting 30,000-barrel petrochemical barges, in addition to its existing covered building for blasting and painting 10,000-barrel barges, and is planning on adding a third next year. “That will increase our throughput and make us more efficient,” Moerbe told The Waterways Journal.

The company also plans to add onto its barge fabrication facility. “We added three more 10-ton overhead cranes,” Moerbe said. And next summer, it will be adding a new drydock funded by a $1.5 million Small Shipyard grant from the Maritime Administration.

Westlake isn’t the only construction customer. Vessel Repair is also building a series of spud barges measuring 160 feet long by 60 feet wide for a customer in Galveston who had leftover allocated steel. The barges will be built on spec and will be available for lease.

Vessel Repair is also working on a set of three towboats. One of them will be its patented 88-foot-long Pacesetter design, built on spec, and now set to deliver to Shamrock Marine in March.

The company is also contracted to build two boats for Golding Barge Line, a 114-foot retractable to be delivered in August of next year, and an 85-foot-long boat to be delivered in December.

One of Vessel Repair’s boats, the mv. Capt. Jacob Garcia, owned by Blessey Marine, is set to be included in a list of Top Ten Significant Boats of the Year at the Workboat show, which Moerbe said is a nice surprise.

Investment Strategy

“All the investments we make are for both the repair and construction side.” Moerbe told The Waterways Journal. “Our repair work was a little bit down this year, but we see a big uptick coming over the next several years.”

The barge industry is in a bit of a turnover as older barges are retiring, but along with that, there is a push to extend their service life. “The service life of a barge is moving from 30 or so years up to 40,” Moerbe said. “Construction costs have a lot to do with that. So, industry has put more emphasis on better coatings, along with using more stainless steel on topside fittings to help extend service life.”

Labor Challenges

All that work is keeping the roughly 170 employees at the shipyard busy. Moerbe estimates that, when contractors are added, the total number working for the company approaches 200. “The company has a core group of experienced, trusted workers who have been with us for a long time,” he said. But among recent hires, there is a bit of turnover, Moerbe admits. That’s related to the recent push for shipbuilding revival that is pulling in experienced workers.

Moerbe agrees with the need for the United States to rebuild its shipbuilding capacity and bring the supply and repair chain supporting the U.S. Navy back to American shores, but it does create concerns for commercial shipyards like his. “It takes a long time to train a shipyard worker,” he said. “So, the military-serving shipyards that are quickly ramping up due to appropriations from Congress and grants from the War Department are offering higher pay to attract experienced shipyard workers.  To keep up, commercial yards will have to raise pay as well, but we can only do that in stages to avoid burdening our customers too much.”

A lot of those new or expanded military-serving shipyards are innovating, and that innovation has spilled over into the commercial sector as well. “Technology and robotics are going to make a huge difference,” Moerbe said. “It’s already happening.”

He doesn’t believe the automation and robotic innovations will reduce the need for shipyard workers, but they will make those workers much more productive. “They will reduce the fatigue from having to work in cramped positions,” he said.

Although the competition for labor and resources does create concerns for commercial yards, Moerbe said that for a young person starting out and considering shipyard or related industrial work, there is a lot of opportunity. “It’s definitely an exciting time to be in this business,” he said.