The rush to lay keels before EPA Tier 4 emis-sions rules took effect contributed to a surge of new construction in recent years.
Those better days in some ways contributed to the current slowdown in building that’s been compounded by economic headwinds.
Many in the marine industry saw the change coming.Around this time last year, shipyard managers with a yearlong backlog expressed concern about the lack of new work in the pipeline. Suppliers also noticed an impending dropoff.
“I made the comment last year that we had a backlog until the middle of this year and then it looked like it was slowing down. My predictions were true,” said Brandon Durar, president of JonRie InterTech, maker of winches and deck gear. “We are still building rapidly, but there is not much backlog left.”
There are no firm numbers for vessel deliveries in a given year, but the website Shipbuildinghistory.com is one comprehensive source. The site, compiled by Tim Colton, shows 122 tug and towboat deliveries in 2015 and 110 in 2016. For the six years between 2010 and 2016, the average was about 108 new tug and towboats a year.
The start of 2017 has been noticeably slower. Through May 1, 27 tug and towboats have been delivered. Plenty more vessels will be completed later this year, but the total number could fall below 100.
Well-documented trends led to the recent surge in new construction, and in many ways foreshadowed the current challenges. In particular, tug and towboat operators pushed ahead with ambitious Tier 3 projects ahead of the Tier 4 cutoff, which has since come and gone. Shipyards on all three coasts are still working through backlogs caused by this surge in orders, but most will be finished by 2018.
Despite some early adopters, orders for boats that meet Tier 4 emissions standards have been slow to materialize.Meanwhile, the steep drop in offshore support vessel (OSV) construction and other oil field vessels also has more shipyards bidding for tug projects.
This story is from the American Tugboat Review 2017 edition of Professional Mariner.
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This story is from the American Tugboat Review 2017 edition of Professional Mariner.
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