Great Lakes shipping companies to invest $75 million this winter

The off-season is the on-season for Wisconsin shipyards as Great Lakes vessels prepare to tie-up for the winter. That’s when 800 people will get to work on maintaining and modernizing lakers.

Almost all of the 56 U.S.-flagged Great Lakes freighters will get some work between mid-January and the end of March when the new shipping season starts. Lake Carriers Association Vice-President Glen Nekvasil says that could mean anything from basic dockside maintenance to pulling the big boats out of the water onto dry dock. Nekvasil says operators will invest $75 million this winter.

“We’re going to be keeping a lot of shipyard workers employed and obviously then the companies and workers who supply shipyards, they’re going to keep busy this winter too. We only have a short period of time to get the fleet ready for next year. We could move as much as 100 million tons of cargo in one year so this winter maintenance period is very, very important to us and our customers.”

An unusually low number of ships will be wintering in the Twin Ports this year. Normally, about a dozen vessels tie up and get maintenance in Duluth-Superior but this year only eight are set to lay-up.

But Duluth Port Director Adolph Ojard says five of those ships will be super-carriers, and maintenance work will be more than usual on those thousand footers creating more jobs.

Fraser Shipyards in Superior handles the vessel maintenance, with crews working on ships at the shipyard or going to the docks where they lakers lay-up.

International Boilermakers Union representative Leonard Gunderson is based at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. He says 80 percent of their work is during winter lay-up.

“It’s extremely important. I mean, anything that brings work in, whether it be commercial work or Coast Guard work, for most of our shipyards, that’s the bread and butter. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of new construction going on right now.” (Do you think that will happen, the new construction?) “I believe we’re turning a corner right now.”

Some lakers will also have engines overhauled to meet new air emission requirements and ballast tank work to make it more difficult for invasive species to get in the ships. Gunderson says that’s good news for the Boilermarkers union.

“Yeah, they’re putting a lot of pressure on the shippers, which is alright for us,” Gunderson said. “It’s hard on the shippers, but it’s alright for us. I mean, it produces work.”

This winter, 800 boilermakers, welders, electricians and other skilled workers will be employed in two of the three Wisconsin shipyards. That includes 600 at the Sturgeon Bay yards and another 200 at Fraser Shipyards in Superior working on some two dozen lakers and others at nearby docks.

Marinette Marine employs 750 people, but since their work is for the Navy and Coast Guard, they stay employed year-round.

Wisconsin Public Radio is heard locally on 91.3 KUWS-FM and online at www.wpr.org.

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