The shipbuilding and repair market has been slightly increasing over the past year with most of
the increase being sporadic on vessel repair. New construction has been steady and in May Ship
Repairs business, we have been focused on infrastructure expansion such as passenger ferry
landings for the City of New York.
Looking to the future, May Ship anticipates this trend to continue or even decline due to possible
trade tariffs and lack of needed new construction of small to midsized vessels because of market
saturation and the current industry conditions.
Our Strategy:
“As a result of the current market conditions, we are diversifying ourselves to new markets such
as industrial Structural Steel Fabrication – Full Manufacturing & Detailing”, said Mohamed
Adam, May Ship’s founder and president. Our fabrication shops are fully equipped and staffed
with skilled personnel to plan & execute modular fabrication projects to ensure timely delivery
of the sections and on-site assembly with high quality standards.
In order to step up to meeting the dynamic challenges of the upward & downward trends in the
shipping & steel markets, May Ship has made investments in upgrading its facilities,
modernizing its equipment, and adding staff members. In this regard, May Ship has recently
appointed Kenneth D. Boothe, Jr, a shipyard operations veteran, as VP of production.
In addition, we are also exploring the potential of what the Green market has to offer such as
wind towers, underwater turbine structures and other environmentally consciences markets and
investigating our contributing role to address them.
At the same time, we are going to continue our focus on our core primary business of new
construction, dry-docking & repair, and conversion of marine vessels. As technology advances
within the industry, we understand the importance of manufacturing a reliable vessel that is able
to achieve high performance with a minimal amount of maintenance, leveraging our significant
relevant experience and background in this business.
About Us and Our Facilities:
We are a reputable company and have been in business for over 30 years. Our Staten Island,
New York-based shipyard is comprised of well-equipped facilities, heavy machinery & cutting
tools, talented qualified technical professionals including Estimators, Purchasers, Engineers,
Designers, Detailers and Project Managers that are fully capable of handling any technical
challenges.
We have 3 Dry Docks with the capacity to dry dock vessels up to 300’ in length. We are in the
process of building finger piers to utilize our marine travel lift crane capable of handling 600
metric ton vessels – one of the largest on the east Coast.

Our Services:
We offer our clients the highest quality design, construction & repair, and structural steel
fabrication services. Vessels are built and steel fabrication projects are completed to international
specifications meeting all safety requirements, regulations and certifications. We construct and
repair vessels in accordance with all regulatory agencies including the United States Coast
Guard, The American Bureau of shipping, Lloyd’s, DNV, and others..
At May Ship Repair, each project is fully engineered before the project even begins. Our use of
product information modelling allows us to integrate the production engineering, production
planning, and all purchasing functions in order to minimize the cost and time required for
production. In addition, central coordination of these functions allows us to spread a project over
multiple facilities.
In doing so we can further reduce cost and time and therefore, offer our clients competitive
pricing.

By Ken Hocke on MARCH 27, 2020SHARE FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail

Austal USA has Navy contracts to build the Independence-variant littoral combat ship (top) and the expeditionary fast transport ship (bottom) Austal USA photo

Shipyards across the U.S. remain open for business in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. While these companies respect the virus’s propensity to create havoc and death and spread like a prairie fire, boats are still being built and delivered. The key is working smart.

“We are open for business but being very diligent as we look out for the safety of our employees,” said Chris Vaccari, executive vice president, Gulf Island Shipyards, Houma, La. “To date we have no reported cases of Covid-19. We are following the CDC guidelines and then some”.

At Moose Boats, general manager Steve Dirkes said the Vallejo, Calif-based shipyard is fortunate to be considered an essential business due to the fact that it builds and services boats for first responders. “All of our employees maintain a six-foot separation, wash their hands a lot, and have to eat lunch in their respective cars instead of sharing the break room, but we are trying to make do as best we can.”

In Salisbury, Md., Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corp. is running at full capacity, said company head Charles Robertson, who is also CEO of American Cruise Lines (ACL). They do a daily screening of workers when they report, and they’ve staggered shifts. “We’re doing everything we can to keep it open and keep the people safe,” he said.

Back in the Gulf of Mexico, Steiner Shipyard, Bayou La Batre, Ala., management is limiting access of all visitors, vendors and salespeople to its facilities. “We are educating our employees and confirming that they know the facts about the coronavirus,” said yard owner and president Tara Marshal. “We are emphasizing to prepare and not panic. We are sanitizing and cleaning like crazy and fortunately for us we have a lot of boats, so we are able to space employees apart and on various phases of boats throughout the yard.”

Just a few miles from Bayou La Batre, in Mobile, Ala., Austal USA is a prime Navy contractor with upwards of 4,000 employees. “Austal USA’s primary concern is the health and well-being of our workforce. We’re closely monitoring and following guidance from the CDC, World Health Organization, the U.S. Navy and state and local officials to ensure necessary steps are taken to safeguard our workforce and sustain support to national defense requirements,” said Craig Savage, director of communications and external affairs. “Austal remains open and operating under close care. The company’s precautions include travel restrictions for non-essential employees, review of recently traveled employees, comprehensive facility sanitization, social distancing, and moving to virtual meetings whenever practical. We’re continuing to monitor developments and updating our response accordingly.”

All American Marine, Bellingham, Wash., continues to operate during the coronavirus pandemic, stepping up its commitment to worker safety. “There is plenty of communication with our crew,” the yard’s president and CEO, Matt Mullett, said, “that we are working hard to maintain a safe work environment, assuring them that we will do everything in our power to keep the doors open, not to let fear kick-in and worry about the worst case scenarios and that we’ll be here for them.”

At VT Halter Marine, Pascagoula, Miss., everyone coming into the yard must have his or her temperature taken. “If you are 100.4 or above, you have your temperature taken a second time by a different devise. If you are still 100.4 or above, you’re sent home until your temperature goes down,” said Liz Johnson, VT Halter’s marketing and communications manager. “Workers, both in the office and in the yard, are reminded every day to wash your hands, don’t touch your face, stay at least six feet away from other people.”

Johnson said both office and yard employees are working staggered schedules. “We have day and night shifts, where certain groups work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, another group Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, still others with schedules that include Sundays,” she said. “Our yard supervisors watch out for group gatherings.”

MetalCraft Marine, with shipbuilding facilities in Cape Vincent, N.Y., and Kingston, Ontario, Canada, has been ramping up its adjustment of production processes over the last two weeks. “We have adjusted all jobs to ensure that each employee has a minimum eight feet from the next person, which means reducing numbers on larger boats,” said Bob Clark, the company’s contracts manager. “All design, project management, procurement and accounting is done from home. All meetings are done online. We have reduced shipping between here and New York to a minimal level and cut out cross border training temporarily.

“Our facilities maintenance person is now a sanitizer regularly sanitizing every common area several times a day. There are sanitizers, hand and material, all over the place. All employees have good working gloves and face masks if needed,” added Clark. “We have lost a few people who had to look after family and children, a couple from panic, but still moving along well. Most deals that were closing are on some sort of hold as they deal with more pressing issues, understandably.”All American MarineAustal USAChesapeake ShipbuildingcoronavirusFeatured (first)Gulf Island ShipyardsMetalCraft Marinemoose boatsopenshipyardsSteiner ShipyardVT Halter Marine

MARINERS HARBOR — Landings that riders will use to board the Citywide Ferry Service next year have been unveiled at the Staten Island shipyard where they’re being built.

Mayship Repair, at 3075 Richmond Terrace, won a city bid in 2015 to build the 13 barges that the boats will use as docks when the service starts in June 2017.

The new barges will head to Soundview, Astoria, East 62nd Street, Roosevelt Island, Long Island City, Stuyvesant Cove, Grand Street, Red Hook, Bay Ridge and Rockaway after construction is finished.

“When they bid, they bid from all over the place: all over the state, all over the country,” said Mohamed Adam, president of Mayship.

“We’re the only company that does ship building [in the city].”

The company started constructing the barges in December and each one takes about 25 workers up to three months to complete, Adam said.

First workers laser cut steel into pieces, weld them together and eventually create 28 different sections that they put together to create the 11 foot tall, 35 foot wide and 90 foot long landings, Adam said.

So far, Mayship has finished four of the barges — including ones set to dock in Bay Ridge and the Rockaway. 

After they’re finished, workers attach the barges to a giant crane and move them to a dry dock with air balloons underneath, wait for a high tide to roll in then guide them to their final destination. The whole process generally takes half a day, workers said.

In March, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the first routes of the ferry service — in Rockaway, South Brooklyn and Astoria — would launch in June 2017 with the Soundview and Lower East Side ones starting in 2018.

The routes will include existing stops in the East River, as well as new ones in Bay Ridge, Far Rockaway, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Red Hook, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6, Governors Island, Grand Street, East 62nd Street, East 90th Street, Stuyvesant Cove, Long Island City, Astoria, Roosevelt Island and Soundview.

Two other routes — from Coney Island and Stapleton — are in the planning stages, the city’s Economic Development Corporation previously said.

Aside from the Citywide Ferry barge, Adam said the company has plenty of experience making landings and previously made docks in Hoboken and Jersey City.

“We build a lot of them,” said Adam, who started the company 40 years ago in the borough. “Every location has different requirements to build, depending on what the location needs, what kind of ferry is going to be landing there.”

Adam said that, aside fro the barges, about 60 workers on the site keep busy with other projects year-round, including building and repairing ships.