November 5, 2012

Seaspan breaks ground on massive new shipbuilding facility

Construction has officially started on the re-development of the Vancouver Shipyards facility in North Vancouver, B.C., which will build vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy.

“The beginning of construction at our shipyard marks the rebirth of a once thriving shipbuilding business on the B.C. coast,” said Seaspan CEO Jonathan Whitworth.

“Not only are we building a world-class shipyard in North Vancouver, we’re looking forward to revitalizing the ship construction business and to training and growing our workforce by an additional 1,000 employees over the next three years. We are committed to completing the facilities upgrades as proposed in our original NSPS (National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy) bid by 2015.”

Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards was awarded an $8 billion federal contract on Oct. 19, 2011 for construction of seven non-combat ships, under the NSPS.

The project involves the construction of four new fabrication buildings, a shipbuilding gantry crane and a load-out pier.

Seaspan will invest about $200 million into the yard to build the new Non-Combat ships.

The non-combat package awarded to Seaspan includes the Navy’s joint support ships, the Canadian Coast Guard’s off-shore science vessels and the new polar icebreaker.

The shipbuilding program will inject billions into the local economy and create an average of 4,000 jobs over the next eight years.

Seaspan will also invest money to upgrade facilities at Victoria Shipyards, including a new building to support the commissioning and trials of the new ships.

JOC NEWS SERVICE

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