BIW to submit bid for $12.1B Coast Guard cutter program

Bath Iron Works is preparing to send off its bid for the construction of 25 new Coast Guard offshore patrol cutters that could be worth up to an estimated $12.1 billion.

The Bath shipyard will be competing for the right to build the new class of cutter with Bollinger Shipyards Lockport LLC in Lockport, La., and Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. in Panama City, Fla. But it will prove to a tough bidding war, Rich Nolon, president of the Local S6 of the Machinists union, told the Bangor Daily News.

“I’m hoping it will be close enough,” Nolon told the BDN. “It used to be that we could stand by our quality alone, but the way the federal government has changed how it does business, that’s gone away. It’s all about costs now — even with the Navy and the DDGs. But I think quality will win out … as long as it’s a reasonable [bid].”

Nolon also said that the better weather conditions and lower wage and benefit packages may also prove to be a competitive advantage for the shipyard’s southern competition.

The U.S. Coast Guard is expected to select one of the three competing shipyards to complete detail design and options for the construction of up to nine cutters by the end of its fiscal year, when it will select one contractor to construct the remaining vessels of the original 25,

If BIW is selected for the Coast Guard contract, it will be the first time the shipyard has built a Coast Guard vessel since 1932.

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