Extra operators look to refurbish hopper barges

As metal costs hover round report excessive charges, barge operators are going through robust choices. Not too long ago, Belle Chasse, La., primarily based C&C Marine and Restore, LLC signed a contract to re-side over 200 hopper barges for certainly one of its prospects. The method entails substitute of the outer hull partitions of the barges, and often the knuckles, with internals usually being changed as required, on a case-by-case foundation.

C&C Marine is now delivering a refurbished hopper barge each week and says the demand for restore work has by no means been larger.

“With present metal costs, operators are selecting to restore their present fleet of barges moderately than constructing new,” says C&C Marine and Restore’s proprietor Tony Cibilich. Since 2019, metal costs have risen sharply, and are nonetheless practically triple the pre-COVID charges.

“Previously the trade norm was to scrap older hopper barges, however with present metal costs this observe must be reevaluated. A lot of our prospects are realizing that constructing new hopper barges is value prohibitive,” provides Cibilich.

C&C Marine notes that one latest survey discovered that, over the following 5 years, over 7,425 dry cargo barges working on the Mississippi River system will probably be over twenty-five years previous. Many of those barges, it says, are potential candidates for re-siding.

“Operators ought to consider their present fleet to see whether or not any of the older hopper barges have good bottoms,” says Ciblich. “For these barges with good bottoms that may be economically re-sided, there’s a potential so as to add 25 extra years to the lifetime of the barge, for lower than half the worth of constructing a brand new hopper barge.”

Throughout the re-siding course of, C&C Marine usually renews roughly 130,000 kilos of metal per barge. The corporate has ramped up its manufacturing to accommodate the reside program with out affecting its regular restore enterprise.

The rise within the firm’s restore enterprise additionally coincides with the hiring of Nick Bergeron as head of C&C Marine’s restore division.

“I’ve labored at different shipyards for over twenty-five years, C&C Marine’s facility is way and away the most effective I’ve ever seen,” says Bergeron. “As quickly as I acquired right here, I knew I used to be house.”

Along with re-siding the barges, C&C Marine is blasting and portray every hopper barge in lower than 24 hours. 5 years after constructing its state-of-the-art blast and paint building, C&C Marine continues to enhance on the blast and paint course of, rising effectivity and supply occasions.

“The wonderful thing about C&C Marine and Restore is that we are able to present each barge restore service at a single location,” says Bergeron. “Because the trade continues to battle with excessive metal costs, re-siding older hopper barges has turn into the trade’s most cost-effective method of attempting to keep up a secure fleet dimension.”