$768m in awards

Eight US owners are getting a chunk of Uncle Sam’s money.

US authorities have handed out $768m in shipmanagement awards to eight US shipowners and shipmanagers.

The figures for the five-year awards could be on the low side if the ships under management are called in to active service to bring home supplies from Iraq or see other service during the contract period.

The biggest share of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) by far remains with Oakland, Californiabased Crowley Maritime Corp with $286m-worth of work.

The big loser is General Dynamics-owned American Overseas Marine (Amsea), formerly a major player in the RRF programme. TradeWinds reported in February that sources were reporting that the US Maritime Administration (MarAd), which runs the RRF, had found Amsea “outside the competitive range” in its RRF bid.

Two new entrants into the programme will be two of the largest US shipowners, Matson Navigation and Horizon Lines.

Another US-flag shipmanager, Patriot Contract Services, has been saved from the loss of its last shipmanagement work.

Its fleet has been cut to nearly nothing after the loss of the USflag fleet of liner giant APL on top of the loss of 11 large, mediumspeed ro-ros (LMSRs) to Amsea. But California-based Patriot is among several companies that will be experiencing a pleasant reversal of fortune through the RRF awards.

Nearly one-third of the 54 vessels of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) will be operated by two subsidiaries of Crowley Maritime.

Florida-based Crowley Liner Services will operate 11 ships on contracts valued at up to $182m, assuming options. Crowley’s New Jersey subsidiary Marine Transport Lines will operate six ships on a contract worth $104m.

Other winners include Louisiana’s Pacific-Gulf Marine (10 ships, $133m), Philadelphia’s Keystone Shipping (seven ships, $120m), Patriot (eight ships, $102m), and the Seattle-based Saltchuk Group’s New Jersey subsidiary Interocean American Shipping (five ships, $58m).

Ocean Duchess, a sister company of tanker operator Houston’s Ocean Shipholding, will operate two ships in a contract worth up to $35m if all options are exercised.

The awards should assuage recent losses by both Pacific-Gulf Marine and Keystone. Last year Pacific-Gulf Marine lost a big chunk of its work, the management of the American Roll-On Roll-Off Carriers fleet, to Interocean. Keystone recently lost a contract to manage four US military products tankers to Ocean Shipholding.

TradeWinds has previously reported the plans of two major US shipowners to enter the RRF business with first-time bids in this year’s round.