Update 1 p.m., Dec. 16: FedNav confirms to me that it’s not the buyer. Awaiting word from Oceanex and Transport Desgagnes, which I linked to in my first post.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about a mysterious Canadian company that had placed an order for a container/vehicle ferry with the same German shipyard that built BC Ferries’ big new vessels a few years ago.
My main point was that it was very odd for such a big contract to be announced without naming the party that was doing the buying.
The German shipyard should have been boasting all over the place, not just in quiet interviews, given the dismal state of the European economy and of shipbuilding in general right now. And boasting aside, these are normally just straightforward announcements made through the industry press.
If it was a Canadian government purchase, or an order placed by a public-type agency like a provincial ferry service on either coast, it would have gone to tender. So the process would have been quite public — and so would the fact that the ferry company would have had to get its board to approve the spending.
(I really appreciated the enthusiasm behind the theory that David Hahn, the departing CEO of BC Ferries, had somehow secretly ordered one last German ferry as a parting shot, but that’s pretty much impossible.)
Anyway, after a night of sifting around through emails and industry data, I’m putting my money on either the FedNav Group as the likely buyer, or on Oceanex.
(Note: FedNave has just confirmed to me via email that it isn’t the buyer. I’ll be posting again on that later today, and leaving this post stand for now.)
FedNav is based in Montreal, and already has a lot of ice-class vessels, which is what has been ordered. And they’ve expanded a fair bit in the past five years. Looks like they won a number of government contract northern routes in Canada. And, if I’m looking at correct information, contracts with the government of Newfoundland.
Oceanex, headquartered in St. John’s, is owned by Sid Hynes, former chair of Marine Atlantic. It hauls freight for Costco, Zellers and Wal-Mart. And they’ve recently picked up a big deal to ship new autos from the car port in Dartmouth into Newfoundland. Hynes is owns a piece of Canship Ugland, which manages the shuttle tankers that bring crude oil in from the offshore fields in Newfoundland.
As many of my clever readers helpfully pointed out, there’s a news story written in German that deals with the contract announcement (but doesn’t name the buyer either). Roughly translated, part of the piece points out the new ferry is intended for use between Montreal and Newfoundland. So again, FedNav fits the bill. And so does Oceanex.
In any case, that still doesn’t explain the secrecy.
Unless it was mostly about Canadian sensibilities over the past year, when Ottawa was busy cancelling the import duty on imported vessels — including ferries over 129 metres. This new one is planned for 210 metres.
Because at the same time that was going on, the country was beginning to hear about the billions of dollars worth of shipbuilding money that Ottawa was about to sprinkle around the country.
Maybe as all of those very political headlines were being written, it just seemed smarter to fly under the radar.
Or maybe it was, and still is, come kind of commercial consideration.
As always, your thoughts and theories are welcome, either in the public comments box below, or to my email address, onthewaterfrontblog@gmail.com.
It’s for Transport Desgagnes!
Thanks for the little dig…
I would be interested to know if the same German banks dragging BC Ferries into a spiraling debt black hole have lent money for these purchases too?
Remember folks, it`s about the money, the easiest way to transfer public funds out of public hands isn`t in a big Top Secret envelope…
It`s in usury interest rates, a credit card bill that lasts forever because of minimum payments.
P.S……That story also made mention of 6 more of these ships are needed to be sold to keep the shipyard busy.
Good Day
Mr. G: Dig? No way. I love my readers more than you can imagine. And yes, that was my point about the German banks. State banks, their mandate is to build the local economy. So yes, maybe a big part of this.
And Anon: Any reason you have to say it’s Transport Desgagnes? I’ve been all over the place today and haven’t checked in. That was the company I linked to in my original post, because of some of the work they do. Big purchase for them, but often government contracts can be borrowed against for new builds. Anyway, any info would be much appreciated.
I give you OCEANEX. ShipPax in Sweden (paid membership required for access) announced on their news-ticker on 14 Dec 11 that “OCEANEX ro-ro ordered at Flensburger”.
This is the second ship OCEANEX will have built in Germany. The Oceanex Avalon was built at J.J. Seitas in Hamburg. Then Hynes paid the 25% duty.
Problem now, of course, is that making a big splash about getting merchantmen built offshore while the Harper gesellschaft is making bold announcements about multi-billion dollar outlays to Canadian yards for government vessels is a little embarrassing… for the government. It will start to highlight the gross inadequacies of the Canadian shipbuilding industry and the fact that there will be at least a 10 year ramp up to modernize the yards and develop a qualified workforce.
I have no doubt that there was no Canadian yard with the design engineering capability to develop the type of ship needed for a high capacity short sea line through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east coast of NFLD. In short, there isn’t a Canadian yard yet capable of building a 210 meter anything, much less a versadeck ro-ro.
Flensburger otoh, has been building a batch of ro-ros (for the British navy’s strategic reserve no less) and has the design engineering capability to make the adaptations necessary. And then there’s the issue of cheap financing.
If you want and example of how poor Canadian ship design capability really is just watch the navy. The combat support ships (once cancelled) have been reborn. Only now they are looking at something like the German Berlin-class replenishment vessel. The goal is to get the German design altered to Canadian requirements and then have them sell the adapted design to a Canadian yard for building.
Pass the popcorn. This is going to be fun to watch.
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Funny that the Quebec Dept of Transport issued last week a statement to the effect that they consider supporting, Read subsidizing,specific shipoperators for a container route service. That to supply the North Shore and North of Québec in a wide publicised construction plan in link with Mr Jean Charest Plan Nord. In which Quebec tax payers are footing the bill to export raw minerals at world competitive prices. Not to a many economist a great idea to commit right now.
Knowing very well how things are managed in those matters, it might be just that they took this decision behind closed doors long before asking for the subsidy budgets!