Barge Builder's Orders Pick Up; More Workers to be Hired in '12
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
13 December 2011
By Joe Napsha
On a 33-acre strip of land stretching about a mile along the
Monongahela River in Fayette County, a boatyard is building one
river barge every two workdays and expects to expand and add more
workers next year.
Brownsville Marine Products LLC expects to build 143 barges this
year and 165 next year and to top out at 180 barges in 2013, said
CEO and President Timothy Scheib. The boatyard, once known as
Hillman Barge Co., built only 86 barges in 2009 and 113 last year
before a pickup in orders kicked in.
"Most of our capacity is already booked for the next three years,"
said Scheib, a Leetsdale native and Quaker Valley graduate. "The
barge business is very good. All the yards are working,"
The company is 86 percent booked, and its remaining build capacity
is being held for customers in the region looking for new barges
next year and in 2013, he added.
The business of building barges for use on American inland
waterways is doing well in part because barges were retired faster
than they were being replaced about a decade ago, said James
McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh
Commission. When the recession hit in 2008, more barges were
retired.
Since then, new economics have entered the inland shipping
business. Barges that used to ship coal and other products from
Pittsburgh to Kentucky now are shipping coal as far away as New
Orleans. Instead of a barge's being in service on a five-day trip,
it's now five weeks, McCarville said.
"We need more barges, and we need more towboats," McCarville said.
River traffic is not back to pre-recession levels but continues to
grow every year, he noted.
"The industry is doing pretty well as a whole" as it benefits from
moving oil, gas and grain, said David A. Murray, a former seaman
who covers the river transportation business for The Waterways
Journal, a trade publication. Demand in Asia for U.S. grain has
created more business for inland shipping companies, he said.
Brownsville Marine, a subsidiary of barge management firm
Heartland Transportation LLC of Columbia, Ill., is a "small guy"
in the barge-building business, Scheib said. It competes against
the industry's "big guys" -- Jeffboat LLC in Jeffersonville, Ind.,
and Trinity Marine Products Inc., which has four boatyards the
size of Brownsville Marine and is part of Dallas-based Trinity
Industries Inc.
"We have to build the best barge in the industry," Scheib said,
speaking with the confidence of a Naval Academy graduate and
former naval shipyard commander.
There are an estimated 19,000 barges used nationwide, and about
1,000 barges are built annually, he said. About 3,000 of the
current stock is about 30 years old, said John Johnson, vice
president of barge operations for Heartland Transportation.
Brownsville Marine is helping replenish the fleet by building
barges on two lines in its sprawling boatyard: one inside
cavernous buildings and the other on an outside line. The boatyard
has seven barges under construction at all times and launches
about three a week, Scheib said.
The workers take the huge pieces of structural and plate steel
from a storage yard, laser cut the steel to precise measurements,
bend it to form the hull and other sections, weld it with machine
and hand welders, assemble it like giant pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle, then move it to an adjacent paint shop that's heated in
the winter. When they are done, a 330-ton barge, about 35 feet
wide and about 200 feet in length with a 14-foot hull, is perched
above the riverbank, ready to be sent down five steel launch
rails.
Barges have the capacity to carry 1,800 tons of cargo, including
fertilizer, chemicals, grain, coal and stone, Scheib said.
Heartland Transportation bought the boatyard out of bankruptcy in
2005 after Brownsville's barge-building business struggled for
about 20 years, falling in and out of bankruptcy.
The old Hillman Barge Co., which operated since 1939, closed in
the 1980s when the steel industry collapsed. Trinity Marine
Products, a competitor, bought the business in 1989 and operated
it until the barge business plunged in 1995.
Wilhelm & Kruse, a steel fabricator in Rankin, acquired the
property in 1998, along with the former Hiller Barge repair
shop.After Wilhelm & Kruse filed for bankruptcy in 2001, a
group of investors bought the dormant boatyard in 2002. It was
resurrected as HBC Barge LLC, but that reincarnation filed for
bankruptcy in 2004.
Then Heartland principals Joseph Rose and Brian Mueller bought the
business to ensure a steady supply for their barge management
company, Scheib said.
Their new Brownsville Marine launched its first barge in April
2006.
When he took over in 2009, Scheib said, he cut production costs
$100,000 per barge, reduced time needed to build each barge by
1,000 man-hours, improved steel purchasing and inventory
practices.
The company is undergoing a $1.9 million expansion that will
create 50 jobs in early 2012, adding to the workforce of about 310
employees.
A 44,100-square-foot building is being built by General Industries
Inc. of Charleroi to upgrade a steel preparation shop, which will
be completed in March.
The biggest problem facing the company is the difficulty in
attracting quality workers locally, Scheib said. About 27
temporary workers from the Gulf Coast are working now, Scheib
said.
"We struggle hiring folks here. My biggest worry is where are we
going to find 40 to 50 folks ... to do this kind of work," Scheib
said. "There is a shortage of quality welders across the country."
Joe Napsha can be reached at jnapsha@tribweb.com or 724-836-5252.