North Vancouver shipbuilder Seaspan has been provided a little more certainty from the federal government on which ships it will build first under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
Seaspan is already slated to build seven smaller science vessels, beginning in the second half of 2014 when an ongoing upgrade of its Vancouver Shipyard is complete.
The Department of Public Works announced today that Seaspan will build two large support ships for the navy starting in 2016, with an option to build a third. The other large ship Seaspan expects to build is a polar icebreaker.
“It provides certainty in the program and allows us to do forward planning to make sure we can complete the projects in both a timely and a cost-efficient manner,” John Shaw, Seaspan’s vice-president of government relations and business development, told Business in Vancouver.
In a statement, the Department of Public Works said the decision was made after analyzing the readiness of ship design, program costs and “gaps in program capability.”
Seaspan and Halifax’s Irving Shipyards won the federal shipbuilding contracts in 2011. Under the $38.3 billion program, Irving will build combat vessels and Seaspan will build a variety of non-combat ships.
On October 7, the federal government announced that Seaspan would build 10 vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard at a cost of $3.3 billion, in addition to seven science vessels previously announced.
The company expects to start hiring up to 1,000 tradespeople starting in the fall of 2014.
