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www.marinelink.com MN 49 James L. Oberstar, and will be rechris- tened in a ceremony at Duluth later this spring. The 805-ft by 75-ft ship has a carrying capacity of 31,000 gross tons. The vessel was previously known as the MV Charles M. Beeghly. Oberstar’s tenure on Capitol Hill included 11 years as a senior Congressional aide and 36 years as a member of Congress. Most recently he served as the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he earned a reputation as Congress’ pri- mary expert on transportation issues. Conrad Industries 2010 Results and New Business Conrad Industries, Inc. announced its fourth quarter and twelve months 2010 results and the addition of new business during the first quarter total- ing $75.2m. For the quarter ended December 31, 2010, Conrad had net income of $3.3m and earnings per diluted share of $0.51 compared to net income of $2.8m and earnings per diluted share of $0.43 during the fourth quarter of 2009. The company had net income of $10.3m and earn- ings per diluted share of $1.60 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010 compared to net income of $12.8m and earnings per diluted share of $1.99 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009. The diluted shares for the quarter and twelve months ended December 31, 2010 are 6.4 million and 6.5 million for the quarter and twelve months ended December 31, 2009. New business added includes the signing of new contracts and sales of stock barges which brings estimated current backlog to approximately $113m compared $89.5m at December 31, 2010, $48.9m at March 31, 2010, and $38.3m at December 31, 2009. New contracts added include four 245-ft by 48-ft by 12-ft LPG tank barges, two 222-ft by 54-ft by 12-ft LPG tank barges, two 192-ft by 42-ft by 10-ft 7,500 bbl double skin tank barges, five 260-ft by 52-ft by 12-ft hopper barges and various other docking and deck barges. Additionally Conrad Industries signed contracts for three 100-ft by 30-ft by 10-ft push boats and two 75-ft by 30-ft by 10-ft tow- boats. The company also sold all of the stock barges in progress at December 31, 2010 which include three 297.5-ft by 54-ft by 12-ft 30,000 bbl tank barges, two 200-ft by 35-ft by 12.5-ft 10,000 bbl tank barges and two 120-ft by 30-ft by 12- ft deck barges. Marinette Marine Breaks Ground on New Facility Marinette Marine Corporation, a member of the Lockheed Martin-led Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) industry team, broke ground for a new panel- line fabrication building to support construction of the U.S. Navy's LCS. The new building will improve the first stage of ship construction at Marinette Marine and decrease ship module travel distance throughout the LCS construction process. The building will feature automation to increase efficiency and provide the capacity for storage of steel and other raw materials. In addition to this groundbreaking, Marinette Marine also marked the opening of its professional center and the completion of a project to expand its main indoor ship construction building. This expansion project nearly doubles the building's size and provides enough indoor space to simultaneously house two complete LCS hulls and parts for two addition- al ships. These investments are part of a five-year, $100m plan by the ship- yard's parent company, Fincantieri, to modernize its U.S. shipbuilding oper- ations, which will benefit the LCS program. In 2009, Marinette Marine installed higher-capacity overhead cranes, plasma-cutting tables and pipe-bending machines to increase efficiency and capacity. Austal Awarded U.S. Navy LCS 8 Contract The U.S. Navy has announced a fixed price incentive contract for the construction of a fourth 416.5-ft tri- maran Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS 8) valued at $368.6m. This is the second ship awarded under Austal’s recently announced U.S. Navy contract for construction of up to an additional 10 Littoral Combat Ships to be appropriated in the following five years, with a total value in excess of $3.5b. Once commissioned, these 10 ships will join the Austal-built USS Independence (LCS 2) which was commissioned in January 2010. This 10-ship contract will require Austal to more than double its U.S. workforce to approximately 3,800 employees in order to fulfill the con- tracts currently awarded. Construction of LCS 8 will com- mence in January 2012 at Austal’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala., where work is also underway on the following U.S. Navy and U.S. Army ships: Coronado (LCS 4), scheduled for PEOPLE & COMPANY NEWS Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin LCS Team
