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FMS customers. Since the move to its current facilities, the company has doubled in size ? physical size, em- ployees and business backlog. Dreyfus reports a stable, well-trained work- force of about 200 employees. And, as a builder for the military, ISO 9001 certi? ed USMI arguably does as much as any other domestic contractor. The USMI business plan is built upon zero debt ? long and short term. Dreyfus explains, We build only what we can afford to build.? Like other do- mestic builders, USMI hedges its bets by actively seeking overseas work and is actively pushing its products to a number of foreign countries, includ- ing Kuwait. The USMI resume in- cludes deliveries to at least nine foreign entities and says Dreyfus, the USMI backlog extends well into 2015. NO MAGIC FORMULA In a seemingly rare era where U.S. shipyards ? nd themselves, by and large, far busier and more pro? table than many of their foreign counterparts, Kvi- chak and USMI are two yards that seem to be riding the current wave nicely, de- spite having some or all of their eggs in the government basket. The boom in domestic oil production has fueled a resurgence of the Jones Act tanker trade, and the resultant demand in re- placement tonnage. Crowleys August announcement that it had entered into an agreement with Philadelphia-based Aker Shipyard (APSI) for up to 8 ad- ditional tankers more than underscores that trend. Separately, a robust offshore support vessel building program is un- derway from any number of domestic operators and the repowering plans for all domestic ? eets, consistent with new- er and more stringent emissions stan- dards, also continues at a brisk pace. The newfound domestic boatbuild- ing boom seems unlikely to end tomor-row. Hence, any worries about govern- ment sequestration issues, for the time being, are being eclipsed by increased commercial sector work. Beyond this, the quality and price of U.S. output is attracting many foreign orders. Kvi- chak and USMI, of course, are part of that metric, but countless other yards are getting the job done, too. Each has its own way of doing it, but a major theme beginning to emerge is the rap-idly diversifying portfolio of U.S. yards ? across vessel types, domestic and for- eign deliveries, and, of course, govern- ment and commercial sectors. Seques- tration? What sequestration? MN 65www.marinelink.com MN Sept2013 Layout 50-65.indd 658/29/2013 4:57:14 PM
