It’s not every day that the U.S. shipbuilding industry gains a new entrant, especially one that builds civilian hulls, so the launch of a new facility in Vancouver, Washington this month is catching attention.
New Pacific Industrial (NP) is a new venture helmed by experienced shipyard executives, and it is making its formal debut with a two-vessel contract for American Marine Corporation – the first time in AMC’s 50-year history that it has ordered a newbuild tug.
NP leverages the WWII-era infrastructure of Kaiser Shipbuilding’s Vancouver Shipyard, now known as the Columbia Business Center on Vancouver’s Columbia Way. The historic Kaiser yard’s 80-year-old assembly bays are leased out to a variety of steel fabricators and suppliers, and NP now occupies about 180,000 square feet at the site. In addition to the high-bay fab spaces, the site has laydown areas, heavy lift cranes, and barge and rail access; NP describes it as “scalable infrastructure.”
Courtesy New Pacific…