THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502160370
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Two shipbuilders - one Virginia-based - are considering projects that could generate 3,300 jobs and an investment of more than $410 million in the Philadelphia area, city and state officials said Thursday.
Joseph L. Meyer GmbH & Co. of Germany and Metro Machine Corp. of Norfolk have signed 120-day agreements to try to conclude deals at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and the former Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co. in Chester.
City, state and federal funding will be sought to supplement the two companies' own investments, Mayor Edward G. Rendell said. ``It is not going to be easy, but I am optimistic that we can do one or both of these projects together.''
Meyer would employ up to 1,800 workers making cruise ships and other complex vessels at the Naval Shipyard.
``The physical assets being transferred to the city by the U.S. Navy are virtually irreplaceable,'' Bernard Meyer, the company's chief executive, said in a statement. ``The skills and productivity of the work force are world competitive.''
Among the projects Meyer could undertake is a high-speed ocean freighter proposed by FastShip Atlantic Inc.
Metro Machine would employ about 750 workers each at the Naval Shipyard and at Chester to make double-hulled oil tankers. Bows and sterns would be built in Philadelphia and interiors in Chester, with final assembly on a floating drydock in Chester, according to state Sen. F. Joseph Loeper, R-Delaware.
``I think it's an exciting project that's going to create more jobs for the region,'' Loeper said.
Metro's proposals would require a roughly $110 million investment and Meyer's more than $300 million, said William D. Hankowsky, executive director of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.
Meyer initially proposed investing $150 million to $160 million of its own funds, local investment banker Sam Katz said. The city proposed a larger amount, which remains under negotiation, he said.
The projects would single-handedly make up much of the loss the region is expected to suffer from the closing later this year of the Naval Shipyard, which employs about 4,000 workers, Rendell said.
The Meyer firm built its first ship 200 years ago and has remained in the business ever since except during World War II, when its yard in Germany was taken over by the military and later destroyed by Allied bombs. It employs 1,900 people at its shipyard in Papenburg, where it has one of the world's largest covered shipbuilding docks.
Chester's Penn Ship, founded as Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in 1916, once was one of the nation's largest privately owned shipyards. by CNB