The-Great-Lakes-Towing-Company-Corporate-Overview-2016-03.Pdf
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MARCH 2016 CORPORATE OVERVIEW THE GREAT LAKES TOWING COMPANY & GREAT LAKES SHIPYARD THE GREAT LAKES TOWING COMPANY JULY 7, 1899: A COMPANY IS BORN The Great Lakes Towing Company has played a major role in the maritime industry on the Great Lakes since being incorporated in New Jersey on July 7, 1899. The Company’s founding shareholders comprised a veritable “Who’s Who” of the nation’s great industrialists of the day, including John D. Rockefeller, Jeptha H. Wade, and James R. Sinclair, among others. The Company has provided a significant operations link in one of the major economic lifelines of North America - the fourth seacoast and the Great Lakes Seaway System. The Great Lakes Towing Company has continuously evolved to meet the changing demands of the agricultural, steel, and construction industries, as well as the needs of the ships and tug/barge units which serve those industries. The Great Lakes Towing Company also comprises Great Lakes Shipyard. Originally located on Jefferson The Company is proud to be an traffic and logistics data. Services Road in the Flats until 1952 when it Equal Employment Opportunity include: moved to the present site in the Old (EEO); Affirmative Action (AA); River Bed, the Shipyard constructed and minority, female, disability, and • Towing & Ship Assist many of The Company’s tugs and veteran-friendly employer (M/F/D/V). • Cargo Transportation, Barging & repaired all tugs and barges. In Our commitment to equality of Logistics 1983 the Shipyard entered the opportunity supports the continued • Ice Breaking commercial ship repair business. growth and vitality of our Company. • Emergency Assistance The scope and volume of this We believe that the diversity of our • Chartering business was restricted due to the workforce is advantageous to us and physical size of the existing facility provides us with a broad spectrum of Tugs are stationed in eleven (11) ports and the limited lifting capacity of ideas which enhance our efficiency, from Duluth to Buffalo, and all towing its 300 ton drydock. To expand its production, products and services. services are covered from these traditional maritime businesses, the By actively encouraging diversity and ports: Company decided to embark on a affirmative action, we believe that we bold four-phase Shipyard Expansion also contribute to our community. • Duluth Project, the breadth of which the • Sault Ste. Marie industry hadn’t seen since its modern GLT operates a 7-day per week, • Green Bay inception. This expansion project 24-hour a day centrally located • Milwaukee includes 4 key phases, the most Lakes-Wide Communications • Chicago recent of which was completed in and Tracking Center monitors the • Burns Harbor 2011. The final phase, focusing on Company’s Great Lakes service • Detroit facilities that will expand capabilities area to insure efficient service to • Toledo for year-round work, is currently in customers – the Company’s record • Cleveland progress. of timely performance and safety • Ashtabula is unmatched in the industry. The • Buffalo Operations Center is also used by our customers, and by several government agencies, as an information center for up-to-date 2 The Towing Company’s operations Cleveland. Initially established for include a shipyard and drydock that maintenance and repairs of its own do business under the name Great fleet of tugs and barges, the shipyard Lakes Shipyard (GLS). GLS facilities was expanded in the early 1980s, to are located at the Company’s include commercial marine repair headquarters on the Old River services for all types of commercial Channel of the Cuyahoga River in and government vessels. Then, in the Cleveland, Ohio and it specializes in mid-2000s, GLS entered the new all types of marine construction and vessel construction market. repair services. Throughout its history the Company has always maintained a shipyard and drydocking facility in 3 GREAT LAKES SHIPYARD THE NEW STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE GLT’s shipyard expertise includes The Shipyard’s competitive edge designing, building and maintaining has always been its consistent, its own fleet, as well as an extensive prompt, high-quality service. The list of commercial and government Shipyard’s performance record tugboats, supply boats, ferries, reflects that all jobs are completed barges, cruise boats, large yachts, on time and on budget. Since GLS and many other types of vessels, services the Company’s own fleet of including larger domestic and foreign GLT tugboats, it understands what cargo vessels. vessel owners expect and provides them with the same level of quality The shipyard is a major contractor for workmanship and service GLT the US Coast Guard, U.S. Geological expects for its own fleet. Services Survey, the Army Corps of Engineers, include: the US Navy, NOAA, and many other • Custom Fabrication & Repairs federal, state and local governments, • Winter Layup Work attesting to its high-quality • 5-Year Regulatory Surveys & workmanship, on-time performance, Inspections and competitive pricing. The GLT tug • Drydocking fleet remains a major customer of the • Electronics & Navigation Systems drydock and Great Lakes Shipyard. • Blasting & Painting GLS provides topside work of every • Conversions, Repowers & Refits kind to lakers and saltwater vessels • Mobile Repairs of various sizes, calling at the Port • 24/7/365 Emergency Repairs of Cleveland or on the Cuyahoga • New Construction River, either at the shipyard or at the customer’s berth. 4 TUGZ INTERNATIONAL The Company’s internationally known fleet of ocean-going tractor tugs, called “Z-Tugs” were designed as multi-purpose tugs that can accommodate an entire array of towing services including ship handling duties, salvage and rescue, fire fighting, oil response and recovery, icebreaking escort, and coastal and ocean towing of vessels and barges. The flexibility of the Z-Class and HandySize designs can accommodate the broadest range of job opportunities making the tugs ideal for use in almost any port maximizing their utilization and lowering costs. These high bollard-pull tugs were among the first accepted tractor tug designs in the United States and are the standard design for the U.S. Navy requirements and commercial tug industry. Services include: • Charter Operations • Lease Operations • New Construction by Great Lakes Shipyard • Crewing • Voyage Planning SOO LINEHANDLING SERVICES, INC. Soo Linehandling Services, Inc. provides linehandling assistance to vessels transiting the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on the St. Mary’s River, the only water connection between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes. The Soo Locks are located in the St. Mary’s Rapids, where the water falls approximately 21 feet from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Vessels must transit the Soo Locks en route to the principal ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Ontario, and then again, outbound to the sea. 5 EXPANSION PROGRAM To revitalize and expand its traditional maritime businesses, the Company decided to embark on a bold expansion project. The Shipyard Expansion Project includes four phases which, at a total cost to date of $11.345 million, include: • Land acquisition (now totaling 7.26 acres with a potential additional 8.97 acres under environmental evaluation and contract totaling 16.23 acres) • Environmental land remediation (from a former Superfund site) • Bulkheading (1,776 lineal feet) • Ground stabilization • Construction of a new headquarters building (7,768 square feet) • Construction of a new indoor state-of-the-art shipyard facility (10,917 square feet) IV is still under development, The The Company anticipates that • Construction of a concrete Company acquired and installed the second 4.92 acre parcel will reinforced slip the temporary Engineering Annex be re-mediated immediately • Acquisition and installation of the Buildings and 10,500 sq. ft temporary thereafter (study and design work 770-ton Travelift industrial tensioned fabric building is now underway). Bulkheading • Construction of a new 68 foot- (an all-weather work space). of these contiguous land parcels high temporary Shipyard facility Additionally, more than $1.4 million of to the west of the current facility (10,500 square feet) shipyard tooling and equipment was and construction of a permanent purchased and installed November 68,000 sq. ft. shipyard building and The Shipyard Expansion Project 2013. The new tooling and equipment manufacturing facility will complete demonstrates the Company’s include a state-of-the-art cutting Phase IV. This shipyard building will commitment to foster economic table; heavy duty material handling include classrooms, laboratories for development by retaining existing equipment; man-lifts; mobile welding, engineering research and design, jobs and creating new jobs by lighting and air compressors; all wind turbine monitoring, and job ensuring new business opportunities of which will improve shipyard training facilities. The new 68,000 with the use of technologically efficiency, permit efficient off-site sq. ft. - 72’ high, multi-purpose, advanced tools and equipment. Of repair capabilities throughout the all-weather, covered, and enclosed the four phases that comprise the Great Lakes, as well as reduce the facility will occupy 2.0 acres of original plan, phases 1-3 have now need and cost of rental equipment property just to the west of the been completed with the installation (reducing the cost of jobs for Travelift slip and will permit year- of the extremely versatile new customers). round Shipyard production without Travelift. Great Lakes Shipyard’s concern for inclement weather. So 770-ton (or 700 metric tons) Travelift A significant part of Phase IV large is the new covered facility was manufactured by the world- involves the acquisition of 8.7 acres that the Travelift would be able to renowned Marine Travelift, Inc. of of adjacent land in two parcels (after enter the building with the vessel Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (commonly the land has been remediated by the in the sling, and the building will be known in the industry as simply current owner).