New company gets a barge out of it - Portland Business Journal:

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Portland-based and Clackamas-based formed the company last year in hopew of capturing a sliver ofthe nation's booming barge business. It worked. Thanks to a robust market, the compan has orders for five barges, includinh a contract to build a crane barge for the Oakland BayBridge project. The company declinee to share revenue data, but such barges can cost anywherdfrom $8 million to $15 million Employment has also exceeded The company expected to hire 100 It's on the verge of hiring its "It's a perfect storm," said Chandra Brown, an Oregon Iron Works vice "There's huge demand.
" Record-high fuel pricex have driven many companies to explore barge shippinfg as a cheaper alternative to rail and highway Federal regulations that require the phaseout of single-hullerd barges have also beefed up the market. Same with the fiercee 2005 hurricane season, which knocked barge productiom off-line in the gulf and shifted businesws to companieslike U.S. Barge and Portland'ds other barge builders: The Greenbrier Cos.' Gunderson Marine divisionn andZidell Marine. Business could get even better. Cargo volumes are expected to doubleat U.S. container ports by 2020, accordingg to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
As a the agency has asked Congress for additional funding for improvingtthe nation's "marine highway" as a relief valve. "It'a a good market right now," said Allen president of . "And Portland is a smallk hotbed ofbarge construction." U.S. Barge has been able to capitalizs on severalunique assets, including the Portland Shipyard, which Vigor, through its subsidiar y Cascade General, purchased from the Port of Portlanfd in 2001 for $30.8u million. The 57-acre site is in an ideal locatioh for barge construction because of its location on the tip ofSwan "We had the infrastructure in place," said Alan Sprott, a Vigot vice president.
Both Vigor and Oregonh Iron Works had significant experiencre inmarine construction. Workers have been repairing and refurbishing military vessels and ferries at the shipyardfor Vigor's subsidiaries include Cascade Washington Marine Repair and Vigor Marine and employg more than 500. The 400-employee Oregon Iron Workd is also an experienced marines contractor that has designed and built boats for the The new company spentroughly $8 millioh on equipment to get the venture off the ground, includin g a 600-ton gantry crane.
It also spent $1 million on threew World War II-era dry dockes that will be used to launch the completed Some may remember the controversy around the sale of the It suffered through a string of lossex beforethe sale, makingy a profit only three timea in the decade before it changed hands. Shortlyy after the sale, Vigor sold Dry Dock 4, the shipyard's largesg dry dock, for more than $25 milliom to a shipyard in the Bahamas, leavinf the new owner with 57 prime waterfrony acres for a little morethan $6 Many Portlanders bemoaned the sale, saying the dry dock createdx thousands of well-paying Vigor CEO Frank Foti defendefd the sale at the saying it would allow the company to stay afloatt by paying off creditors.