Two of Louisiana's largest shipbuilders, Bollinger Shipyards and Edison Chouest Offshore, have joined forces to compete for a piece of the U.S. Coast Guard's expected $22 billion program to enhance its cutter fleet, which will include more Arctic icebreakers.
The two firms said Tuesday that they have formed a strategic alliance — called United Shipbuilding Alliance, or USA — to allow them to better compete with foreign shipbuilders who have expressed an interest in competing for the Coast Guard's new business. The two firms have been closely aligned since 2014, when Bollinger was acquired by a private investment partnership backed by the Chouest family and Bollinger's CEO Ben Bordelon.
Bollinger and Edison Chouest said in a news release that their joint venture is in direct response to the Coast Guard's request last month for expressions of interest by firms wanting to bid to build its Arctic Security Cutters, a new class of medium-sized vessel it wants to commission to fortify its polar fleet.
Big spending increase
According to the U.S. Naval Institute News, the Trump Administration, with the support of the Republican-led Congress, has proposed an increase of more than $22 billion in the Coast Guard's spending in the current fiscal year, which would include a tenfold increase, to $13.8 billion, in the amount that would be spent on cutters. That would include three or more Arctic Security Cutters and an unspecified number of Great Lakes icebreakers for an additional $5.03 billion.
In March, Bollinger Shipyards announced that it won a contract worth nearly $1 billion from the Coast Guard to build the first heavy polar icebreaker constructed in the U.S. in nearly 50 years. The initial contract to build that vessel — the 460-foot USCGC Polar Sentinel — was won by Pascagoula, Mississippi-based Halter Marine, which was acquired by Bollinger in 2022. Halter Marine was going to miss the initial delivery date in 2024, so Bollinger had to renegotiate new terms with the Coast Guard. It is now due for delivery in 2030.
Primary construction of the ship will be at Bollinger's Mississippi yards, though New Orleans and Harvey yards will contribute.
President Donald Trump has called for as many as 40 new icebreakers, as his administration emphasizes the need for a greater Arctic security presence with the U.S. pursuing mineral and other economic interests there.
While Bollinger has the lead on building the new Arctic fleet, the firm's leaders said in an interview on Tuesday that they were taken aback by Trump's apparent willingness to have some of that business go to foreign shipyards.
On a recent trip to Finland, the president said he was open to Finnish shipyards competing to build some of the new cutters. That discussion continued publicly in March, when Finnish President Alexander Stubb met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
American workers
The supplemental bill floated in the U.S. House last month included language that would make it possible for foreign firms to build the new cutters. Canadian shipyards also have expressed formal interest in response to the Coast Guard's "request for information" last month.
Bordelon, the grandson of Bollinger's founder, noted in an interview Tuesday that Bollinger Shipyards has built vessels for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard since the 1980s.
"We have a proven track record over more than 40 years," he said. "More importantly, President Trump has said out loud that he wants to promote the industrial base of America and we have American workers — in Louisiana, Mississippi and in Florida — who can produce at the level our government needs."
The USA joint initiative will give the two Louisiana shipbuilders "6,000-plus skilled American workers across their 33 operational shipyards and fabrication facilities across the Gulf of America to rapidly design, build, and deliver icebreakers for commercial and government customers," the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
With the takeover of Halter Marine, Bollinger became the largest privately owned shipbuilder in the United States, with 2,000 employees and annual revenue estimated at around $1 billion.
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