Matson plans to build new ships

   Matson said earlier this month that it plans to build two new containerships.
   At an investment conference sponsored by the investment bank Stephens, the company said its strategic re-fleeting plan calls for two new containerships to be built in the next three to five years to replace existing older ships. The company estimated the ships would cost about $200 million each.
   Jeff Hull, a spokesman for the company, stressed these are preliminary estimates and Matson has not designed the ships, let alone contracted with a yard for the vessels.
   Matson built four ships, built between 2000 and 2006, at the Aker Philadelphia shipyard at a cost of about $500 million.
   Matson noted the average age of its current nine-ship active fleet is 19 years.
   Michael Hansen, president of the Hawaii Shippers Council (HSC), complained the cost of $200 million for the new ships was “extravagant,” and estimated the cost of building a 2,600-TEU ship of similar in size to those built by Aker a decade ago would be $40 million today at a foreign shipyard.
   Hansen said HSC wants “to exempt the noncontiguous domestic trades from the U.S.-build requirement for deep draft self-propelled oceangoing ships. This would allow the use of significantly lower cost foreign-built U.S.-flag ships in those trades. We have made a formal proposal of this very limited exemption to the Jones Act that would not change the requirements for U.S. crew and U.S. ownership.” – Chris Dupin