Canada's shipbuilding capability
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 4:29 am
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/shipb ... -1.5751143
Serious question for folks in industry, what is Canada's shipbuilding capability really? From my brief time in school and offshore, I haven't really seen any recent Canadian built ships outside of the navy and the old coast guard vessels. Most news stories about shipyards in Canada are about them closing, not getting big contracts. From what I've seen, Canadian companies like BC ferries, Atlantic Towing, and most of the Laker companies buy foreign built ships (which says a lot about Irving shipyards to me, if they won't build their own boats), so what shipbuilding capabilities do we really have on our shores, and how do they stack up to other countries like Scandinavia, or Europe? Obviously we cannot stack up to Japan, China, or Korea. We obviously have dry docks and yards for repairs, overhauls, and inspections no, but do we still build commercial ships in this country? On that note, almost all of the vessels I have worked on did their major overhauls outside of Canada, where yard labour is cheaper.
Also, any Canadian shipyard stories welcome.
Serious question for folks in industry, what is Canada's shipbuilding capability really? From my brief time in school and offshore, I haven't really seen any recent Canadian built ships outside of the navy and the old coast guard vessels. Most news stories about shipyards in Canada are about them closing, not getting big contracts. From what I've seen, Canadian companies like BC ferries, Atlantic Towing, and most of the Laker companies buy foreign built ships (which says a lot about Irving shipyards to me, if they won't build their own boats), so what shipbuilding capabilities do we really have on our shores, and how do they stack up to other countries like Scandinavia, or Europe? Obviously we cannot stack up to Japan, China, or Korea. We obviously have dry docks and yards for repairs, overhauls, and inspections no, but do we still build commercial ships in this country? On that note, almost all of the vessels I have worked on did their major overhauls outside of Canada, where yard labour is cheaper.
Also, any Canadian shipyard stories welcome.