Pasha resumes work on ship
By David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Mainland partnership that plans to compete with Matson Navigation Co. and Horizon Lines in the shipping of automobiles between Hawai'i and California said it has resumed construction of its first ship after an 18-month delay.
Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines LLC said construction of the vessel resumed Thursday after the federal Maritime Administration, which is providing a $70 million loan guarantee, gave the project a green light. The partnership expects to begin service in late 2004.
Work on the ship, which is about 40 percent complete, was halted in 2001 after the shipyard operator filed for bankruptcy protection.
More than 150,000 vehicles a year are shipped to the state by auto makers, car rental companies, the military and private parties. Pasha Hawaii's goal is to capture a share of that market.
Pasha Hawaii hopes to gain an advantage with a ship that has roll on, roll off access to enclosed parking decks and is capable of carrying 4,300 vehicles. Most Matson and Horizon Lines, formerly CSX, cargo ships load vehicles onto racks, then lift them via crane into containers.
"Ro-ro (roll on; roll off) is the globally preferred method for moving vehicles," said Gary Kaliher, Pasha Hawaii senior vice president.
Matson has agreements with the country's Big Three automakers to deliver westbound DaimlerChrysler vehicles through 2004, eastbound and westbound Ford vehicles through 2004 and eastbound and westbound General Motors vehicles through 2005.
"We acknowledge Matson has contracts," Kaliher said. "Some of which will be up, and when they are up, we will be there." Pasha Hawaii has an employee based in Detroit, Kaliher said, but no contracts with the Big Three.
Matson spokesman Jeff Hull said he could not comment on whether Matson has extended its contracts beyond 2004 or 2005. When asked about the potential competition from Pasha Hawaii, he said, "They don't have a ship in service."
Pasha Hawaii, a joint venture between California-based automobile distributor/marine terminal operator Pasha Group and Connecticut-based ship operator Van Ommeren Shipping (USA) LLC, first announced its intention to enter the market in June 2000 and said, at that time, the ship would be in service by 2002.
Those plans were set back when in April 2001 Friede Goldman Halter Inc., parent company of the ship's Mississippi-based builder Halter Marine Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Halter Marine was bought in October 2002 by VT Systems Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Singapore-based ST Engineering Ltd., and was renamed VT Halter Marine.
The ship, named the Jean Anne, is being built at VT Halter Marine's shipyard in Pacogoula, Miss. Pasha Hawaii has plans for a second, identical ship to be built, but construction on that has not started.
The federal Maritime Administration loan guarantee for construction of the Jean Anne is part of a program to help U.S. shipbuilders and shipyards.
A federal audit of the loan program released last week found taxpayers lost $330 million because the maritime administration failed to provide better oversight of its loan guarantees.
The losses followed the bankruptcy of American Classic Voyages, which had received loan guarantees to build two ships in the United States to sail in the Islands. The project collapsed after the company went bankrupt.
Reach David Butts at dbutts@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2453.
