AWSC 1993 Annual Report

Second-Tier Shipyards Activity Revealed The second-tier shipyard industry builds and repairs tugboats, crewboats and other specialized vessels for the transport ation industry; a wide variety of fishing vessels; smaller Navy craft; U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) vessels; and vessels operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

The American Waterways Shipyards Conference (AWSC), a conference within the American Waterways Operators, represents this industry segment and has released its 1993 survey. The purpose of the survey is to provide an accurate statistical industry profile for, among other things, the consideration of legislation affecting the industry.

AWSC is the only association which collects and reports this kind of information for secondtier shipyards.

Employment One indicator of a shipbuilding segment's health is its employment levels. The AWSC report indicates the continuance of a downward trend in employment for 1993 (See chart, pg. 73). However, the highest employment level for the years examined (1984-1993) was 1991, which boasted a level of 26,972, significantly higher than the years both preceding and succeeding it so the drop may possibly be interpreted as more of a return to a certain level of employment than a rapid plunge.

The report's section on Employment Information and Trends contains information not only on activities related to shipyard employment, but also turnover rate for 1993, and cost of state workers' compensation per employee for 1993. New Construction Activity In 1993, according to the report, 97 percent of all respondents gave information on new construction and repair activities, and of those, 33 percent said they had worked on new construction in 1992.