Posted on February 27, 2017
Total capital expenditures for the year were $85 million with approximately $54 million spent on the ATB.
Regarding the ATB or the Ellis Island as we will refer to it going forward, 2016 was a milestone year. We transitioned from having a massive steel structure on land to launching the barge portion of the vessel in Panama City, Florida on September 30. The tug portion called the DB Mackie was launched earlier this month. We are entering the final stages of outfitting on both pieces of equipment. Major machinery alignments for both vessels will commence next week, which will be followed by multiple system commissioning activities and dock trials. They will then be coupled together and commence sea trials.
We continue to expect that the Ellis Island is a game changer for our company with the operational efficiencies alone estimated to generate over $20 million in incremental EBITDA. Construction is slightly behind schedule, but not unordinary for investment of this size. We expect the Ellis Island to be completed late in the second quarter and operational soon thereafter.
As we mentioned in the press release, we already have in backlog the first project where it will be put to work.
You’re seeing in certain types of projects where you have to go to a borrow area that is further away. These are longer distant sales. Obviously with its capacity if you compare it to our liberty island let’s take that dredge, that has kind of have the capacity of the Ellis Island and when you think about the 30 mile borrow area sale one way, it can obviously replace the capacity and makes half the trips.
So it’s that type of advantage that you have, as well as it can go deeper than other vessels that we currently have in our fleet.
Source: Seeking Alpha
