According to a Bloomberg report, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) may keep its Avondale shipyard in Louisiana open beyond 2013 by turning it into a site for other manufacturing.
Huntington, with 2010 sales of $6.7 billion, became a separate company in March when Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) spun off its shipbuilding unit. Former parent Northrop and Huntington have said the Avondale yard would be shut when work on the Navy’s two amphibious ships there is completed in 2013.
Huntington, based in Newport News, Virginia, operates two other yards. One is in its home city and the other at Pascagoula, Miss.
According to the Bloomberg story, the 268-acre Avondale site, about 10 miles upriver from New Orleans, would be suitable for heavy manufacturing, in maritime and other industries.
Avondale is currently building two LPD-17 class Navy transport ships. Huntington’s yard in Pascagoula builds DDG-51 destroyers, amphibious assault ships as well as later orders for the LPD-17 transport vessels.
(Source: Bloomberg)