Mobile’s Austal USA poised for success

Posted on November 5, 2008
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Austal USA’s Mobile shipyard is currently putting the finishing touches on the prototype aluminum hull littoral combat ship (LCS) for the U.S. Navy.  The new LCS ship is commonly referred to as the LCS2 or Independence.  Austal will likely be building two additional LCS2’s for the Navy over the next year.  The number of vessels could be increased to three in the event the General Dynamics led team that includes Austal is selected as the winner from the bid competition with Lockheed Martin.  Additional LCS2 vessels will be awarded by the U.S. Navy in 2010. 

In addition to the LCS2,  Austal is also finishing up a second Hawaii Superferry vessel.  The first of the 349 foot ships which can ferry 866 passengers and 282 cars was delivered in June of 2007.  That ship, known as the Alakai, provides daily passenger and vehicle transportation between Honolulu Harbor on the island of Oʻahu and Kahului Harbor on Maui.  The second Hawaii superferry is to be delivered in 2009.
Austall is also eagerly awaiting the award of the three team competition vying to build up to ten military transport vessels known as Joint High Speed Vessels, or JHSV.  That announcement in anticipated to occur in the first part of November. 
Austal’s US operations in Mobile, Alabama is expanding it facilities to accomodate the anticpated growth.  Austal broke ground a new Modular Manufacturing Facility (MMF) in July 2008.   The MMF project complete will include 700,000 square feet of manufacturing space,  80,000 square feet of warehouse space, and 60,000 square feet of office space.  The MMF expansion will be constructed in two phases and will ultimately accommodate a total workforce of up to 1,200 personnel in the new buildings. The state-of-the-art facility will be capable of constructing six large aluminum vessels such as the LCS2 and/or JHSV per year.

For more information on Austal, please visit their website at http://www.austal.com.

Carnival Cruise Lines bringing a new cruise ship to Mobile

Posted on August 18, 2008
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Earlier today, Carnival Cruise Lines announced that the Carnival Cruise Lines ship known as the Fantasy will be moving to Mobile In November 2009.  The Fantasy will replace the Holiday which currently operates out of the Mobile Homeport.  The Fantasy is 42% larger than the Holiday.  The new cruise ship wCarnival Fantasy Cruise Shipill have a 2,056-passenger capacity and will replace the oldest ship in Carnival’s fleet.  Carnival expects to carry approximately 170,000 passengers annually from the Mobile port once the Fantasy is put into service.  The Fantasy will be undergoing extensive renovation this fall as part of Carnival’s “Evolutions of Fun”  refurbishment program for its eight Fantasy-class vessels.  The “extreme makeover” will include a new Carnival WaterWorks aqua park that will feature a 300-foot-long corkscrew water slide, dual-lane 82-foot-long racing slides and various water spray apparatus.   The Holiday will be transferred to Iberocruceros, a Spain-based sister cruise brand under the Carnival Corporation & plc umbrella.

Mobile makes top 50 list for best places to ‘live and play’

Posted on August 12, 2008
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Excerpted from:  Mobile Press-Register  Tuesday, August 12, 2008 By KAIJA WILKINSON, Business Reporter

Mobile joins the likes of Seattle, San Francisco and Chattanooga, Tenn., in the September issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine as one of the “50 next great towns” in which to live and play.   Magazine editors said their annual choices “aren’t just on prime relocation spots now, but smart choices for the future.” National Geographic asked the Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau for its recommendation of interesting, offbeat local destinations, according to bureau President Leon Maisel. Editors made their choices after visiting the various locales. In Mobile, tours of the local river delta system were a major draw, Maisel said.

Mobile was the only Alabama site among the magazine’s 50 choices. Most of the areas were in the western part of the United States. Tourist spending is big business in Mobile, according to the Convention & Visitors Bureau, which put 2007 tourism spending at $888.6 million in Mobile, which welcomed an estimated 2.6 million visitors. Other Mobile highlights in the top-50 list included the outdoor patio at Café 615 on Dauphin Street and the Kate Shepard House bed and breakfast.

The Mobile area has been in the pages of other National Geographic publications, including an article earlier this year in National Geographic Traveler that focused on the Eastern Shore on Mobile Bay.

Baldwin/Mobile Unemployment Numbers Released for April

Posted on May 17, 2008
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Alabama Labor Market News has released April’s unemployment data.  Mobile County’s unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, down from 4.1 percent in March.  Baldwin County’s unemployment rate was down to 2.7 percent in Aprile from 3.3 percent in April.  Statewide unemployment in Alabama fell to 4.0 percent in April from 4.1 percent in March.  For comparison purposeses, national unemployment moved from 5.1 to 5.0 percent during the same period.

Mobile, AL cited in Forbes.com “America’s Fastest-Growing Metros” article

Posted on February 1, 2008
Filed Under Mobile, AL, News | Leave a Comment

The Mobile Alabama Metro Area was listed in the Forbes.com “America’s Fastest-Growing Metros” article.  Additonal references to the ThyssenKrupp $3.7 billion steel plant  and Moody’s Economy.com forecast of the Mobile fastest growing metro area in the nation between 2007-2012. 

LINK: http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/01/30/economy-cities-alabama-biz-cx_bw_0130econcities.html

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