Via The Montreal Gazette:
The Court appointed Bankruptcy monitor, since last August, has been weighing a bid from Zafiro Marine, a British operator of a fleet of offshore supply vessels of the same genre as the three now sitting uncompleted in the Lévis shipyard. The three partially completed offshore oil and gas service and pipe-laying vessels have lain dormant at Davie since Norway’s Cecon ASA placed the original order worth almost $500 million and then ran into financial problems.
The once vociferous Davie union says 900 workers could be recalled in January, but the Quebec City region recently has had one of Canada’s lowest jobless rates.
Industry sources say it will cost about $250 million to finish the three vessels sitting in the Davie yard — they are 60 per cent complete. Davie has two ferry orders worth $120 million for La Société des traversiers du Québec … when the gates reopen.
Denise Verreault, CEO of Les Méchins shipbuilder-repairer Groupe Maritime Verreault Inc., estimates almost $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money has been spent on Davie since 1985.
