United Maritime Group


Charting a new courseUnited Maritime Group emerges from obscurity to answer the complex transporting needs of a global world. Kate Sawyer reports. United Maritime GroupÔÇÖs captains are familiar with the worldÔÇÖs vast shipping lanes, both deep-water transcontinental ocean courses and continental river systems. No matter what the cargo, or where the destination, this companyÔÇÖs unique structure of comprehensive specialty divisions allows it to get the job done. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, United Maritime Group is the newly hatched venture of Greenstreet Equity Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm. The firm purchased the assets of flailing TECO Transport Corporation from parent company TECO Energy in December 2007 for $405 million in cash. ÔÇ£This outcome is a very positive event for TECO Energy. It allows us to continue our previously announced debt retirement plans,ÔÇØ said chairman and CEO Sherrill Hudson at the time of the announcement. ÔÇ£It also puts TECO Transport in the hands of an investor able to focus on and deploy the future capital needed to grow this business.ÔÇØTodayÔÇÖs United Maritime Group is a private company that employs 1,035 people. It finished 2007 with $1.08 billion in profits, including approximately $250 million for its United Barge Line division. Its competitors include American Commercial Lines, Ingram Industries, and Kirby Inland Marine. The company is comprised of four profitable divisions: United Ocean Services, a US-flag oceangoing fleet; United Barge Line; United Bulk Terminal; and United Bulk Logistics. United Barge Line links AmericaÔÇÖs major inland waterways. It ranks among the leading river barge companies serving the Mississippi, Illinois, and Ohio rivers for domestic and international markets. United Bulk Logistics combines the global resources of United Maritime Group into customized transportation systems according to client requirements. It boasts worldwide destinations and origins from a single source, barging, terminaling, worldwide ocean shipping, and packaged movements to control cost and risk capabilities.United Bulk Terminal is the companyÔÇÖs dry-bulk handling facility. As the nationÔÇÖs largest dry-bulk, full-service blending, and storage/transfer terminal, this facility literally serves import and export customers around the globe. It boasts three miles of river frontage with plenty of room for docking multiple vessels and barges. Three ocean vessels can be serviced simultaneously for loading and unloading. The facility also has high-capacity handling systems with quick ship turnaround and reliable scheduling.Unlike many of its competitors, United Maritime Group is full-service company, which means it can ship coal from Pittsburgh to Tampa on United Barge Line and from Tampa to anywhere in the world on United Ocean Services, using only its own assets. United Maritime Group caters to both domestic and international markets and specializes in transporting coal, petroleum coke, phosphate, grain, and other dry bulk commodities through rivers, as well as through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to all major ports worldwide. The group maintains a fleet of 12 oceangoing vessels and about 80 river barges. In February, Trinity Marine launched the first of 50 new hopper barges ordered by United Maritime Group. Measuring 2000 by 350 by 130, the barge is a duplicate design of vessels made for TECO Barge Line, the former company. Trinity Marine delivered approximately 100 barges to United Maritime Group in recent years, and the additional 50 will be completed during the next year. WhatÔÇÖs fascinating is that construction on the new barge was started only three days before its maiden voyage. The production schedule allows for up to eight new barges to be built each week. According to Robert King, director of engineering at United Barge Line, the barges will be single rake models with heavily reinforced cargo boxes. The ships will be designed to transfer heavy materials like coal, aggregate, and other bulk materials. Trinity Marine, with corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and facilities around the country, has seen record growth in the last three years, and is the largest US manufacturer of fiberglass hopper barge covers used primarily on grain barges.The cost of newly built barges has increased significantly over the past four years from $250k to over $600k, due in part to the rising price of steel. The industry average life span of a new barge is 25 years, yet United Maritime Group gets closer to 35 years because of strict operational systems in place to minimize wear and tear. ┬á Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *   ┬áFirst published September 2008