Charleston area companies to build barges for Navy

Metal Trades Inc. will build two new types of double-hull barges for the U.S. Navy after being contracted by Maybank Industries LLC, the Yonges Island-based company announced this month.

Three liquid fuel barges and one ship waste offloading barge are slated to be built, each type with identical 6,900-barrel capacity cargo and double hull configurations.

The American Bureau of Shipping-classed barges are being designed by Bristol Harbor Group of Bristol, R.I., at 180 feet long and 44 feet wide. Bluewater Designs Inc. of Delray Beach, Fla. is handling production engineering services.

This month’s deal marks the second time that Metal Trades, Charleston-based Maybank Industries and Bristol Harbor have teamed to design and build a new type of double-hull barge for the Navy. The vessels meet the latest operational requirements and are in full compliance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Metal Trades officials said in a news release.

The latest contract addresses two new requirements — a more compact fuel barge design for space-constrained facilities and a new type of double-hull barge that can offload and discharge waste from Naval vessels.

Ships built previously under the partnership were 14,000 barrel fuel barges.