Tim Colton's hull numbers reflect what NASSCO themselves have published, so somebody has been guessing, and I'm not certain whether its the Coast Guard rep to the yard or the person doing the publicity for them.

Construction of these tankers has visibly slowed down. There's no word of labor or material problems with the shipyard, so I believe the owners have requested later delivery dates. The first, LONE STAR STATE, was first visible in March 2015. ("Keel laying" is a meaningless term, since the modules are under construction while the ways are still in use for another ship.) She was delivered in December.

Great photo! =)

Free market economy, globalization? Not for God's own country, the United States of America.

IMO 9698006 certainly allocated to Yd 554 and IHS-Fairplay also believe this to be GARDEN STATE (as now painted up), though I suspect that they are wrong about the estimated delivery of 7/2016, compared with MAGNOLIA STATE (IMO 9697997, Yd 553) shown as 4/2016. USCG also have GARDEN STATE as Yd 554.

That's pretty conclusive to me (surprising however that Tim Colton's site sees to have a whole string of these orders with wrong Yd numbers, at the moment).

Regardless of its initial cost, and the cost of running with an exclusively American crew, the ship will still be able to run at a profit since she will face no foreign competition in the protected US trades. It probably means Americans pay a cent or so more per gallon for their motor gasolene but, compared to the rest of the world, it's pretty cheap there anyway.

Of course it will be, but this is political issue. 15 or so years ago, a delegation of one US shipyard has visited our shipyard in Croatia for some experience exchange. Even then, our prices were at least 40% more than the Asian ones, but the Americans told us that with our (Croatian, exaggerated) prices they would never be able to build a ship in the US...

Cheers

Vlad

@BobS, not only building cost, but also building time....

Built for the protectionist, Jones Act cabotage trades between US ports. Building cost will be astronomical compared to Far East yards.

Good for USA for building these at home!!

Thank you for sharing this example of ship building still existing in the USA.

Cheers

Vlad