Replacing the Subs

[Colin Parkinson]

Seaspan is slowly automating, but at the same time you don't want to be seen reducing jobs when you are getting buckets of government monies.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Seaspan is slowly automating, but at the same time you don't want to be seen reducing jobs when you are getting buckets of government monies.

It is not reducing jobs. They cannot physically hire any more people, because they do not exist to be hired. They need to embrace tech to make their existing workforce much, much more productive.

 

[Czech_pivo]

It is not reducing jobs. They cannot physically hire any more people, because they do not exist to be hired. They need to embrace tech to make their existing workforce much, much more productive.

Hence a huge issue on how do we build the CDC that Topshee is desperate to get in 5-6yrs when we can’t find the people, let alone the production facilities.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Hence a huge issue on how do we build the CDC that Topshee is desperate to get in 5-6yrs when we can’t find the people, let alone the production facilities.

His point about a lack of blue collar works in Vancouver, the most expensive housing market, is astute. And hits on many levels.

 

[Underway]

It is not reducing jobs. They cannot physically hire any more people, because they do not exist to be hired. They need to embrace tech to make their existing workforce much, much more productive.

Increasing productiveness is one of the ways we compete with the world. Canadian productiveness is terrible. I applaud Seaspan for going this direction. It's only going to improve their shipyard.

 

[Rainbow1910]

How fast can the Koreans add new halls in Vancouver and Halifax and ramp up production?

It is what they did for Seaspan and what they are doing for the States.

The kind of shipbuilding people see out of Japan, China and South Korea is fundamentally built upon factors that Canada is either unwilling or physically unable to match. Ridiculous government subsidies (enough to make what Canada gives to its own yards look like pocket change) allow many of these yards to employ tactics which would otherwise be financially untenable without such supports, lower wages/currency costs allow competitiveness, long standing advanced shipbuilding techniques, potentially kind of iffy warship build standards for quicker/simpler builds, high use of foreign imported workforces, etc. Many of these yards are jumping between substantial commercial orders and military orders, not being concerned about layoffs or a lack of work that many Western yards suffer from.

We can always make improvements to our shipyards however, its fundamentally unrealistic to expect the Koreans, Japanese or whoever else to just snap their fingers and magically make our shipyards more effective. For all the crap they rightfully get, Irving and Seaspan are very capable and advanced modern shipbuilding operations themselves at the end of the day.