For ships in need of repair, help is in sight of the Welland Canal – literally.
Operating in Port Colborne since 1997, Allied Marine and Industrial provides technical and industrial services to ships moving up and down the Canal, through the Great Lakes and further afield. Their strategic location on Wharfs 16 and 17, squarely at the southern mouth of the Canal, makes access easy for ships looking for expert engineers.
“From a geographic standpoint, I look out our window and I see Lake Erie. I look out my other window and I see the Canal,” says Rob Gair, Allied Marine’s Vice President of Operations. “Our front window is 300 metres from the Canal wall.”
The upshot for Allied Marine is that clients get easy access to the company’s workshop and their team of roughly 74 skilled workers. “It diminishes lost time due to travel,” says Gair – a vital factor in an industry where time is money.
Allied Marine provides a broad selection of ship maintenance services. They handle everything from structural repairs and maintenance of mechanical equipment to technical advice. Their customers haul anything from steel to aggregates to wheat.
The ships that ply the Great Lakes are under immense strain. Water can damage onboard equipment, and the process of loading can strain mechanical systems. Engines can suffer damage and loaders can become clogged or broken.
When that happens, “they call us,” says Gair. “We have 24/7 response. We regularly put together teams at two o’ clock in the morning and off they go to support the ship and their urgent needs.” Every problem is different, but when Allied Marine gets the call, they go aboard and look at the equipment, or ship hull damage, for example. Sometimes the fix is as simple as patching a damaged hull. In other cases, they have to come up with a more comprehensive solution. “The customers typically have highly competent technical teams. We work with them to develop a repair strategy,” Gair said.
The busiest time of year for Allied Marine begins in January and ends roughly in April – the so-called “winter works.” The team’s workforce nearly doubles in size to meet the demand as the Welland Canal closes for the winter and ship owners catch up on the maintenance they’ve built up during the year.
That pressure is only growing as global warming influences the shipping season. The longer the Canal can stay open, the shorter the window Allied has to do the work.
Allied Marine’s success has been such that the company recently became the North American Representative of WinGD, a Swiss company that builds large two-stroke engines. The company’s 50-bore engines go into massive lake freighters like Algoma Central’s Equinox-class vessels.
“This is a big deal. It’s big for Ontario, North America and Canada,” says Gair, emphasizing that Allied has visibility well beyond the Canal and is well-positioned for “the growth that everyone is planning for and expects.”
