Fraser Industries eyes expansion in Superior
SUPERIOR — Fraser Industries is working to expand opportunity at the 135-year-old shipyard.
After all, the 60-acre facility offers plenty of room for growth around Howard’s Bay.
Fraser Industries has been owned by Infrastructure Acquisition Partners, a joint venture of Cleaves Invest of Norway and Chicago-based Foundry Mountain Infrastructure Partners, since June 2021.
Since then, company officials have been working to turn the Fraser Industries around.
“We basically have 15 acres of operation on a 60-acre facility, so there’s lots of potential and lots of opportunities,” said Fraser CEO Patrick Kelly. “We have specific plans to roll out over the next three years. And the way growth usually takes place, one stage of growth will usually lead to the next … we think that will lead to other opportunities beyond that.”
The three-year plan wouldn’t use the entire 45 acres available for growth, Kelly said.
Fraser Industries includes Fraser Shipyards, the only full-service ship repair and maintenance yard west of Soo Locks; Lake Assault Boats, a manufacturer of aluminum vessels; Northern Engineering, to provide machining services for repair and renewal of power transmissions, propulsion systems and gear drives; and now Fraser Terminal.
The company has obtained a U.S. Coast Guard-approved Maritime Security and Safety Plan.
The size of the facility has allowed the company to recently add a terminal operation, Kelly said. He said if the port of Duluth is unable to handle the volume, Fraser is able to take it.
“It’s just a nice expansion of what we bring,” Kelly said.
The plan could invest up to $100 million now that Fraser Industries is an international public port entryway into Wisconsin, said John Jacobson, director of public affairs with Ruder Ware, which represents Fraser Industries. However, the terminal is not the only opportunity for growth.
“We’ve got several rail opportunities that are coming to us,” Kelly said. “The major rail operators in the region indicate they don’t have adequate repair capability — paint lining opportunities are a big deal — and just fleeting.”
The straight-away Fraser owns across the bay from the shipyard operation could provide sufficient space to store up to 250 rail cars, Kelly said.
Kelly said they are talking with rail groups about extending the rail spurs that currently run to the yard, which would make the shipyard a tri-modal facility serving freight movement by rail, truck and ship. The facility would include rail repair, liner coatings and fleeting services, he said.
“A lot of our customers tell us that’s exactly what they are looking for on the Superior side of the harbor complex,” Kelly said. “It’s a nice opportunity there. We’re building our customer interest now before we put the investment in the yard, but it’s coming.”
But Fraser Industries isn’t moving away from its roots.
Both the shipyard and Lake Assault Boats are building new vessels. Fraser is building vessels for the U.S. Navy and a ferry for the Beausoleil First Nations Tribe. Lake Assault Boats delivered its 200th aluminum vessel this year and has a five-year contract with the U.S. Navy and NATO members to supply up to 130 patrol boats.
“Basically, when the U.S.S. Cole was bombed in Yemen, the Department of Defense and the Navy put out a request saying basically that all of these big ships we have around the globe don’t have any protection, so any small boat can come up and blow up the side of our ships,” Jacobson said. “Fraser was one of the businesses that won the bids. They’ve built these really neat boats, these really versatile, tactical patrol and assault boats to protect the Navy fleet.”
And the shipyard is still focused on repairs. With more than a mile of dock wall and two of the four dry docks on the Great Lakes, repairs and inspections remain an important part of the business.
In addition to structural work, the shipyard does engine repair, vibration analysis and anything that has rotating equipment, Fraser has experts that will fix it, Kelly said. He said ship owners often take advantage of their Jones Act inspections, required every five years, to open things up and get them fixed before they go back out in the spring.
“We pride ourselves in getting every boat that’s in for winter work out by March 15,” Kelly said. “That’s the start of the spring season, and it’s really important to owners that that boat be back in service. Everything takes on urgency in the wintertime.”
