For duly certified shipbuilders, a military contract provides a lifeline when clients in other industries are in free fall. Just ask the principals of the shipyards division of Houston-based Gulf Island Fabrication Inc.
The Navy exercised options that awarded the company’s Houma, La.-based Gulf Island Shipyards LLC a two-year, $129.9-million contract this spring to build two additional Navajo-class (T-ATS) towing, salvage and rescue vessels. The new contract swelled the company’s backlog to an...