Switched to steel for use in future ships
Huntington Ingalls Industries says it will close its Gulfport, Miss., shipyard by May 2014.
In an announcement Wednesday morning, the Newport News, Va.-based company said the shutdown is necessary because of a reduction in work for the Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Company President and CEO Mike Petters said the Navy has switched to steel for use in future ships.
The decision, he said, means more limited demand for products produced by the company's Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence.
"This is a difficult but necessary decision," Petters said in a statement. "Due to the reduction in the Zumwalt-class (DDG 1000) ship construction and the recent U.S. Navy decision to use steel products on Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), there is both limited and declining Navy use for composite products from the Gulfport Facility."
Petters said work now underway in Gulfport is expected to be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2014.