Bollinger wins major Coast Guard contract. Could that mean jobs for South MS?

President Donald Trump signed an agreement Thursday paving the way for Bollinger Shipyards to build four new icebreaker vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard, part of a $6 billion deal that will support as many as 600 jobs at the company’s Houma shipyard.

The agreement, still preliminary, is part of a larger pact between the U.S. government and Finland to partner on building 11 Arctic Security Cutters, a new class of medium-size vessels that can cut through artic ice while performing defense and research missions.

Trump has said he wants to eventually acquire 40 such vessels to protect U.S. security in the Arctic.

Trump announced the deal at the White House Thursday afternoon with Finnish President Alexander Stubb following a meeting with Stubb, Vice President J.D. Vance, several cabinet members, Finnish officials and Bollinger Shipyards President and CEO Ben Bordelon.

“It’s going to be a great partnership,” Trump said of the deal.

South Mississippi impact

The scope of the contract and the aggressive timeline means it will be very much of an all-company effort to get this done, Bollinger said, and components likely will be provided by all 13 Bollinger facilities.

The company has three facilities in South Mississippi. Bollinger Shipyards purchased VT Halter Marine in 2022 and operates out of a new production facility in Pascagoula. It also operates Bollinger Mississippi Repair in Pascagoula and recently acquired Bollinger Gulfport Shipbuilding.

Bollinger Shipbuilding employs more than 1,000 people in Mississippi. It’s too early to tell where more staff will be needed, the company said, as contract negotiations begin with the Coast Guard and a quick turnaround is expected, so work can begin.

A joint venture with overseas partners

Under the terms of the deal, known as a “memorandum of understanding,” the new vessels will be built over several years with the first icebreaker delivered by 2028.

Bollinger initially sought to win the contract through a joint venture with Edison Chouest Offshore. In June, Trump said during a NATO summit that he planned to buy 15 icebreakers from Finland and in late July, Bollinger announced it had formed a new joint venture that included Finnish contractors Rauma Marine Construction and Aker Arctic Technology as well as a Canadian shipbuilder, Seaspan Shipyards.

The new team, which won the deal, will build six vessels for the Coast Guard, with an estimated price tag of $500 million each. Four of the vessels will be built at Bollinger’s Houma shipyard. The other two will be built in Finland.

The vessels will enable the Coast Guard to have year-round access to polar regions for national defense, maritime sovereignty, scientific research and search and rescue operations, Bollinger said.

They will have the ability to break four feet of ice, travel 12,000 nautical miles and operate independently for more than two months at a time.

Bollinger formed the team to bid on the deal earlier this summer at the request of the Trump administration.

A separate venture that includes different Canadian and Finnish companies will build the other five vessels at shipyards in Texas and Finland.

In a prepared statement, Bordelon applauded the president for his “historic investment in America’s maritime industrial base.”

“We appreciate the trust President Trump has placed in the skilled men and women of Bollinger Shipyards and stand ready to begin construction on these critical vessels on day one,” the statement said.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, a Metairie Republican whose district includes Bollinger’s Lockport headquarters, called the deal “a great win” for Louisiana that further cements the state’s reputation as a leader in America’s domestic shipbuilding industry.

“I am proud to represent the only shipbuilder in the United States in Bollinger Shipyards that has the capability, capacity and expertise to begin construction on these critical vessels on day one that will project American power and dominance in the Arctic,” he added.

A history of building Coast Guard vessels

Bollinger, which is the largest privately-owned shipbuilder in the U.S., has a longstanding relationship with the U.S Coast Guard. Over the past four decades, it has delivered nearly 200 high-performance vessels for the federal government, according to the company’s website.

In March, shortly after agreeing to a $1 million settlement to resolve allegations of improper labor billing on a different Coast Guard contract, the company won a $965 million contract to build a larger type of heavy icebreaker for the Coast Guard called a Polar Security Cutter.

Bollinger is one of the largest employers in the bayou parishes, with access to more than 4,000 employees and 30 facilities worldwide.

Founded by Bordelon’s grandfather, Donald G. Bollinger, the company got its start building workboats during the boom years after World War II.

Donald “Boysie” Bollinger, a local business leader, philanthropist and well-known Republican mega-donor with ties to Trump, took over the company in 1985 and grew it into a shipbuilding powerhouse with multimillion-dollar government contracts.

In late 2014, Boysie Bollinger sold the company to Bordelon, his nephew, and the owners of Edison Chouest Offshore.

In the years since, Bordelon has continued to grow the company, which has estimated annual revenues of more than $1 billion.

Sun Herald reporter Mary Perez contributed to this report.