{"id":158391,"date":"2026-04-06T10:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158391\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:49:13","slug":"eries-donjon-shipbuilding-hopes-to-build-vessels-for-coast-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158391\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie’s Donjon Shipbuilding hopes to build vessels for Coast Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Witte Jr., president of Donjon Shipbuilding<\/a> and Repair’s parent company, said he’s heard about Gem City Shipbuilding<\/a>, a proposed facility that could build Navy ships in Erie.<\/p>\n

From Witte’s perspective, “Gem City is a concept, an idea,” one that could take years to develop if it gets funding, approval and traction.<\/p>\n

Witte, president of Donjon Marine, said he’s part of an alliance of three shipbuilding companies ready to compete for a government contract now.<\/p>\n

\"Donjon<\/p>\n

Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair employee Jim Simmons cuts steel at the Erie facility.<\/p>\n

Along with Fraser Shipyards in Superior, Wisconsin and Fincantieri Marine Group, which operates\u00a0three Great Lakes shipyards<\/a>, Donjon has announced its intention to compete for a contract to build a new Homeland Security Cutter.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to an April 2 announcement, the shipyards, “have established a collaborative framework to bring new shipbuilding programs and technology to the ‘Fourth Coast’ in keeping with President Trump’s and his administration’s efforts to rapidly increase domestic shipbuilding.”<\/p>\n

The government has set an April 10 deadline to submit a request for information to fill an order for between five and seven light icebreakers.<\/p>\n

Fincantieri Marine Group CEO George Moutafis said the alliance is open to other Great Lakes shipbuilding companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur initial goal is to provide the Coast Guard with a ready-to-build solution for its seven new light icebreakers, and we welcome others to join us on this and other potential projects,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Donjon’s leader thinks alliance has a chance<\/p>\n

Witte doesn’t see this as a shot in the dark.<\/p>\n

\"Donjon<\/p>\n

Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair is located at 220 E Bayfront Parkway.<\/p>\n

“I don’t normally try to waste time if we don’t think it’s doable,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said his confidence “is based on our experience, the partners that we have joined in with and the fact that we have done a lot of new builds.”<\/p>\n

If the group of Great Lakes shipbuilders win the contract, Witte said each shipyard would build one or more of the cutters.<\/p>\n

Why wouldn’t one company take on all the work?<\/p>\n

“We all have commercial customers and work very hard to keep them,” Witte said, adding that a large government contract would limit their capacity to do that work.<\/p>\n

By some accounts, the proposal calls for building 65-foot vessels that could be used for patrol and light ice-breaking duties. Specifications are likely to change during the bidding process, Witte said.<\/p>\n

Built in Erie: Donjon has been building ships and a reputation in Erie<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no guarantees, but Witte said he feels good about plans to pursue the contract.<\/p>\n

“I think we have as good of a shot as anyone,” he said. “We understand the market and all three yards are certainly hungry. We have a common interest and we think we can be more as a group.”<\/p>\n

More: Crawford County company sees growth with role in new assault aircraft<\/a><\/p>\n

Donjon, which is owned by New Jersey-based Donjon Marine Co., leases the shipyard from the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority.<\/p>\n

Donjon Marine formed the Erie division in 2009 before moving into the shipyard a year later.<\/p>\n

In addition to a steady flow of repairs, Donjon has built numerous vessels at the Erie shipyard. Some of the more notable ones include the 129-foot tugboat Ken Booth Sr. and its articulated barge, Lakes Contender.<\/p>\n

Donjon’s biggest project was a 580-foot chemical and petroleum barge completed in 2016.<\/p>\n

Contact Jim Martin at\u00a0jmartin@timesnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie’s Donjon Shipbuilding joins forces to win Coast Guard conract<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Witte Jr., president of Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair’s parent company, said he’s heard about Gem City Shipbuilding,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71668,136,138,137,71669,48478,71671,262,71672,5610,71670],"class_list":["post-158391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-donjon-marine","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-fincantieri-marine-group","tag-gem-city-shipbuilding","tag-government-contract","tag-great-lakes","tag-john-witte-jr","tag-president-trump","tag-shipbuilding-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}