Md. Senators, Congressmen announce $1.1 million for Chesapeake Shipbuilding

SALISBURY, Md. – Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, as well as Congressmen John Sarbanes and Anthony Brown, announced $1.1 million in federal funding to help the Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corporation in Salisbury.

We’re told the funding, totaling $1,114,539, is through the Department of Transportation and comes as demand has increased for cruise travel as recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The grant will finance the purchase of three main investments at the shipyard:

• A CNC Messer System Plasma Table to cut sheets of steel up to 10 feet by 40 feet to reduce the production time of high quality parts and to support more than doubling the shipyard’s production output
• A 30-ton mobile travelift crane to expand operations, including by offloading steel and loading steel onto the plasma table, and move assemblies around the shipyard
• A CNC 250-ton, 14-foot press brake to fabricate in-house, computer-designed ship parts on site utilizing stock and drop material in order to reduce dependency on subcontractors, eliminate schedule interruption, and reduce fabrication costs