SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 — Canada's Irving Shipbuilding today confirmed two new commercial ship repair contracts for Halifax Shipyard that will require up to approximately 140 hourly employees.

MV Oceanex Sanderling, a container/cargo ship owned by Oceanex Inc., is scheduled to arrive into Halifax Shipyard's Nova Dock during the second week of October 2013 for a two-week project to perform routine maintenance and repairs. The project is projected to require approximately 90 employees.

The shipyard's Nova Dock is a 36,000 t lift capacity Panamax size floating dry dock measuring 257 m long, x 38 m open width.

Later in the fall, the passenger ferry MV Holiday Island is expected to arrive at Halifax Shipyard for two weeks of general repairs and routine maintenance. The vessel is owned by NFL Northumberland Ferries Limited and is expected to make its call into the Nova Dock in the November timeframe. This project is expected to require approximately 50 employees.

"The excellent reputation of our skilled ship repair specialists at Halifax Shipyard has helped to secure these two contracts for the yard," said Kevin McCoy, President, Irving Shipbuilding. "These are exactly the type of contracts that will help to keep our skilled shipbuilders and trades people at work as we continue to prepare Halifax Shipyard to build the Royal Canadian Navy's new combat vessels beginning in 2015."

"We're continuing to aggressively bid commercial and repair projects for all of our facilities – we'll fight hard for each one of them if it will help us maintain one more of our skilled employees here within our workforce," said Mr. McCoy, "We look forward to being in a position to confirm details regarding new contracts in the very near future."