Fraser Shipyards: 138 Years In, Building for What Comes Next
Part of a group of companies that make up Fraser Industries, Fraser Shipyard is a 138-year-old on Lake Superior, an organization which makes equal revenue from newbuild and ship repair, able to work in both steel and aluminum. Recently it signed a collaboration agreement with HD Hyundai to help migrate process and technology from one of the world’s biggest and best shipyard to the shores of Lake Superior. Patrick Kelly, CEO, Fraser Shipyard, discussed the importance of this agreement, as well as the shipyard’s plan to invest in and build the ‘Shipyard of the Future.’
There is no shortage of discussion today surrounding the need to rebuild U.S. maritime and shipbuilding capacity. New government initiatives, foreign investment, workforce development and advanced manufacturing technologies are increasingly converging around a simple objective: America needs to build more ships, and it needs to build them faster and more efficiently.
Sitting on the shores of Lake Superior in Superior, Wisconsin, Fraser Shipyards offers an interesting case study in how that renaissance could unfold.
Fraser is hardly a newcomer. Continuously operating since 1888, the shipyard has spent 138 years supporting the Great Lakes maritime industry. But according to Patrick Kelly, CEO, Fraser Shipyards, its history may simply provide the foundation for its next, potentially much larger chapter.
Fraser Shipyards is part of Fraser Industries, which also includes Lake Assault Boats and Northern Engineering. Its home in the Duluth-Superior Harbor Complex puts it inside one of North America's major bulk transportation hubs, historically supporting the movement of taconite, grain and other commodities and the Great Lakes vessels carrying them.
Today, the business is remarkably balanced.
“We're really about fifty-fifty between repair and new construction,” said Kelly. “Same is true between steel and aluminum.”
That diversity has become one of Fraser's strengths. Its portfolio includes Great Lakes vessel repair, commercial new construction, police and fireboats, research vessels and U.S. Navy work. Northern Engineering adds machining capabilities serving maritime as well as rail, pipeline, grain and paper industries.
Fraser By the Numbers
The numbers help put the operation and its growth potential in perspective. Fraser employs approximately 200 people year-round, but during the Great Lakes winter repair season in January, February and March, employment can surge to 600 as Lakers enter the yard for maintenance and repair. In 2026, Fraser expects to deliver 30 new vessels around the country, including police and fireboats, research vessels and vessels associated with four U.S. Navy contracts.
Since 2021, Fraser Industries has doubled its revenue and doubled its new-construction production footprint.
Perhaps the most eye-catching number, though, is 85 acres. Fraser currently uses just 15 acres of approximately 100 acres of industrial-zoned property it owns in Superior. That leaves an unusually large physical runway for expansion at a time when waterfront industrial property is a precious commodity for U.S. shipbuilders.
But Kelly points to another asset that may prove even more valuable: people.
At the end of the winter repair season, Fraser currently has to release roughly 400 skilled workers because there isn't enough work to keep the expanded workforce employed throughout the remainder of the year.
“They're fantastic welders, electricians, pipe fitters,” Kelly said. “All the folks that are in short supply in maritime and shipyards around the country, I have in surplus here. We have to find a way to utilize their skills year round in ship repair, ship construction.”
In the context of America's shipbuilding discussion, that's significant. Across virtually every conversation on expanding domestic shipbuilding, workforce is cited as a primary constraint. Fraser already has access to a skilled labor pool; the challenge is creating enough sustained production to retain it.
Enter HD Hyundai.
Patrick Kelly, CEO, Fraser Shipyard
HD Hyundai: A Catalyst for Growth
Fraser's recently announced partnership with South Korean shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai potentially puts a very different scale of development within reach.
According to Kelly, HD Hyundai evaluated shipyards across North America for six to nine months before selecting Fraser as a partner. He attributes that decision to the Superior site's combination of expansion acreage, workforce, electricity and natural gas infrastructure.
The vision is not simply to expand Fraser using conventional U.S. shipbuilding methods. Rather, Kelly sees the opportunity to leapfrog existing manufacturing practices by incorporating next-generation shipyard technology already being developed and deployed overseas.
HD Hyundai's work with Siemens on advanced shipyard technology factors prominently into that strategy.
“What we are now able to say to prospective lenders, investors, grant money around the country is we partnered with some of the best technology providers in the world, if not the best,” said Kelly.
The goal, he said, is to create a new production footprint around current best practices rather than incrementally modernizing yesterday's yard.
“We're leapfrogging technologies already deployed,” Kelly said. “If we're trying to out-compete the Chinese, next technology, next generation technology will get us there. Fraser's just part of the solution, but if we can be a demonstration facility, bring it on.”
Importantly, Fraser doesn't envision expansion as exclusively commercial or military.
Kelly sees both.
That mirrors the broader challenge confronting U.S. shipbuilding. Sustained industrial capacity cannot easily be switched on and off according to individual government programs. A healthier shipbuilding industrial base arguably requires steady demand across commercial and defense markets, spreading infrastructure, workforce and supply-chain investment across a broader portfolio. Fraser already has a foot in both camps.
Over the next 12 to 24 months, Kelly sees the potential for a 100,000-sq.-ft. expansion facility, followed by a larger production center for Navy vessels, all at the existing Superior location. Longer term, he sees opportunities to expand beyond Superior to other Great Lakes locations as demand develops. For a 138-year-old shipyard, that's a decidedly forward-looking agenda.
Niigaan Enaazhek: Built for the Great Lakes
If the HD Hyundai relationship illustrates where Fraser wants to go, the recently delivered MV Niigaan Enaazhek demonstrates what its workforce can already accomplish.
Built for the Beausoleil First Nation, the double-ended roll-on/roll-off ferry provides year-round transportation between Christian Island and Cedar Point, Ontario. Designed for Georgian Bay's demanding winter environment, it operates 365 days per year and makes 12 daily round trips.
The ferry accommodates 150 passengers and 36 cars or trucks, with RoRo loading simplifying the constant movement of people, vehicles and supplies between the island community and mainland.
Technically, its defining feature is its propulsion system.
Niigaan Enaazhek is equipped with two Voith Schneider Propellers, positioned to give the double-ended ferry exceptional maneuverability and rapid thrust control in virtually any direction. The arrangement is particularly suited to a ferry that spends its life repeatedly approaching and departing terminals and operating in confined waters.
It is also engineered for ice.
The vessel carries an Ice Class 1A rating, with the VSP installation designed to maintain propulsion performance in the harsh winter conditions encountered on Georgian Bay. Fraser describes Niigaan Enaazhek as the only double-ended ferry operating on the Great Lakes equipped with two Voith Schneider Propellers.
Kelly calls it “the most technically advanced ferry boat operating on the Great Lakes today.”
“The captain can literally turn on a pinwheel if he or she so chooses to do,” said Kelly. “Incredible maneuverability. We're really proud of that vessel.”
More importantly, it is doing precisely what it was designed to do: keeping an island community connected to the mainland throughout the year.
That combination — practical commercial shipbuilding, specialized engineering and a skilled Great Lakes workforce — provides a useful window into Fraser's potential future.
Amid the increasingly urgent national conversation surrounding U.S. maritime industrial capacity, Fraser possesses several ingredients that cannot easily be manufactured: 138 years of experience, an existing workforce, established customers, waterfront infrastructure and considerable room to grow.
Now add the shipbuilding technology and production expertise of HD Hyundai.
The opportunity, if the pieces come together as envisioned, is not simply to make an old shipyard bigger. It is to use an established American shipbuilder as a platform for a more modern production model — one capable of serving commercial and military customers while putting hundreds more skilled tradespeople to work year-round.
For Kelly, the immediate priority is straightforward: “It's about sticking the landing with all the things we're talking about with HD Hyundai.”
If Fraser does, those unused 85 acres on Lake Superior could become an important piece of America's effort to rebuild its shipbuilding muscle.
Watch the full video interview with Patrick Kelly, CEO, Fraser Shipyards, on Maritime Reporter TV:
