Marine Builders Files For Bankruptcy

After 40 years of operations, Marine Builders Inc.—based in Utica, Ind.—has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The filing was made last month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana. According to a story in the Louisville Business Journal, the filing shows the company has as many as 199 creditors and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities.

Marine Builders leases a 16-acre facility in Utica, near Jeffersonville, Ind. The company has designed, built and delivered more than 100 vessels in its history, a recent one being the towboat Capt. C. R. Neale III.

In its filing, the company cited the declining coal industry and a downturn in boat and barge orders.

In 2018, in explaining his decision to close Jeffboat after 80 years, Mark Knoy, then Jeffboat’s president and CEO, cited the coal downturn, as well as an expected boom in liquid barge-building that failed to materialize (WJ, April 2, 2018). In its filing, Marine Builders also refers to these factors.