Economy Shipping Company

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Economy Shipping Company

It is recommended that Economy Shipping Company (ESC) replace the

steamboat, Cynthia, with a new diesel powered boat.

The analysis assumed no operating cost in 1950. Although ESC was

presumably still in service during this analysis, the costs associated

with the project evaluation were not accounted for until 1951. It was

also implicit in the NPV calculations that any upgrade required

subsequent to 1950 could be performed without any interruption to the

daily operations and were performed at the beginning of the year.

Therefore, the stoker upgrade and the engine replacements were

considered on Jan 1st of the intended year and did not require any

downtime for the installation.

The evaluation considered four different scenarios:

1. Rehabilitation of Cynthia with the stoker conversion occurring in

1950

2. Rehabilitation of Cynthia with the stoker conversion occurring in

1952

3. Purchase of a new diesel-powered boat with 2 shifts, 12-hour

working day

4. Purchase of a new diesel-powered boat with 3 shifts, 8-hour working

day

Since ESC was considering other projects with a rate of return of 10%,

each of the above options were considered using the same rate of

return. The company?s balance sheet suggests that management was very

conservative. The debt-to-equity ratio in 1950 was 0.075, indicating

that the company could easily borrow at the going rate of 3% without

fear of bankruptcy. Moreover, the company had sufficient funds to

purchase four new diesel-powered boats. Overall, ECS was in a very

strong position to quickly upgrade their fleet and gain any advantage

that may come with the new diesel-powered boats.

The influence of the union to change the working hours for the crew

members is noteworthy in this analysis. If the union succeeded, the

steamboats would not be capable of accommodating the 3-shift

requirement and therefore be noncompliant with the new regulation. If

the new regulation had fines associated for any vessel not in

compliance with the new guidelines, the results for the steamboat

scenarios would only get worse. In this case, the diesel-powered

boats could accommodate the anticipated ruling and therefore continue

to operate without fear of being unlawful.

Another disadvantage against rehabilitating Cynthia was its age. At

the time of the decision the steamboat had already been in operation

for 23 years. Although, the realizable cost to renovate the steamboat

was already known, the intangible aspect of this alternative was the

status of the boat once refurbished. It should be noted that with

any overhaul, there are still aspects to the boat that will remain

?old? and will eventually fail. The maintenance and repairs listed in

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