Reinauer Transportation Acquires Senesco Marine, Increasing New England Business Presence

Reinauer Transportation Companies, in a terse announcement made on their WEB site, has disclosed their acquisition of Senesco Marine (SENESCO). Financial terms of the September 29th deal were not made public. In the on-line announcement, Reinauer President Craig Reinauer declared that his firm “is pleased to announce that on September 29th, Reinauer Transportation acquired the Southeastern New England Shipbuilding Corp.”

Founded in 1999, SENESCO maintains a 25-acre facility, with more than 215,000 feet of covered floor space, a 6-acre repair facility with a 1,200-foot-long pier. Its 3,500-ton floating dry dock is capable of serving vessels up to 350 feet in length and 74 foot beam. SENESCO specifically targets the double hull tank barge markets. According to the press release, Reinauer will keep SENESCO’s name and continue operations at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, RI.

SENESCO already claims Reinauer as a customer. The move will no doubt provide good economy of scale to Reinauer, as well as the advantage of scheduling projects at their own convenience, as they accelerate their double-hull barge building program. But, SENESCO is not Reinauer’s first foray into the New England marine markets. The firm already owns Boston Towing & Transportation (BT&T), which operates, among other things, 13 tug boats in the Boston Harbor market. Recently, BT&T’s supremacy in the Boston area has been challenged by the arrival of Foss Maritime, the west coast tug giant which acquired Constellation Tug Corporation and is in the process of moving several new-generation tractor tugs to Boston.