Portland Iron Works

Portland Iron Works, in Sarzonia, referred to more commonly as PIW, is one of the largest shipbuilding firms in the NationStates World. Currently headed by Admiral Barbara Tucker, the firm contributes a substantial part of the Sarzonian economic output and in a short time has grown from a smaller company to one of the most powerful and world-renowned.

Creation

The Portland Iron Works was created in early August 2004 (RL time) when Sarzonian defence officials determined they needed and wanted a new storefront devoted to selling warships separate from the Wilmington Shipyard Corporation, which sold civilian medical and scientific research vessels. The first designs available on the PIW storefront were four ships modeled after World War II designs, but a collaboration with the Imperial Praetonian Shipyards on a superdreadnaught, the Freedom-class, came shortly after the company was founded by then-Commodore Barbara Tucker (ISN-Ret.).

History

It is funny to imagine that a company that has become so successful almost never got off the ground. Tucker had to be convinced by engineers at IPS to launch PIW, and she had to overcome her fears that the Wilmington Shipyard Corporation would buy PIW out within a matter of weeks. The irony of that fear is the fact that, a couple of months later, a PIW strapped for shipyard workers, engineers, and construction yards would end up accquiring the Wilmington Shipyard Corporation.

Within a short time, the Portland Iron Works also collaborated with the now-defunct Hybalt Defense Industries to create the Calypso-class superdreadnaught. With these two ships, the Portland Iron Works now competed with some of the best-known storefronts in the world and began to cultivate a reputation for versatility that exists to this day.

Frequent orders by Sdaeriji soon got the company noticed, and custom ship design requests by other navies soon got the Portland Iron Works engineering staff to design new ship classes, including the Evermore-class destroyer, the Nelson-class light carrier, and the Forrest-class fleet carrier. The more new designs came into being, the more orders the Portland Iron Works began to process, leading to a rapid expansion programme where the company hired new workers and built more shipyards to handle the increased capacity.

Despite its increasingly high profile on the international scene, the Portland Iron Works was still competing unsuccessfully for domestic contracts. The Incorporated Sarzonian Navy had made a habit of purchasing ships by the hundreds from the Royal Shipyards of Isselmere-Nieland, Hybalt Defense Industries, and the Imperial Praetonian Shipyards and had only limited numbers of Sarzonian-built warships in what ISN command jokingly referred to as "the Holy Trinity." That would soon change. Shortly after a message from RSIN Director-General Neville Colwan expressed amazement that Sarzonia still ordered from that company in spite of the PIW's success, Parliament enacted legislation requiring "substantially all major military contracts" to be "fulfilled by domestic production." The bill passed in spite of President Mike Sarzo's veto.

The setback for Sarzo meant that the Portland Iron Works would now receive a new significant customer. Based on Sarzonian naval needs in various conflicts, PIW continued to churn out new ship designs and build them for the ISN. As time wore on, both PIW and the ISN earned worldwide reputations for excellence in naval warfare.

Government policy changes

PIW's overwhelming success has come in spite of corporate law that regulates most Sarzonian companies heavily and imposes heavy taxes on each company. However, the Foreign Arms Sales Commission recommended that PIW be given leeway and Parliament passed legislation exempting PIW from many of the regulations. The success of PIW resulted in Sarzonia eventually adopting a laissez-faire policy with PIW, only intervening if the company committed "gross misconduct." Industry analysts say that Sarzonia has two sets of corporate law: PIW's rules and everyone else's. Notably, embargoes placed on countries by Sarzonia are often pre-empted by placement on PIW's "black list."

Becoming a military contracting giant

Some months after Portland Iron Works' inception, the Avalon Aerospace Corporation, Saugerties Space Works, Incorporated Ordnance Company, and Portsmouth Munitions Corporation all set out to carve niches that PIW wasn't filling. Of these separate companies, the most successful was the Avalon Aerospace Corporation, which became one of the first of a new generation of aviation storefronts, including Detmerian Aerospace in Isselmere-Nieland and companies in nations such as Space Union and Pushka. However, these smaller companies were all modest earners compared to PIW's enormous worldwide profile. The Saugerties Space Works ceased operations after a lack of orders.

The companies all were independent of each other, but each company employed the same computer systems and all adopted uniform rules for discounts. The companies were integrated so thoroughly that they often acted as one company even though there were separate Boards of Directors and separate managing directors. Eventually, however, the Portland Iron Works financed the Incorporated Ordnance Company's acquisition of Pacitalia's Pomentane Ballistics. Months later, the Portland Iron Works acquired the enlarged IOC with Avalon Aerospace and Portsmouth Munitions Corporation. The announcement led to an attempt by Pacitalia to reacquire Pomentane from PIW which resulted in Pacitalia and Sarzonia severing relations. The decision by two formerly close allies to break off relations came after Pacitalia removed trademarks and copyrights from Pomentane Ballistics when a Scandavian company offered $300 billion US for Pomentane. The move angered Sarzonia, which retaliated by enacting the same measures with SNN.

Since the Portland Iron Works reorganised with now-promoted Admiral Tucker serving as the combined company's CEO, the company has enjoyed great success.

Today

Today, PIW has earned a reputation as one of the finest shipyard companies in the world. For her role in the evolution of the company from a start-up with four ships based on World War II designs to a firm that boasts over 60 ship designs and roughly a dozen weapons systems, the ISN promoted Tucker to Rear Admiral. Parliament has recently granted her a special promotion to Admiral.

The Portland Iron Works -- the company that almost didn't became the little company that could.