OREANDA-NEWS. Huntington Ingalls Industries' (NYSE:HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division has purchased property in Moss Point where the former 84 Lumber was located. The acquisition of the property closed on Jan. 31.

"This purchase is another component of our strategy to consolidate facilities," said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Irwin F. Edenzon. "The 84 Lumber property gives us a single, large footprint in relatively close proximity to our production activities and will allow us to receive, store and deploy material more efficiently. It also allows us to reduce the number of warehouse facilities we maintain at different locations around town. Improving efficiency and reducing leasing costs will help us make our ships more affordable so we can sell more ships."

The 12.26-acre property will be used mainly for warehousing. Two large buildings built in 2007 offer more than 58,000 square feet of storage, and there are three storage sheds, each with 12,000 square feet of space. Modifications will be incorporated into the current layout, and the plan is to have the area functional by the fall.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder at its Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions. Employing more than 37,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, HII also provides a wide variety of products and services to the commercial energy industry and other government customers, including the Department of Energy.