Saronic awards Syncrolift a shiplift contract over $100 million
The companies say the planned lift for Port Alpha in Texas will be the world’s largest, with a capacity of 67,000 metric tons. Final delivery is scheduled for 2028.
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Saronic has awarded Norway’s Syncrolift a contract worth more than $100 million to design and supply a shiplift for Port Alpha, its planned shipyard in Brownsville, Texas. The lift and a transfer system are intended to move completed vessels from land into the water.
Syncrolift disclosed the order on 4 November without naming its customer and called it the largest in its history. Saronic identified itself as the customer in its 12 November announcement. Construction of Port Alpha began with a groundbreaking on 30 September.
Building ships on land
The companies say the shiplift will be the world’s largest. Its platform will be 300 meters (984 feet) long and lift 67,000 metric tons, a capacity Saronic says is more than twice that of the next-largest installation. Syncrolift, a subsidiary of Oslo-listed Nekkar ASA, will manage the project from its headquarters near Oslo, gCaptain said.
Port Alpha is designed to assemble large hull sections and fit out several vessels at once on land, moving them between workstations rather than building them in fixed docks. Saronic aims to build more ships simultaneously and reduce constraints caused by dock availability and limited waterfront space.
The tandem lifting system will include equipment to monitor its condition and digital-twin controls, which use a digital representation of a physical system, to monitor operations during lifting. Saronic co-founder and chief operating officer Doug Lambert said the lift’s scope and scale were foundational to how the yard would operate.
Plans for the yard
Saronic plans to invest more than $3 billion in the yard, which is intended to build autonomous and crewed vessels for commercial and defense customers. It says the project could eventually support up to 10,000 direct jobs. The site at the Port of Brownsville is planned to cover 835 acres initially, with potential expansion to nearly 4,400 acres.
Saronic targets initial operations in 2028, the year final delivery of the shiplift is scheduled. The first vessels are expected to be Landing Craft Utility vessels under a US Navy contract. Longer term, the company plans to produce as many as 20 ships annually by 2035.
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