4 minute read
Alfa and Omega
There is growing excitement in the Port of Brownsville’s continued role as a premier shipbuilder for the Jones Act market and a global ship recycling hub. These two specialized maritime industries – epitomizing the beginning and the end for maritime vessels – are found nowhere else in Texas but here at the port that works. Keppel AmFELS, traditionally the port’s largest employer and the foremost U.S. offshore rig builder, is completing two 774-foot-long containerships, set to join the U.S. merchant fleet serving American interests and moving American-made goods. The two shipbuilding contracts, valued at $400 million by Keppel, mean more than 700 new well-paying jobs at the port and a new industry for Brownsville and the Lone Star State. The twin 774-foot-long ships, built for Honolulu-based Pasha Hawaii, are designed to carry up to 2,525 TEUs, utilizing Keppel’s proprietary LNG propulsion technology, resulting in reduced air emissions and better fuel efficiency.
Adding to the growing number of shipbuilding projects, the company announced in September 2020 a contract to build the largest high-specification Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge (TSHD) in the U.S. for Manson Construction Co. The 15,000 cubic yard hopper dredge has a length of 420-feet, breadth of 81-feet and draft of 28.5-feet. The Jones Act dredge will operate primarily in the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast of the United States supporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ mission of keeping the marine transportation highway open throughout the United States.
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And in December 2020, Keppel held the keel-laying ceremony for the construction of the first Jones Actcompliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel. Dominion Energy contracted with Keppel AmFELS for the engineering, procurement and construction of the vessel. With several gigawatts of offshore wind capacity to be installed along the U.S. East Coast in the next decade, access to Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessels is of strategic importance to the U.S. offshore wind market.
To assist Keppel’s transition into shipbuilding, the Port of Brownsville was awarded a $1.8 million Economic Development Administration grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help offset the financial commitment to construct a Vessel Assembly and Erection Pad (PAD) where the ships are being assembled. The total cost for the PAD was $5.4 million, with the port picking up the balance. The benefit to the port community is an asset that will attract additional shipbuilding activities for years, creating even more well-paying jobs in the process.
Keppel AmFELS – best known in the U.S. for designing, constructing and building offshore oil platforms and rigs – is also a leader in refurbishing and repairing rigs and platforms. For nearly 30 years as a member of the port community, the U.S. and international oil industry has counted on the company to safely deliver state-of-the-art rigs and platforms, on time and on budget.
Flanking Keppel AmFELS’s shipyard along the port’s ship channel are the nation’s leading ship recyclers, representing a legacy industry at the port. Together, they claim an estimated 85 percent of the nation’s ship recycling business, where U.S. Navy, MARAD and commercial ships berth for the last time. Leading ship recyclers calling the port home include All Star Metals, EMR Group (operating as ISL), SteelCoast and others. Each of these experienced and safety-driven recyclers continue to win a steady stream of major recycling contracts from both the U.S. Government and private owners, in which each recycling project represents significant and good-paying work for hundreds of industrial workers – while providing an environmentally friendly supply of high-quality steel scrap and other valuable metals, in great demand by both domestic and foreign steel mills.
In 2020 ISL gained EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SSR) accreditation for its site at the Port of Brownsville after investing $30 million in compliant infrastructure. The Brownsville site is the first U.S. shipbreaking site to achieve this accreditation. It can now help EU-based ship owners – as well as ships flying the flags of EU member states – to responsibly recycle their ships at end of life. The regulations set standards for environmental and health and safety compliance which go above and beyond stringent U.S. regulatory requirements.
Building on the Port of Brownsville’s respected reputation as the final berthing place for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the USS Independence recently joined an exclusive and growing fraternity as the fifth Forrestal Class aircraft carrier to rest in peace at the port. ISL won the Navy contract and responsibility to recycle the 60,000-ton ship, representing the third carrier it has recycled.
The Independence was home to tens of thousands of veterans throughout its 39 years of service before being decommissioned some 20 years ago. But it lives on – along with many other recycled ships – as parts of modern vessels, automobiles, appliances and a vast array of modern conveniences.
