Austal USA Sets Up Ship Repair Yard in Alabama

Following the acquisition of additional waterfront along the Mobile River in September 2020, Austal USA reports it quickly established a ship repair facility that has had a booming response.

“Almost immediately after word got out Austal USA had purchased the additional waterfront property, we were inundated with calls from commercial captains looking to return to Mobile to have their ships serviced,” Austal USA’s Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Bell said.

Austal’s acquisition included 15 acres of waterfront property spanning almost 3,000 linear feet of waterfront pier space, a 20,000-ton certified Panamax-class floating dry dock, a 300,000 square foot outside fabrication area, and 100,000 square feet of covered fabrication facilities all just 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

The Austal West Campus repair facility is located across the river from Austal USA’s 165-acre corporate headquarters providing access to deep water berthing for vessels up to 1,000 feet, advanced manufacturing capabilities including a friction stir welder, CNC machines, CNC cutting tables, and a carpenter shop, machine shop and electrical and pipe shops. The repair facility also boasts heavy-lifting capability with mobile cranes, overhead cranes and wing wall cranes that travel the length of the 668-foot dry dock.

The services provided by Austal’s Mobile ship repair operation range from conversions and upgrades to advanced ship repair. The machine shop and fabrication areas are fully equipped with overhead cranes, lathes, and CNC plasma cutters. Other technical services offered to the company’s service clients include full-service detail design capability, 3D modeling, field engineering support and dimensional accuracy control.