The yard will occupy an initial 835 acres at the Port of Brownsville, with an option to expand to nearly 4,400 acres. Vice President JD Vance and Texas Governor Greg Abbott attended the groundbreaking announced on September 30.
Port Alpha is expected to open with 150,000 gross tons of annual shipbuilding capacity. Saronic said that would more than double current U.S. commercial capacity, with potential to scale beyond 2 million gross tons annually.
The facility will initially be capable of building vessels up to 850 feet long. Further site expansion could support ships exceeding 1,200 feet.
“Port Alpha is designed from the ground up to produce both autonomous and manned vessels at scale, with modularity and throughput shaping the shipyard’s architecture,” said Dino Mavrookas, Saronic’s co-founder and CEO. “This is one of the defining engineering challenges of our time, and we are building the team, partnerships, and capital base to meet it.”
Saronic said the yard would supplement existing U.S. shipbuilders and serve defense and commercial customers. It also aims to support allies and partners facing backlogs and capacity constraints.
The first phase will include Landing Craft Utility vessels for the U.S. Navy under a recently awarded contract. Production will also cover other autonomous, autonomy-capable and manned ships.
Saronic has selected the JE Dunn | Alberici Joint Venture to construct the initial phase. Plans include 1.2 million square feet of enclosed production space within a 2.5-million-square-foot production activity area.
Eight to ten production buildings will be supported by more than 2,500 feet of deepwater quay and two to four positions for final ship erection. Annual steel processing capacity is planned at 75,000 metric tons.
The projected jobs range from welding and machining to robotics, software engineering and naval architecture. Saronic is working with Texas authorities, Cameron County and regional educational institutions to establish technical training, apprenticeship and engineering pathways.
“Texas is the new leader in American shipbuilding,” Abbott said. “Port Alpha will create 10,000 jobs and put hundreds of millions of dollars in annual paychecks into the hands of Texans.”
Saronic estimates the project will generate $264.5 billion in economic impact for Texas. The company said workforce development would also help address a projected national shortfall of roughly 250,000 skilled shipbuilding workers over the next decade.
The investment aligns with the administration’s “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance” executive order, the Maritime Action Plan and Navy plans for a hybrid fleet, according to Saronic. The company said its phased approach would establish production capacity while building the workforce and supply chain needed for longer-term expansion.
