Austal USA Establishes Austal West Ship Repair in Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. – Following the acquisition of additional waterfront along the Mobile River in September 2020, Austal USA quickly established a ship repair facility that has had a booming response, the company said in a Sept. 29 release. 

“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,” said Mike Bell, Austal USA’s senior vice president of operations. “We are pleased with all of the positive feedback we have received from our ship repair customers thus far.” 

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. 

While most of the shipbuilding industry associates Austal USA with advanced manufacturing of high-tech Navy ships, many more are now realizing the company has a highly-capable ship repair operation. 

The Austal West Campus repair facility is conveniently 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, 3-D modeling, field engineering support and dimensional accuracy control. 

“At Austal USA we have always taken great pride in the quality and value of the new ships we build,” Bell said. “We are now applying that same pride in the quality and value we provide our ship repair clients at our dry dock and repair yard.” 

Austal USA has earned a proven reputation as one of the safest shipyards in the industry, a characteristic that is proudly shared with the new service operation. The ISO 9001:2015-certified Austal West Campus is operated by a highly qualified, experienced ship repair and construction management team, focused on safety and customer satisfaction, maintaining a strong professional relationship with all applicable regulatory agencies.