Saronic Breaks Ground on Port Alpha, a $3B Shipyard in Brownsville, Texas

# What happened Saronic has broken ground on Port Alpha, a new shipyard at the Port of Brownsville, Texas, built with more than $3 billion in private capital. The site spans 835 acres initially, with an option to expand to nearly 4,400 acres. Saronic describes the yard as purpose-built to manufacture autonomous, autonomy-capable, and conventional manned vessels.

# Why this matters Port Alpha is positioned to change U.S. commercial shipbuilding capacity. At opening the yard will provide 150,000 gross tons of annual capacity — which Saronic says would more than double current U.S. commercial shipbuilding capacity. The company envisions scaling to more than 2 million gross tons annually in future phases.

# What the initial site includes

• 1.2 million square feet of enclosed production space within a 2.5-million-square-foot production area.
• Eight to ten production buildings configured for modular throughput.
• More than 2,500 feet of deepwater quay to support sea trials and final outfitting.
• Annual steel processing capacity planned at 75,000 tonnes.

JE Dunn | Alberici Joint Venture has been selected to construct the initial phase of the shipyard.

# People on site Saronic's leadership was present at the groundbreaking along with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. Saronic co-founders named in reports include Dino Mavrookas (CEO), Doug Lambert (Co-Founder & COO), Rob Lehman (Co-Founder & CCO), and Vib Altekar (Co-Founder & CTO). Port of Brownsville Commission Chair Sergio Tito Lopez and Saronic SVP John Morgan were also listed in event materials.

# How Saronic plans to scale Saronic says the project will be developed in phases tied to workforce, supplier base, and manufacturing process development. The company frames Port Alpha as modular and throughput-driven, designed specifically to produce autonomous as well as manned vessels at scale. The plan anticipates the shipyard eventually supporting up to 10,000 direct jobs and a broad supplier ecosystem built around the facility.

# Immediate production focus The first production slate includes LCUs for the U.S. Navy, along with autonomous and autonomy-capable vessel builds. Saronic highlights modularity and high-throughput production as central engineering priorities for the yard.

# Bottom line