Saronic Technologies, Austin, Texas, has awarded Norway-based Syncrolift AS a contract valued at more than $100 million to design and supply a shiplift for Port Alpha, its shipyard under construction in Brownsville, Texas.
The system will have a platform approximately 984' long and a lifting capacity of about 73,855 tons. Saronic said it will be the world’s largest shiplift, with more than twice the lifting capacity of the next-largest installation.
Syncrolift, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nekkar ASA, will supply a tandem shiplift and transfer system that will allow multiple vessels to be built and outfitted on land before being moved to the lift for launching.
The equipment will support Port Alpha’s planned production arrangement, in which vessels move between workstations rather than remain in fixed docks throughout construction. Final assembly will use a small number of large-block lifts, according to Saronic.
The shiplift will combine a rigid lifting platform with condition-monitoring and digital-twin control technology to monitor lifting operations. Saronic said the system will reduce the need for multiple graving docks and improve access for workers, materials and equipment.
“Syncrolift’s technology and track record made them the right supplier to deliver a system that is strategically important to how we’re approaching Port Alpha and the reindustrialization of U.S. shipbuilding,” Doug Lambert, Saronic’s co-founder and chief operating officer, said in the announcement.
Saronic said it selected Syncrolift following an evaluation of docking and transfer technologies that considered system capability and safety.
Syncrolift will manage the project from its headquarters in Vestby, Norway. The announcement did not specify a delivery or installation schedule for the shiplift.
