BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Saronic has selected Norway-based Syncrolift AS to design and supply a tandem shiplift for Port Alpha, the autonomous-vessel shipyard the company is building in Brownsville.
The contract is valued at more than $100 million, according to an announcement released Wednesday by Saronic and Syncrolift parent company Nekkar. The companies said the equipment is expected to be the world’s largest shiplift, with a 300-meter platform and a lifting capacity of 67,000 metric tons.
The shiplift is intended to be a central part of Port Alpha’s production system. Rather than relying on multiple fixed dry docks, the planned yard would use the lift and transfer system to move large ship sections between work stations, allowing vessels to be built and outfitted in parallel on land before launch.
Syncrolift said the design pairs the rigid lift platform with a transfer system, condition monitoring and digital-twin controls. The companies said those features are intended to give operators real-time information during lifts while supporting an assembly process based on moving vessel blocks between specialized work areas.
Saronic has said Port Alpha is planned as a more than $3 billion shipyard for autonomous and crewed commercial and defense vessels. The company projects the initial 835-acre site could eventually expand to nearly 4,400 acres and support as many as 10,000 direct jobs. Those figures are company projections and depend on the project moving through construction and future hiring phases.
Port Alpha is being positioned by Saronic as a high-throughput facility built around large-block construction, which would differ from the conventional model of building a vessel in a single fixed dock. The lift contract is a tangible step in that proposed system because the machinery is designed to move completed or nearly completed vessels into the water.
Syncrolift will manage the project from its headquarters near Oslo, Norway. Saronic said the award reflects its plan to draw on international maritime suppliers for technology needed at the Brownsville yard.
The announcement represents a procurement milestone, not the completion of the shipyard. Construction timing, customer orders and the ultimate scale of employment will remain subject to Saronic’s development plans, permits and market conditions.
