Keppel AmFELS and Pasha Hawaii celebrate steel cutting for two new containerships

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Construction of the first of two containerships is underway at the Port of Brownsville.

On Sept. 25, Keppel AmFELS cut the first steel plates for the M/V George III, one of two ‘Ohana Class vessels the Brownsville-based company is building for the Pasha Hawaii fleet, which provides service to the Hawaii/Mainland trade lane.

Once built, the new 774-foot U.S. Jones Act vessels will carry 2,525 TEUs, with a sailing speed of 23.0 knots. The design of the ship’s hull has been fully optimized using computational fluid dynamics and will be one of the most hydrodynamically efficient hulls in the world. Delivery of the vessels is expected in 2020.

“We are pleased to be able to support the Pasha Hawaii fleet with the design, engineering and constr

GALVESTON, Texas – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ STURGIS vessel left this morning for the Port of Brownsville for her final journey.  In two to three days, she will arrive at the International Shipbreaking Limited facility where she will be dismantled for recycling. The vessel is being towed from Galveston where it has undergone radiological decommissioning that included the safe removal of all components of the deactivated nuclear reactor and all associated radioactive waste that was formerly onboard the STURGIS.

The STURGIS was the world’s first floating nuclear power plant.  She was converted from a World War II Liberty Ship in the 1960s to a mobile nuclear plant. Over the past three years in Galveston, Texas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and it prime contractor, APTIM Federal Services, has been implementing the challenging and complex efforts to d

At Brownsville, a gateway for steel into Mexico, bilateral trade shows no signs of cooling

BY JUDE WEBBER / Financial Times

Article published Tuesday, July 24, 2018

A huge crane unloads giant steel slabs off a ship from Russia, destined for factories in Mexico. Queues of trucks, some of the 800 a day heading across the border, fill up with oil products. Steel coils, animal feed, sugar and colossal wind turbines lie in warehouses or lots awaiting their journey south.

This is the Port of Brownsville in Texas, the biggest gateway for steel into Mexico, a big handler of US oil products heading over the border and the front line in Washington’s escalating trade war with its neighbour and Nafta partner. The US ratcheted up tensions this month by filing complaints against Mexico and other countries at the World Trade Organiza

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — There is no place like home.

After 18 months, the Brownsville Navigation District and Port of Brownsville staff returns to their home in the completely repurposed and enlarged administration office campus at 1000 Foust Road.

In January 2017, the port’s administrative offices were temporary relocated to the Keppel AmFELS complex at 20000 SH 48 while the port’s main building underwent a needed renovation and expansion.

The renovated office campus adds 12,473 square feet of new office space for a total of 26,500 square feet. The project included remodeling the two existing pods, adding a third pod, and building a new office adjacent to the port’s Foust Road entrance to accommodate a truck permitting office with a truck staging area and a modern records facility.

The repurposed offices have been completely gutted, retrofitted and cost-effectively mode

BY STEVE CLARK/The Brownsville Herald

Article published Thursday, July 19, 2018

Fifty-three years after it was launched from the Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Miss., the 598-foot amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LPH 10) is now in for dismantling by International Shipbreaking LLC, part of the EMR Group.

The vessel was decommissioned and struck from the naval register in 1995 after nearly 30 years in service. The Tripoli was one of seven Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships, the first vessels of their type designed as helicopter carriers. LPH stands for “Landing Platform Helicopter.” The first ship of the class, the Iwo Jima (LPH 2), was scrapped in 1996 in Brownsville.

The Tripoli completed three deployments to Vietnam during its career and was the first amphibious warship to carry a full squadron of AV-8 Harrier short-takeoff/vert

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – With the 2018 Gulf shrimp season under way, local shrimpers are hopeful they will not come back with their nets empty despite a continued shortage of workers that plagues the industry.

For the 13th consecutive year, Reverend Mark Watters led the traditional Blessing of the Fleet July 10, at the Port of Brownsville’s fishing harbor. During his sermon, Rev. Watters asked the dozens of people gathered to pray for a bountiful harvest this season and for the well-being of all shrimpers while they are out at sea. The shrimping season began July 16.

The industry continues to battle with a shortage of workers due to the lack of H-2B worker visas issued by the federal government. Andrea Hance, executive director for the Texas Shrimp Association, said for this year there were more than 200,000 visa applicants, but only 66,000 visas were made available for distributi

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The secret is out of the bag for Duro.

The company, a tenant of the Port of Brownsville since 1967, is a premier leader in the paper bag industry with approximately 2.5 billion paper bags manufactured annually for the grocery, retail, convenience and food markets.

“We are a small jewel at the Port of Brownsville,” said Frank Fernandez, plant manager at Duro Bag. “Our mission is to be the preeminent manufacturer of paper bags offering quality, innovative solutions and complete satisfaction to our customer base,” he added.

Duro Bag has a rich history of both manufacturing process creativity and product innovation with several current and pending patents in addition to more than 20 industry trademarks.

Since 2014, the company has been part of the Novolex family, a leading producer of plastic, paper and film products headquartered in Hartsville, Sou

The U.S. Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi held a change-of-command ceremony May 5, where Capt. Edward Gaynor relieved Capt. Tony Hahn as commander of the sector.

Capt. Gaynor will now oversee South Texas waterways from the Port of Brownsville to Port Lavaca. His previous assignment was as the chief of incident management, 1st Coast Guard District.

Capt. Hahn was commander of the Corpus Christi sector since 2015. His next assignment is the chief of staff, Coast Guard Pacific Area.

On May 23, Capt. Gaynor paid his first visit to the Port of Brownsville as Captain of the Port and met with local authorities and port officials who briefed him on the port’s current maritime activity.

The change-of-command ceremony is a time-honored tradition and deeply rooted in Coast Guard and Naval history. The event signifies a total transfer of responsibility, authority and accou

TransMontaigne Partners L.P. is investing approximately $60 million in terminaling and pipeline expansion projects at its Port of Brownsville facilities, the company announced May 9.

The investment was made possible after securing agreements with third parties for the construction of new facilities in Brownsville for the storage of gasoline, diesel and additives for further transportation by truck and the Diamondback Pipeline to the U.S./Mexico border.

The Diamondback pipeline consists of an 8-inch pipeline that previously transported propane approximately 16 miles from the TransMontaigne facilities in Brownsville to the U.S./Mexico border and a parallel 6-inch pipeline that has been idle and can be used to transport additional refined products.

The company expects the first tanks of the additional storage capacity under construction to be completed and ready for commercial serv