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By Steve Clark and Nadia Tamez-Robledo | Staff Writers
BROWNSVILLE — Vice President JD Vance was the headliner at a midday ceremonial groundbreaking for Saronic Technologies’ Port Alpha “shipyard of the future” at the Port of Brownsville on Wednesday.
The event, held inside a Quonset-style portable warehouse erected beside the Brownsville Ship Channel, also featured remarks by Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr., State Sen. Adam Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. and U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Abbott’s office announced July 16 that Austin-based Saronic had chosen Brownsville as the site of the $3.2 billion Port Alpha facility, which is expected to begin manufacturing manned Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vessels at the port in 2028, with first deliveries taking place in 2029. Saronic announced on Sept. 17 that it had won the Navy contract to build LCUs.
The company’s specialty is unmanned Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV) for commercial and military applications. These also will be manufactured at Port Alpha, which will initially occupy 835 acres at the port with the option of expanding to approximately 4,400 acres. Saronic was founded in 2022.
Vance came on stage following a pause due to what organizers described as a “catastrophic power outage” that knocked out the venue’s air-conditioning units, allowing the temperature inside the packed venue to rise considerably in just a few minutes.
The vice president said Port Alpha to him represents “an American dream built by American workers, created by American companies, and ensuring that the next generation of America’s future is in our hands, in the hands of our fellow citizens.”
“You’ve got to think for a second about every time we send somebody to war or to a combat situation, we send them with rifles, we send them with missiles, we send them with drones now, autonomous ships, and non-autonomous ships,” he said. “We send them with modern technology, but also technology that’s been around for 60, 70, 80 years.”
Mavrookas said he and his co-founders started Saronic four years ago “with a very simple, not easy, but simple mission to redefine maritime superiority for the U.S. and our allies around the world.”
He noted that the United States went from being a maritime superpower during World War II with the capacity to build thousands of vessels per year to now having 0.1% if global shipbuilding capacity.
“And as our capacity eroded, China invested,” Mavrookas said, adding that China’s global shipbuilding capacity now stands at around 60%.
“I’ve even seen reports of 80% going to China,” he said. “And (China) subsidized the entire industry for raw materials, for labor, for free financing, and then a subsidy on the construction bill at the end of it. Why do they do that? Because it’s that important.”
Mavrookas said the five largest U.S. shipyards would fit inside the fully built out, 4,400-acre Port Alpha footprint with plenty of room to spare. Saronic said the aim is to “restore U.S. shipbuilding to scale” by building one of the world’s most advanced shipyards. The company estimates the eventual regional economic impact for Cameron County at $160 billion and, for the state, $264.5 billion, while creating 10,000 jobs over a decade.
Mavrookas said the company started with 30 employees in 2022 and now has nearly 400.
“We’ve invested $300 million in brand new shipyard infrastructure in Franklin to scale the production of (the 180-foot autonomous) Marauder,” he said. “So starting Jan. 1, 2027, three months from now, we’ll have a production capacity of 20 Marauders per year. And we were actually just awarded a production contract for Marauder from the United States Navy for the (Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel) program.”
Port Alpha, in turn, will deliver “massive new amounts of net new shipbuilding capacity,” Mavrookas said.
Abbott, in his comments, said, “We have a motto in my office. And that is, Texas moves at the speed of business. And that’s why so many businesses are choosing to come here, to grow here, to expand here. Because we can meet their needs to make sure they can get the projects up and running faster in Texas than any other state.”
Gonzalez said Port Alpha will be “transformative for our region.”
“As a son of a merchant mariner, and having grown up around the seaports and the naval air stations, I know firsthand the vital role American domestic maritime industry plays in national security,” he said. “And it warms my heart to see the political diversity that we have today.
“That’s something powerful about what is possible in America when we come together for something greater than ourselves. We may not always agree on everything, but we can and should come together around good jobs, a stronger economy, a safer nation, and opportunities for our community. A groundbreaking is a promise.”
Interviewed after the event, Gilberto Salinas, president and CEO of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, said Tuesday’s ceremony was something he and many others who grew up in Brownsville have waited their entire lives to see.
“To be able to work with a company, recruit them … it’s yet again another one of those game changers, similar to what we did with SpaceX almost 10, 12 years ago,” he said. “It’s just going to take us to a whole different level, and just the fact that, you know, the vice president was here and the governor, that just speaks volumes to this project and to the impact that it’s going to have, not just locally, regionally, but globally.”
Vance followed the groundbreaking with a rally at the Harlingen Convention Center.
Cars snaked around the block and onto the feeder road to get into the event, where Vance stopped to whip up voter enthusiasm for District 34 congressional candidate Eric Flores and other Republicans on the November ballot.
Flores is challenging Gonzalez, the District 34 incumbent.
The lineup of conservative leaders warmed up the crowd — outfitted in various combinations of red, white and blue — with speeches warning attendees of what they call a bleak future if Democrats win at the ballot box. Those in the audience, speakers said, were capable of keeping Texas red with their votes, block walking and calls to friends and family.
Vance took the stage to an ear-splitting chorus of cheers and was buttressed by a banner that declared “Defend Our Future.”
The vice president took the audience through much the same roster of topics as the other speakers: border security, economic growth, the gender culture war and the focus of Republican ire in Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. Vance drew parallels between himself and Valley residents, saying he too is from a place that has been left behind by politicians.
Vance called Flores a “true son of the Rio Grande Valley” and lauded his work as a former federal prosecutor and service in the Texas Army National Guard.
Flores “locked up the bad guys and made our streets safer,” Vance said. “He’s a former Army officer who will always defend law and order across the great state of Texas.”
Vance noted economic development in the region, saying Flores was among the candidates capable of fighting for voters’ dignity, jobs and families. The kind of dignity that comes from a job that allows Americans to provide for their family and earn the respect of their children, neighbors and country, Vance said.
The vice president nodded to public frustration over affordability, as discourse over inflation and costs of necessities like gas continue ahead of the midterm elections. The vice president placed the blame on the Biden administration and lawmakers like Gonzalez.
“And while we’ve made great progress digging out of that hole, we need to keep working at it,” Vance told the crowd. “And the easiest way to help us keep working at it is to send Vicente Gonzalez back home.”