Seatrium Limited, a Singapore-based company, announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to sell the "surplus" AmFELS Yard Shipbuilding Facility in Texas to Karpowership. The price is $50.67million. AmFELS Yard in Brownsville builds oil and gasoline platforms as well as vessels for the energy industry. Seatrium will have its only U.S. Shipyard, and Karpowership's first. Karpowership operates the largest fleet of floating energy plants in the world known as powerships. It is a subsidiary owned by Turkey's Karadeniz Holdings.

Last week, the shipyard delivered to Virginia the 472-foot (143.87 meter) Charybdis - the first U.S. built wind turbine installation vessel ordered by Dominion Energy. According to Dominion's regulatory disclosure, the vessel was built in five years at a cost of $715 million. AmFELS Yard is being sold as U.S. president Donald Trump tries to stop wind power projects and pushes a shipbuilding revival in the United States. Seatrium stated that the S$65million sale would be accretive. Seatrium AmFELS, a subsidiary of Karpowership, and Karpower Valley are the parties to this transaction.

Seatrium was formed in 2023 by the merger of Singapore shipyards Sembcorp Marine & Keppel Offshore & Marine. Keppel acquired full control of AmFELS by 1992.

Was not able to contact the parties involved in the sale immediately.

The divestment will be completed once the Port of Brownsville has transferred the lease from the old owner to the new one.

Seatrium, in a press release, committed to finishing all projects at AmFELS yard by the end 2025. This will ensure a smooth transition to customers and partners.

Seatrium said that the sale of "surplus facilities", will improve its capital efficiency and operational efficiency.

Seatrium CEO Chris Ong stated, "We have had a long-standing relationship with Karpowership and we are happy to entrust this yard to a new partner with whom our collaboration will continue to grow."

Seatrium's strategic presence in the U.S. will be refocused on technology and engineering capabilities after the deal is closed.

(source: Reuters)