U.S. Boatbuilding Gains Steam

Shipbuilding in the United States has seen a heightened profile with increased attention from Congress and the Trump 2.0 Administration . The ongoing dialogue regarding reinvigorating the U.S. deep sea fleet has brought mainstream attention to vessel construction, which has been nearly absent in recent years. In contrast, the marketplace for domestic vessel construction, for vessels serving rivers and harbors, is alive and well. Recent newbuilds for linehaul trades, and also Z-drive vessels for ship assist work, show the resilience of this sector.  

April 2025 saw the christening of the towboat DAVID NORTH, the 10th in a series being built for barging stalwart Ingram Marine, from Main Iron Works (Houma, Louisiana) . The boat, working in the Lower Mississippi, is powered by twin Cat C32 Tier 3 engines, providing a total of 1,600 horsepower. The first tug in the series had been delivered four years earlier. Sister vessels are all engaged in Ingram’s Mississippi River and Houston, Texas trades. Around the same time, at its facility in Paducah, Kentucky, Ingram was christening another tug, the M/V LEN O’CONNOR (the ninth newbuild in the Main Iron Works series) and  the re-christening M/V JERRY W LONG (7,200 horsepower, built in the late 1960s for Midland Enterprises, which Ingram had acquired in the early 2000’s) . Main Iron Works had recently completed a series of 6,000 horsepower tractor tugs for Bisso Towing, active in escort assist work on the Lower Mississippi.

Later in the Spring of 2025, tug and barge owner Maritime Partners (which, in turn, provides lease or bareboat charters to vessel operators) took delivery of the tug J OAN PLUCK,  from FMT Shipyard (Harvey, Louisiana) . The twin Mitsubishi S6R2 engines (Tier 3), providing 1,600 hp, sourced through distributor Laborde Products, are also deployed on other vessels in Maritime Partners’ current newbuild program, including PARKER BROOKS  (delivered in February, providing ship assist in waters around Houston), and the soon-to-be-completed   ISABEL PLUCK (working around Mobile, Ala).

In early June, another Louisiana based owner,  LeBeouf Brothers, christened MARK DELESDERNIER JR., a 3,600-horsepower boat built at the Steiner yard in Bayou La Batre, Ala. Nearby yard Blakely BoatWorks (in Mobile, Ala) , part of the Cooper Group (which got a start in logistics and stevedoring), is building the third in a series of 6,000-horsepower, Tier 4 Z- drive boats sister company Crescent Towing. Designed by Crowley Engineering , the vessel that will be used for ship assist on the Lower Mississippi.    

Another south Louisiana yard,  Intracoastal Iron Works , is building a series of boats for Nashville, Tennessee-based Hines Furlong , active on both the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The first vessel, M/V DONNY MUDGETT (powered with a triple screw configuration of Mitsubishi Tier 3 S6R2 engines, providing 2,400 horsepower overall)  was delivered in late May. The overall construction program, which will include newbuilds from Eymard Marine Construction & Repair (in Harvey, La) will see delivery of four more triple-screw vessels and six twin-screw vessels.

Bay Houston Towing  has also recently christened two Robert Allan designed Z Tech boats, GEORGE M (6,700 hp, built 2021 at Gulf Island Fabrication) and MAY LOUISE (7,000 hp, built 2024 at Master Boat Builders ). Both are fitted with twin Caterpillar 3516 (Tier 4) propulsion, with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) installed. The company has two additional ship escort tugs (with a Robert Allan 3200-W design, 8800 horsepower) on order, from the Sterling Shipyard (Port Neches, Texas) for delivery later in 2025.        

In Port Arthur, Moran Towing has added newbuild, MARY JANE MORAN , also with a Crowley design, to its fleet of escort vessels. Built at Master Boat Builders in Alabama, the boat features two Caterpillar 3512E engines (5,100 horsepower combined) tied to US 205 Z-drives from Kongsberg.

Building of boats has evolved greatly in recent years; Moran explained to Marine News that: “One example is our program to deploy Internet of Things (IoT) technology to increase the efficiency of our day-to-day tugboat operations." IoT uses include smart sensors and real-time connections to online platforms that enable shoreside monitoring and improved optimization of tug operations.