Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) held a grand opening event for a new shipyard at Port St. Joe in Florida last week.

The 40-acre site encompasses 1,000 feet of deepwater bulkhead with unrestricted access to Gulf of Mexico test and trials grounds. The new facility is dedicated to final outfitting and testing of commercial new construction vessels, as well as topside repairs.

The Port St. Joe facility is the third ESG shipyard. The company also operates two shipyards in Panama City, Florida, specialising in commercial steel and aluminum vessel construction. At one of those shipyards, the 40-acre Nelson Street facility, the company builds exclusively US Coast Guard offshore patrol cutters. At its 300-acre Allanton facility, ESG builds commercial vessels.

ESG recently completed a $6m infrastructure-improvement project at the Port St. Joe facility to allow for vessel outfitting to commence, and has embarked on a $50m 15,000-ton dry-dock project to provide full vessel sustainment services. The dry dock has been designed to service both commercial and government ships and can haul large deep-draft vessels.

Founded in 1976, ESG has delivered more than 350 vessels.