Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Shipyard Authority is a success story for the Lemanu-Lemanu Administration, according to the Governor’s State of the Territory Comprehensive Report, distributed earlier this month to lawmakers as well as other federal agencies.

Furthermore, the Satala-based government owned Shipyard continues to carry out its motto of “Serving the Largest, Safest, and Busiest Port in the Pacific.”

Apart from the economic and revival success, the shipyard has created an incredible force of efficient workers, the report states.

“The Shipyard’s success is a collective effort of 26 skilled workers and 13 security staff, accounting, procurement, office personnel,” it says.

Additionally, the majority of the shipyard’s employees have been cross-trained; each member has been taught and trained to be more versatile and be able to perform in different work positions.

“All skilled workers are capable and certified to drive and operate equipment that is in the shipyard. The 10 welders were recently certified also for their trade. Another factor for the Shipyard’s success is the great communication with the shipyard board of directors,” it said.

The shipyard continues to approve and support projects allowing the Shipyard’s management and staff to execute them with trust.

According to the report, in 2022, the Shipyard doubled its productivity from dry-docking 8 boats in 2021, to 16 boats in 2022.

The Shipyard also successfully dry-docked 2 from Apia, and 1 from Taiwan, according to the report, which claims that this accomplishment, is “signaling confidence from foreign companies in the local shipyard.”

The report further claims that the Shipyard “has resolved major hurdles that existed” at the start of the Lemanu-Talauega Administration in January 2021.

The accomplishments of the Shipyard team has been considered a huge success and exceeded expectations as they have been able to revive the once closed shipyard, it said.

Within the 18-months of the Administration, the shipyard team has been able to repair, revive and put the yard back to full working capacity. The report summarized shipyard accomplishments such as dry docking 28 vessels ranging from government owned vessels to cargo vessels, passenger vessels and domestic and foreign fishing boats.

It repaired many boats along-side the shipyard dock; repaired 700 feet of railway stretching out to where it is 120 feet deep; completed full repairs of the two cradle beds (metal and all wooden sections); added 30 new roller sections (value of more than $500k) to each side of the cradle; and the frames of the cradles were removed, replaced and reinstalled under water.

The report also states that all equipment necessary for basic operations was purchased and all are in use: scissor lifts, forklifts, crane, floatation lift balloons, new welding machine, plasma cutters, vacuum trailer, water blaster, lathe, compressors, power tools, small tools, drones, diving equipment, underwater equipment and many other small tools, accessories, etc.

Additionally, the shipyard has replenished inventory and purchased U.S. made products. And the inventory now exceeds $800,000: Welding Shop has expanded with more machinery and now has 20 welding stations; and the machine shop has been renewed with new machinery and full stock of parts for machinery and equipment.

However, this is an ongoing effort as much more needs to be done, the report indicates.

The report explained ongoing projects, such as the extension of 24 feet to accommodate the longer purse seiners that are now more than 300 ft long. The cradle is 308 ft long, however this will leave the shipyard without space to have machinery on the cradles to execute all the necessary jobs such as painting, sandblasting, etc.

Also ongoing is the electrical panel system upgrades for the cradle wench and electrical system for the entire shipyard. This is a complicated process and the shipyard team is working with a California company to complete this process without any disruptions to shipyard operations.