CUSTOMER:

Sterling Shipyard

DEALER:

Mustang Cat

SEGMENT:

Inland Waterway

SOLUTION:

Repower

LOCATION:

Port Neches, TX

SCOPE OF ENGINE USE:

Cat^® 3516E

Sterling Shipyard in Port Neches, Texas counts several prominent marine towing companies as customers, such as Bay-Houston Towing and Suderman & Young Towing Company. The shipyard recently expanded operations, tripling shoreline access and increasing the number of dry docks from three to five (with a sixth to be built this year). This expansion makes Sterling Shipyard one of the largest shipyards on the Texas Gulf Coast. With the anticipated doubling of their dry dock facilities, the shipyard is equipped to construct and repair much larger vessels than in recent years.

“Our success depends on our team,” said Brad Taylor, chief operating officer at Sterling Shipyard. “We started with around 20 employees and have grown to 140 today. Those original employees are still with us, and every single team member is committed to producing excellent work. We couldn’t do what we do without them.”

Mustang Cat, located in Houston, Texas, has collaborated with Sterling Shipyard for many years, providing Cat equipment and aftermarket support for the shipyard’s repower and new construction projects. Working side by side with Sterling Shipyard’s teams, Mustang Cat supports successful installations and verifies engine performance in dockside tests as well as sea trials. “Mustang Cat has been a big part of our success, working with us on repair work and small deck barges initially to now doing major overhauls and new construction projects with us,” said Taylor. “Their application support has been essential to growing our business, enabling us to work with many of the major marine operators in the country.”

TIER 0 TO TIER 4 REPOWER

One of the oldest and most progressive towing companies on the Texas Gulf Coast, Suderman & Young Towing Company, selected Sterling Shipyard to repower one of its fleet boats dedicated to important ship assistance work. To align with the customer’s corporate sustainability goals, Sterling Shipyard worked with Mustang Cat to perform an extremely challenging goal – take the vessel from Tier 0 to Tier 4. Such a repower project is extremely challenging as significant changes are required to add the equipment needed for a Tier 4 engine. “It’s like putting ten pounds of groceries in a five-pound bag,” observed Harry Lartigue Jr., sales manager at Mustang Cat.

Mustang Cat and Sterling Shipyard collaborated with the naval architect and towing company on the project to install Cat^® 3516E engines to meet the repower project’s requirements.

Sterling Shipyard and the Cat dealer’s commitment to complete the complex repower enabled the towing company to modernize its fleet and avoid building a new vessel.

“Mustang Cat provided a lot of data during this effort to confirm that vessel performance was maintained while allowing the space needed for engine operation,” said Taylor.

NEW Z DRIVE ESCORT TUGS FOR LNG NEEDS

In addition to performing demanding repowers, Sterling Shipyard and Mustang Cat also teamed up on the new construction of two Z-drive escort tugs to support the marine towing company’s LNG export facilities. The purpose-built, 98.5-foot vessels were equipped with Cat 3516E engines to provide the power and performance needed to complement the Z-drive maneuverability. Using the Tier 4 engines enabled the tug service company to comply with EPA Tier-4 emission standards and receive ABS low emission vessel notation. Such a classification provides many benefits, including lower emissions and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metric improvements to support maritime decarbonization.

“With every challenging project that has come our way, we’ve been able to count on Mustang Cat for valuable support,” added Taylor. “That dedicated support combined with the reliability and performance of the Cat engines we’ve selected enables us to be competitive and further our reputation in the industry.”