Maritime Partners Acquires Galveston Shipyard
Metairie, La.-based Maritime Partners, a leading provider of maritime solutions primarily focused on Jones Act vessels, has announced the recent purchase of West Gulf Marine, a family-owned shipyard in Galveston, Texas, with a strategic position in the inland tank barge market.
Maritime Partners has named industry veteran Jacob Brown, who previously served as director marine maintenance and shipyard operations for Enterprise Marine Services, as CEO of West Gulf Marine.
“At Maritime Partners, our strategic focus is on the reliable, long-term, asset-intensive businesses that form the critical infrastructure of the U.S. maritime industry,” said Bick Brooks, CEO of Maritime Partners. “Our established leadership position across maritime verticals provides us with a uniquely wide perspective to identify opportunities and synergies that are often unrealized by legacy market participants. In West Gulf Marine, we see a unique, niche investment opportunity to empower a proven player in a strategically important market segment that is deeply familiar to us and immediately additive to our core business.”
Jacob Brown stated, “I am thrilled to join West Gulf Marine and aim to sustain the standard of excellence and reliability that Bryan, Keith and the Fiegel family have established over a period of decades. By building quality tank barges on time and on budget for players across the market, we have a critically important role to play in supporting both the U.S. inland marine sector and the overall U.S. industrial base.”
West Gulf Marine specializes in the construction of tank barges used to transport black oil, petrochemicals, refined products and other liquid products along the inland and intracoastal waterways. The shipyard has built tank barges for companies like Kirby Corporation, Canal Barge Company, Enterprise Product Partners and others.
Maritime Partners manages a diversified fleet of about 1,800 vessels, specializing in vessels that are used in the domestic Jones Act trades. A privately held company founded in 2015, Maritime Partners provides the assets that transport commodities like agricultural products, chemicals, aggregates, crude oil and refined petroleum products.
