Two Seward shipyards win $2.3 million in federal equipment grants

Two Seward shipyard operators will buy new vessel-handling and fabrication equipment with more than $2.3 million in federal grants announced Monday in the community: Catalyst Marine Engineering, LLC received $916,223, and JAG Alaska Inc. received $1,405,113.

The money comes from the Maritime Administration's Small Shipyard Grant Program, a competitive federal award that funds capital improvements at yards with fewer than 1,200 production employees. MARAD distributed more than $20 million to small shipyards nationally in this round. Alaska's congressional delegation supported both applications in letters to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this year.

Catalyst will acquire fabrication, welding and material-handling equipment; JAG will expand its rail system and buy new carts and cradles to move vessels through the Seward Shipyard. The announcement came at an event with U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee overseeing the Coast Guard, and Adm. Kevin Lunday, the 28th commandant of the Coast Guard. Federal officials framed the grants as helping Seward prepare for a new Arctic Security Cutter: the Coast Guard announced in June that the third of these vessels will be homeported there once shoreside infrastructure is complete, while the first Arctic Security Cutter in the broader program is expected to be delivered in 2028.

Catalyst is not new to the program. MARAD awarded the company $418,903 in 2022 for welding units and a propulsion unit supporting mobile repair platforms. JAG Marine Group also operates the state-owned Ketchikan Shipyard, having taken over from Vigor Alaska in November 2025, as Alaska News previously reported.

"These investments are another important part of what I call the 'virtuous cycle' in shipbuilding and ship maintenance that we're delivering across our great state," Sullivan said. "We bring more Coast Guard and NOAA vessels to Alaska, and Alaska workers maintain and repair them while generating even more maritime work right here in our state." Sullivan has separately said four icebreakers are being brought to Alaska, including one planned for Seward.

Maritime Administrator Stephen M. Carmel said the grants will "keep Alaska's maritime sector efficient, competitive, and capable of sustaining good-paying jobs for years to come."

Neither grant recipient, nor Seward officials or shipyard workers, has publicly described the expected local effects; the accounts so far come from federal officials. Local interest in expanding the city's marine-industrial base is on the record, however. A March 19, 2026 congressional funding request sought fiscal year 2027 money for Seward Marine Industrial Center upgrades, including land expansion and utilities.

Nearer-term federal work is already scheduled at JAG's Seward facility. The Coast Guard is taking quotes until Aug. 24 for cleaning the cutter Alex Haley's gray water tanks, with the work set for Sept. 4 through Sept. 7.