Feb. 11, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Davie Defense Inc. will expand their shipbuilding capacity in Port Arthur and Galveston to build Arctic icebreakers, creating more than 2,400 new jobs and representing more than $730 million in capital investment.
A Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $21,771,000 has been extended to Davie Defense. TEF is a performance-based grant that may be awarded to a business relocation or expansion project for which one Texas site is in competition with out-of-state locations to create new, good-paying jobs in the community and attract significant new capital investment to the state.
“With the best business climate in the nation, Texas is a magnet for complex, critical manufacturing,” said Abbott. “This significant capital investment by Davie Defense will expand economic opportunity in Galveston and Port Arthur and create thousands of good-paying jobs and further bolster national defense by expanding capacity for the manufacture of icebreakers and other specialized vessels for the U.S. government and commercial customers. Texas is positioned to be a national hub for critical shipbuilding and, with our strong workforce, we will be for generations to come.”
Davie Defense reportedly intends to make its Texas operations ground-zero for the revitalization of the American shipbuilding industry — advancing American economic and national security by adding much-needed capacity to the U.S. industrial base. This historic investment in Texas will help promote American manufacturing, reindustrialization, and the nation’s warfighting readiness by building complex vessels for government and commercial clients.
— Dannie Oliveaux, Business Journal Editor
Read the March edition of the Southeast Texas Business Journal for local reaction.
