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INTERVIEW RUSTY MURDAUGH, PRESIDENT, AUSTAL USA “Maybe your readers will be a little surprised to hear this, but we want a half-billion dollar services model. And so incrementally, we’re making green? eld organic and inorganic triggering events to get us there. Starting on the west coast and expanding was obvious. We are looking at other opportunities, both in the U.S. to build upon our presence in Mobile and the west coast, as well as expanding our presence overseas, where we currently have a good model in Singapore.” – Rusty Murdaugh,

President, Austal USA

All photos courtesy Austal USA

Most of our readers know the Austal USA With the opening of Austal West Campus brand, but can you give a “by the num- (AWC), the ? nalization of the deal to open bers” look at Austal USA today? the repair facility in San Diego and the ordering of the new drydock from Sedef

Austal is about 3,200 people today, and there’s about 573

Shipyard in Turkey, can you discuss the direct and indirect suppliers in 41 states that we support. cumulative investment to date and the

We’ve got 180 acres in Mobile, and we’ve added 15 acres rationale behind adding this capability to with the opening of the facility in San Diego. We’re investing the Austal USA brand?

about $110 million in our new state-of-the-art steel panel line; (and overall to date) the investments we’ve made are roughly Each component of our business model has a strategic el- $630 million. Finally, we’re really proud to say that 21 safety ement to it. At AWC it was to launch our own ships to get awards in 12 years. deep water and then to also grow our services business. That investment was about $12 million. This latest (addition) in

You’ve been with Austal USA since 2017,

San Diego is to expand upon the contracts that we’ve already but your tenure in the leadership seat has been awarded. been shorter than that. Coming into the

Usually, you build a yard and then you go after contracts, president position, what were your imme- but we were working these simultaneously. Expanding is diate priorities?

critical in San Diego because we’ve recently won several

The priorities remain very similar to what they were (when contracts; and all are going to be hubbed out of this particu-

I was named interim president in February 2021), but on an lar region’s facility so that we can expand that waterfront accelerated path. That’s to win new orders for ships, it’s to and do top side work.

expand and grow our services model, it’s to get that steel line Not only do work on our own ships, but we also do work up and running and ensure it is a competitive advantage for on other folks’ ships. (With all of this) and the dry dock, in us. But all of that can’t work without focusing on great people services we’ve invested $150 million over the last three years.

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