Shipyards Directory

Southern African Shipyards (Pty) Ltd

shipyard Durban, Bayhead, South Africa

Southern African Shipyards (Pty) Ltd, trading as Sandock Austral Shipyards / SA Shipyards, is a Durban-based shipyard offering shipbuilding, ship repair, naval maintenance, mechanical and fabrication, and oil and gas services in-house. Its build record includes 14 mega luxury yacht hulls (23 m to 95 m) completed for finishing in Holland, five Voith Schneider tugs for Portnet and a further seven tugs for Transnet, while its earlier Sandock-Austral era produced strikecraft, minehunters and the replenishment ship S.A.S. Drakensberg. The yard occupies an 11-hectare site in the Bayhead area of Durban, works from its own floating dock and quay, and also uses National Ports Authority graving docks in Durban, Cape Town and East London. The company states it is 100% black owned, 12% employee owned, ISO 9001:2015 certified (TÜV Rheinland) and holds a Level 2 BBBEE rating.

Southern African Shipyards (Pty) Ltd

Operating as Sandock Austral Shipyards / SA Shipyards, this Durban yard describes itself as the largest shipyard in southern Africa and holder of the record for the largest ship built on the African continent. The site dates to 1960 (as Barends), passed to Sandock Austral in 1973 for a naval shipbuilding programme, and was acquired from Dorbyl in 1996 along with the 11-hectare yard. It normally employs 200–400 people, can run dual-shift build programmes, and runs a large apprentice training programme (started 2008) plus the SAS Cares corporate social investment wing.

Services

  • Newbuilding of commercial and naval vessels; yacht hull and superstructure construction
  • Ship repair: blasting and coating, ultra-high pressure water blasting, hull treatment, tank cleaning and slops disposal
  • Naval maintenance: W5/W6 engine overhauls, propulsion and CPP system overhaul, shaft, propeller and stern gland work, mid-life refurbishment
  • Steel, aluminium and stainless fabrication; plate rolling, bending and CNC plasma cutting
  • Pipe fabrication and replacement in carbon and stainless steel, copper, Yorcalbro and CuNiFe by coded welders to major classification society procedures
  • Electrical services: motor and alternator rewinding, rotor balancing, instrumentation repair and calibration, fault finding
  • Offshore fabrication for the oil and gas sector

Facilities

  • Undercover fabrication workshops of 320 m x 46 m (13,440 m²) with 9 overhead cranes, including 2 x 30 t gantry cranes for 60 t tandem lifts
  • Pipe, mechanical and interior outfit shops; undercover paint shop; customs bonded stores
  • 200 m repair quay, average 7.5 m draft, with shore power, fresh water and compressed air
  • SAS floating dock: 5,000 t lifting capacity, 50 m x 30 m, 2 x 12 t travelling cranes
  • Additional floating dock of 4,500 t capacity, 100 m overall, for vessels up to 60 m; purpose-built 2,700 mm dock blocks for azimuth unit withdrawal
  • Use of National Ports Authority graving docks in Durban (Prince Edward, 352.04 m), Cape Town (Sturrock and Robinson) and East London (200 m)

Vessel Types

  • Voith Schneider harbour tugs up to 70 t bollard pull
  • Mega luxury yachts from 23 m to 95 m
  • Naval vessels including strikecraft, minehunters and a replenishment ship
  • Repairs to offshore tugs, converted hospital ships and research yachts

Location

  • 10 Rotterdam Road, Congella Bayhead, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal 4000, South Africa, near the Salisbury Island naval base