The Shipyards operations are situated in Durban and are of regional and national strategic importance as a major employer in the Steel and Allied Industries, import substitution and strategic supplier to the South African and NEPAD Maritime industry of vessels and specialist marine structures for ports and harbours.

Brief points of note:

• The shipyard occupies 11 hectares of prime industrial ground at the Bayhead area of the Port of Durban and has plenty of area for future expansion.
• The yard has 180m of 8m depth and 50m of 5m depth of harbour water frontage, and facilities for the production of ships up the 150m in length.
• The main construction halls cover an area of 320m X 42m. The erection hall has a build clearance of 23m. 15 - Overhead gantry cranes, of which the largest has a tandem lift capacity of 2 X 30 Tons, cover the build area.
• Other supporting workshops such as the Mechanical, Fabrication, Stores and Paint areas cover an additional 120 X 18m area. The Build Halls are fronted by a flat build way of some 220m X 32 m which has been designed for the load-out of vessels up to 140 m in length onto a floating dock or dock ship. (This area will be replaced by the Slipway)
• A berthing pier length of 200M with possibility to berth larger vessels with an average draft of 7,5M
• The shipyard has been accorded a TÜV Rheinland ISO 9001/2000 Quality Accreditation for the construction of vessels up to 150 metres. As such SAS is a significant shipbuilder and ship repairer.
• The estimated replacement value of the shipbuilding facilities on site is in excess of R300 million.
• A significant proportion of materials and all labour are sourced locally.