Adelaide Ship Construction International launched a bid for building and maintaining 21 new Pacific patrol boats.
The Adelaide Advertiser reports that ASCI, partnering with Kellogg Brown & Root and Singapore Technologies Marine, put in the bid just before the tenders closed for $594 million in building and $1.38 billion in maintenance for the steel-hulled vessels. The bid was made last Wednesday.
“I intend to rebuild shipbuilding in Port Adelaide,” said Simon Kennedy, managing director of ASCI, which is co-located with sister company Smart Fabrication in Port Adelaide. He said 150 jobs would be directly created in constructing the vessels.
Defence industries minister Martin Hamilton-Smith who met with the bidders in Singapore recently, said in a statement, “We are delighted KBR and ST Marine intend to work with ASCI to build the patrol boats in Adelaide. Securing the project would be great news for South Australia.
“We have a long and proud history of constructing naval vessels in this State, starting with World War II Corvettes built in Whyalla.”
Last week BAE Systems announced it would not bid for work on the project, as the expected 2017 awarding of the contract and 2018 start of building would not be cost-effective.
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