Posted to the Mindanao Examiner (Jul 25, 2019): Cebu shipbuilder gets navy contract for 6 patrol boats
CEBU – The Department of Defense is eyeing the ship-building town of Balamban in Cebu province for its offshore patrol vessels and has tapped Austal Philippines for the P30-billion project.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said an initial contract between the Department of National Defense and the Austal Philippines was approved for the construction of 6 naval vessels.
“It is very big. The prospect is good. Now we know that there is a company here like Austal to actually build our ships. We have been waiting for this time that somebody else could build our ships according to our specifications and I think they are qualified to do that,” Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana and Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez toured the Austal assembly yard situated at the West Cebu Industrial Park in the village of Arpili in Balamban which is also contracted by the US Navy to build vessels. “They also made ships for the US Navy and we must as well use or utilize them instead of outsourcing our shipbuilding aboard,” he said, adding that “if we can do the paper works fast we could be signing the contract by even this year.”
The latest naval vessel outsourced abroad is the BRP Jose Rizal, a multi-role, semi-stealth frigate build by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea.
Lorenzana said procuring the patrol boats from Austal shall undergo government-to-government procurement process which is much preferred than any other modes of procurement under the Government Procurement Reform Act.
“There are several modes of procurement as stipulated in our procurement law. And one of them is government to government. When we need specific equipment…then we go to government to government. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it is guaranteed by the other government, there is sovereign guarantee of the things that we will buy,” Lorenzana explained.
He said tapping Cebu’s shipbuilding industry for the navy’s modernization program “will force us to put up an integrated steel mill or even aluminium mill” in Cebu in order to meet the demand of Austal for stainless and aluminium steel for its ships.
“The vessels offered by Austal are a larger variant of the Cape-class patrol vessels used by the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Border Force,” Austal said in a statement.
Austal’s Chief Executive Officer, David Singleton, said the contract will benefit hundreds of job opportunity for the locals.
“So far, we have thousands of people working in this shipyard. If there are government contracts here of course that would expand the number of workers here quite significantly and may even require us to build additional facilities,” Singleton said.
The newly expanded state-of-the-art facilities have multiplied the Austal’s assembly capacity, which make it capable to immediately build patrol boats for the Philippine Navy.
According to its company profile, Austal has designed and constructed over 300 vessels for over 100 operators in 54 countries, a reputation it carries for 30 years now. Aside from its shipyard here, Austal also has modern shipbuilding assembly yards in Australia, US, and Vietnam. (John Rey Saavedra)
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