The reality of having the proposed six OffShore Patrol Vessels being
built by Austal Philippines based in Balamban, Cebu is big.
Department of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Department of
Trade and Industry Sec. Ramon Lopez were toured by the shipbuilder’s executives
to its John Rothwell Assembly Bay, 120-meter
long, 43-meter wide, and 41-meter high assembly yard situated at the West Cebu
Industrial Park.
Lorenzana said the initial contract between
the Department of National Defense (DND) and the leading global shipbuilder,
Austal Philippines based in this western coastal town here would amount to
PHP30-billion for six Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) for the Philippine Navy.
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| Austal Philippines opening of its new John Rothwell Assembly Bay, 120-meter long, 43-meter wide, and 41-meter high assembly yard situated at the West Cebu Industrial Park (photo credit to owner) |
“It’s 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 as quoted
by the Philippine News Agency.
“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.”
Austal has expressed its interest to build six OPV’s for the
Philippine Navy.
“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 CEO David Singleton, also said that if the contract pushes through from
the Philippine government it will translate to hundreds of job opportunities for
the skilled worker of Cebu.
“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
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Report from PNA
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