Austal JV secures $20m contract

Henderson-based Austal has been awarded a $20 million contract, through a joint venture with a Chinese shipbuilding company, for the design and build of four high-speed ferries.

The joint venture, Aulong Shipbuilding, is with Guandong Jianlong Shipbuilding, and was established in 2016 with Austal having a 40 per cent stake in the deal.

Under the agreement, Aulong will construct four 42-metre high-speed catamarans for Xidao Dazhou Tourism.

Austal chief executive officer David Singleton said the Aulong joint venture had rejuvenated Austal’s sales in mainland China - with six new high-speed ferries ordered in the past 18 months.

“This $20 million order is a great start to 2018, following our record sales in 2017 when we added eight commercial vessel orders wordwide, worth over $380 million,” he said.

“Our strategic objective in China is to establish our joint venture, Aulong, as a highly credible brand leader in the very large, mainland Chinese market.

“While the current vessels under construction and on order are relatively small by Austal standards, our work to date has been of the highest quality and we expect over the next few years that larger, more complex vessels will be required in this market.

“Our growing ship building presence in China will also allow Austal to progressively identify and manage quality Chinese suppliers that can enter our global supply chain and so create additional benefits to the company.”