Transport

Australian Shipbuilder Wins $3.3bn US Coast Guard Contract

A renditon of Austal's OPC, a medium endurance vessel that can conduct missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, plus search and rescue operations. File photo: Austal.

Austal, an Australian shipbuilder, raised its income forecast after winning a $3.3 billion contract for US Coast Guard patrol boats.

The company’s shares soared more than 25% in Sydney trading on Friday.

The construction of the offshore patrol cutter (OPC) vessels will start next year, and they will be constructed at the company’s new $100 million steel shipbuilding facility in Mobile, Alabama, the company said in a statement.

The shipbuilder now expects its fiscal 2022 operating income to be higher than the previously forecast A$107 million ($74 million) as a result of the contract.

OPCs, a medium endurance vessel, can conduct missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, plus search and rescue operations.

“The OPCs will replace the service’s ageing medium endurance cutters, which are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and operate,” the US Coast Guard said in a statement.

“The OPCs will bridge the capabilities of the national security cutters, which patrol the open ocean, and the fast response cutters, which serve closer to shore.”

Austal has also won contracts to build two patrol boats for the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, and two more advanced vessels for the Royal Australian Navy.

Its Alabama facility is also building the US Navy’s new auxiliary floating dry dock.

Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

Indonesian Navy Officers Demand Payment to Release Oil Tanker

PLA Navy Poised to Acquire Third Aircraft Carrier – WSJ

US Group Says Taiwan’s Evergreen Helps China Navy Cut Costs

George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.