AUSTAL EXPANDS: Cebu now shipbuilders’ hub

Cebu is now a shipbuilders’ hub employing thousands in what used to be the sleepy Balamban town helping make the  Philippines the fourth-largest shipbuilding country in the world.
Ship exports reached $638 million in 2011, the latest data available. The industry employs 45,000 Filipinos the bulk of which is accounted for by the giant shipyard in Subic.
Balamban hosts the Aboitiz Group’s West Cebu Industrial park . The locators in this park include shipbuilder Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc., which supplies bulk and car carriers; support facilities Air Liquide Pipeline and Utilities; Balamban EnerZone Corp. ; K & A Metal Industries; Linde Group; Mactan Rock Industries, Inc.; Metaphil International, Inc.; and service providers Globe Telecom, City Savings Bank and ThreeSixty Pharmacy.
Last year Australian shipbuilder Austal Pty Ltd started operations and now it is expanding its shipyard by another two hectares. Earlier the shipbuilder budgeted $15 million as initial investment plus another $5 million for expansion.
Austal is a global defense contractor that designs, constructs and maintains revolutionary naval platforms.
The company has other  facilities in Henderson, Western Australia and Mobile, Alabama.
Austal Philippines’ first product, a 27-meter trimaran windfarm transfer vessel, has been launched and will be delivered to Europe next month. Another two larger vessels are being built on the bay.
The Austal facility occupies 97,900 square meters of the WCIP, operated by Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc. (CIPDI).
Austal Philippines directly employs 345 workers.
The decision to establish the Austal Philippines shipyard was influenced largely by encouraging local partnerships, business-friendly rates, competent English-speaking workers, and favorable economic conditions.
CIPDI, a joint venture of homegrown real estate development company AboitizLand Inc. and the Kambara Group of Japan, counts 20 successful years of operating the industrial park, opening job opportunities to the local community with the entry of each new locator-company.
The developer is planning more operational improvements and community-oriented programs in 2013, boosted by its bagging of the recent Outstanding Community Projects Award at the 17th Philippine Economic Zone Association (PEZA) Anniversary and Investors’ Recognition Night at the World Trade Center in Pasay City last year.
CIPDI continues to study means of improving services and increasing prospective locators’ interest in the special economic zone.
Austal has delivered more than 220 vessels for customers around the world from its shipyards in Western Australia, the United States (Mobile, Alabama) and now the Philippines.
Austal’s product range includes passenger and vehicle-passenger ferries, patrol boats, theater support vessels, combat ships, multi-role vessels and luxury private yachts. The company is also a provider of worldwide vessel maintenance and management services.
Source: Malaya Business