Australian shipbuilder inaugurates shipyard in Ba Ria-Vung Tau

Australia-based shipbuilder Strategic Marine Tuesday officially opened its 136,000 square meter shipyard at the Dong Xuyen Industrial Zone in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. In less than 18 months and with US$25 million, the company has turned a large tract of land into a fully functioning shipyard with the capability to build large vessels.
The shipyard currently has nearly 20,000 square meters of machinery and workshop space, comprising five large fabrication workshops, five specialist workshops, a 5,000 square meter store area and a 1,500 square meter painting workshop.
The newly inaugurated facility has won about A$95 million (US$91 million) in orders to date and employs more than 1,100 local workers.
The shipyard’s most recent order earlier this month was an A$2 million ($1.9 million) contract from major Norwegian shipbuilder STX Europe.
Strategic Marine said its latest facility in Vietnam aims to send a clear message to world shipping markets that the firm is quite confident it can ride out the current global economic downturn.
The company’s Chairman, Mark Newbold, said Strategic Marine has also pioneered and funded an apprenticeship program which would see 55 Vietnamese undertake a two-year course in a range of specialized shipbuilding skills.
This would boost the Vietnamese government’s plans to expand and modernize its shipbuilding industry, while helping the company to upgrade skill levels, he said.
Under its development plan for the shipbuilding industry from 2002-2010, the Vietnamese government targets exports of $5 billion by 2010 and the nation’s emergence as the world’s fourth largest shipbuilder over the next decade.
Around 13 shipyards have been upgraded or are awaiting upgrades, and construction of four new yards at different sites around the country is scheduled to start next year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.