Fincantieri announces multiple Australian initiatives
Fincantieri will list its Australian business unit on the ASX (Australian stock exchange), the company said in its press release.
Fincantieri presently lists two businesses within the group on public stock exchanges, being Fincantieri on the Italian exchange and Vard on the Singaporean exchange.
Listing on the ASX will allow Australian investors to participate in Australia’s continuous naval shipbuilding industry, ensuring a share of the profits remain in Australia and decisions are taken in Australia for Australia’s interests. This announcement follows previous confirmation by Fincantieri that an Australian shipbuilding workforce will be used to build all the Future Frigates in Adelaide, Australia.
Fincantieri also announces the following activities to start-up local operations in anticipation of commencing the Future Frigate Project in 2018.
An office of Fincantieri Australia will open in Adelaide on the 10th of October 2017.
Fincantieri has placed Pilot orders with Australian industry and these successful companies now join Fincantieri’s global base of 80,000 subcontractors around the world.
The successful vendors to date are:
• Hoffmann Engineering to manufacture in Australia a bow thruster for a Landing Platform Dock for a Middle Eastern Navy. Hoffman Engineering will maximise the use of Australian industry in the manufacture of components and sourcing of raw materials for the thruster.
• Additionally, Fincantieri and Hoffman Engineering have entered a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly cooperate in the development of Fincantieri’s $250 million global market (over 5 years) for the manufacture of marine systems and components.
• BlueScope Steel to supply steel for use in cruise ships and future test blocks of cruise ships constructed in Australia.
• Calibre for the preliminary design of an advanced manufacturing facility in Adelaide for the integration of mechanical equipment to the Future Frigates, as well as ships built in Fincantieri’s 20 shipyards globally and other ships in Australia’s fleet.
Fincantieri, and selected sub-contractors, will construct cruise ship blocks in Australia from 2018 to commence training the Australian shipbuilding workforce in Fincantieri tools and methods. These training activities lead into the start of production of the Future Frigate from 2020.
The cruise ship blocks will be constructed by both Fincantieri’s own shipbuilding workforce and potential sub-contractors to the Future Frigate Project, who will be invited to submit quotes in coming months to construct selected blocks.
Of special note, Vard, a Fincantieri company, has secured an order for an expedition cruise vessel for Coral Sea Expeditions of Australia and a number of the blocks for this ship will be built here in Australia as part of Fincantieri’s mobilisation initiatives.
