Harland & Wolff Pact With Aluminium Specialist

The statement of intent provides for the transfer of technology, skills and shipyard capabilities for the construction in the UK of Austal-designed patrol boats and other vessels.

Both parties have identified opportunities in the UK market, including the anticipated Border Force vessel replacement programme, and have the intention of working jointly in a non-exclusive partnership to attract contracts.

Austal views collaboration with H&W, a current player in the maritime defence sector, as the first step towards winning new business in the UK. The Austal group comprises a network of yards in Australia, the USA and South East Asia, and its prolific output of patrol boats and naval vessels complements its prominent role in high-speed ferry technology and construction.

The owned fleet deployed by Border Force comprises four 42m ocean-going cutters built by Damen in the Netherlands and delivered between 2001 and 2004, plus a 50m former Finnish vessel dating from 2002 and purchased in 2013, plus six 18m coastal patrol vessels completed in the UK during 2006 for the offshore sector and acquired by Border Force in 2016.

All 11 vessels are due to be replaced, although the UK government has been dilatory in advancing plans beyond including the newbuild requirement in the prospective ‘pipeline of work’ identified under the much-vaunted National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh presented in March 2022.

In recent years, and with increasing pressure on the Force’s capacity, additional boats and crews have been chartered from companies linked to the offshore wind energy sector.

H&W chief executive officer John Wood said “As we embark on the next phase of the company’s growth and development, we will be partnering with Austal not only for the transfer of technology to build aluminium vessels but to also join hands with them when bidding for contracts.”

Austal has also recently forged a link with the Australian arm of Spanish shipbuilder Navantia through a joint proposal to the Royal Australian Navy for six newbuild corvettes, to be based on a Navantia design and constructed at Austal’s Henderson yard in Western Australia. Significantly, H&W also has a connection with Navantia, as Team Resolute partners (along with BMT) in the £1.6bn ($2bn) programme for the UK Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s next-generation replenishment ships.