Tenix in survival battle

Speculation has again arisen about the long-term future of the Tenix Williamstown shipyard after the final Anzac frigate was delivered to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) last week.

Tenix is building two patrol boats for the Royal New Zealand Navy and is involved in a $2 billion joint bid with Spanish shipbuilder Navantia to construct two amphibious ships for the RAN. The joint bid with Navantia is increasingly seen as vital to the future of the company after it lost a $3 billion contract to Adelaide-based Australian Submarine Corporation last year to build three destroyers for the RAN.

Staff at Tenix has gone through a lot of redundancies in the past five years and, unless the yard wins new contracts soon, there will only be 18 months to two more years work. Tenix may even have to consider building components of ships for other shipyards if it could not secure whole-ship contracts in the future.