The delay in the delivery of the Royal Australian Navy's new $350 million fleets of Cape Class patrol boats has been blamed on the supply of inferior quality aluminium from China.
The West Australian shipbuilder Austal has secured a contract in May’20, to build six of the 58-metre vessels, which will replace the Australian Navy's ageing Armidale Class patrol boat fleet.
However, it is now disclosed that the launch date for the new fleet has been delayed after a "quality issue" was detected in a batch of aluminium imported from China.
An Austal’s spokesperson said: "The aluminium had been independently certified by a globally accredited certification company before arriving at Austal.”
Austal stated: “Most of the aluminium sourced by its Australian distributor came from China, but the mill and certifying laboratory concerned had now been removed from its list of accepted suppliers.”
"Austal operates a comprehensive supply chain and manufacturing tracing system, so when advised of the quality issue, the company was able to identify all the out-of-specification aluminium used and is replacing it on the impacted vessels."
Austal is running a joint venture in China with the Guangdong Jianglong Shipbuilding Company called Aulong Shipbuilding since 2016, which builds commercial passenger and non-military vessel opportunities.
The Australian shipbuilding company, which holds a 40% stake in Aulong Shipbuilding, has licensed a number of its "proven, commercial aluminium vessel designs" for marketing through mainland China.
In a report derived by Pat Conroy, Labor MP under Freedom of Information states that delays to the patrol boat project have however been formally acknowledged by Defence's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG).
CASG's latest Project and Sustainment Report from February 2021 clearly states: "The construction of boats 1 and 2 have been impacted by the supply to Austal of materially deficient aluminium which has required remediation work to these boats.”
Australian Defence said: "Overall patrol boat availability will not be negatively affected by the delays to the new fleet.”
"Some additional expenditure will be incurred due to additional maintenance required to some of the existing Armidale Class Patrol Boats, the department admitted.
Responses
