Frigate firm has trouble on budget

Press, 19 May 1989, Page 34

Frigate firm has trouble on budget

NZPA-AAP Newcastle One of the key firms involved in one Australian ship builder’s bid for the sAusts billion Anzac frigate project has said it was having trouble meeting the Royal Australian Navy’s budget requirements.

“We are having terrible trouble getting close to the Navy budget, but we

are confident we can provide the best value for money,” said Carrington Slipways’ managing director, Mr Don Laverick. “There is no doubt it (the opposition’s) is a cheaper ship.” Carrington Slipways is a key part of the Australian Warships Systems’ bid for the Anzac project, to build eight frigates for Australia and up to four for New Zealand.

Warships Systems — whose New Zealand partner is McConnell Dowell — wants to build the Dutch designed M-Class frigate at Tomago, near Newcastle, and at the old State Dockyard site in Newcastle itself. Its competitor, Austra-

lian Marine Engineering Consolidated (Amecon), has the West German Meko 200, to be built at Williamstown, Melbourne, in partnership with the New Zealand company Cable-Price Downer. The Royal Australian Navy’s tender for the con-

tract set a base price of sAust26o million for each frigate.

The “Australian Defence Intelligencer” magazine’s latest issue said that Warships Systems was $25 million a ship more expensive then Amecon — a claim not denied by Warships Systems. Mr Laverick told an Australian seminar that Warships Systems was hoping its more cost-ef-fective building methods and Dutch technology

would prove more attractive to the Navy. “The Meko is cheaper to build but clearly the MClass is a better warship and we back our ability to build on time and on cost,” said Carrington’s general manager, Mr Keith Lynch.