Fast, light ships assure Australia's world market position

摘要

David Tinsley reports on Australia's continued pre-eminence in the design and construction of fast, aluminium lightweight ferries and other craft, which has become a mark of the business verve and technological standing of the shipbuilding companies and increasingly diverse maritime industrial cluster. While fast ferry market leaders Incat and Austal Ships are pivotal to a new era of all-aluminium vessels over 100m in length, Austal is also a microcosm of the Australian industry's production diversity. The group's versatility is expressed not only in the range of vessels and craft in hand, but also in the customer base and in its considerable, current involvement in defence projects, in parallel to work for the international commercial marine market.