Shipbuilders find

growth in Perth

THE shipbuilding industry in West

ern Australia has grown signifi cantly over the last 25 years and is in a position to offer extremely well designed and built vessels to the world market.

There are seven substantial shipbuild ers located in the Henderson shipyards area near Perth. A wide range of ocean

going vessels is in production: passenger ferries, container and general cargo vessels, trawlers-deep sea fishing boats, tugs, patrol boats, offshore supply vessels, and other custom built steel and alu minium hulled ships.

Considerable expertise has been built up in ‘small ships’ construction, with container ships of 92 metres (3400 tonnes) being manufactured by Western Australia’s most experienced cargo vessel builder, Australian Shipbuilding Indus tries (A.S.I.).

Three of these small container ships are now operating out of the port of Fremantle in Western Australia. They service the 1700 Km north western coast line of Australia between Perth and Darwin. Regional and interstate services also operate to Jakarta, Singapore, Kuching, Surabaja, Port Moresby, Tas mania and Melbourne.

The ships are operated by the Western Australian Coastal Shipping Com

mission (Stateships).

An opportunity to apply long standing shipbuilding know-how to the pro duction of such vessels was given to Australia company Australian Ship building Industries when they success fully tendered for construction of the ships in 1988. □