BOAT BUILDER FLOATS $24M CONTRACT

ALUMINIUM Boats Australia has won a $24 million contract to build passenger ferries to transport Gladstone workers to and from the state’s LNG mines.

General manager Stuart Pascoe, says the contract could be the first of many in the public sector.

“The contract is worth $24 million to the company initially, but we anticipate there will be additional follow up contracts that haven’t been confirmed yet. It means long term, secure employment for our workforce which is currently 80, but will soon be 130, with some additional staff working on this new contract,” he says.

“The contract was two years in the making and I think what really clinched it for us was that we’re an eco-friendly company. The ferries don’t have any emissions from the vessel into the water whatsoever, the shape of the ferry makes it safe for marine life and its design is cutting edge. It’s state of the art technology that’s been developed in Queensland.”

Premier Anna Bligh says the Hemmant-based company will build three passenger ferries to transport gas workers between the port city and Curtis Island.

Bligh says the LNG industry in Queensland has the capacity to create 18,000 direct and indirect jobs while generating royalties to Queensland of more than $850 million each year within the next decade.

“The Queensland Curtis LNG and Gladstone LNG projects are worth $31 billion in capital expenditure and in total, $66 billion in LNG projects are on the table,” she says.

“By 2020, Australia will become the third largest supplier of LNG globally and Queensland produced LNG will be exported to China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Chile.”

Aluminium Boats Australia started operations in 1999.