Austal Opens New Shipbuilding Facility
Austal has officially opened its new state-of-the-art Modular Manufacturing Facility (MMF), equipping its US shipyard with the ability to build up to three 100m-plus vessels each year.Phase One of the new USD 88 million facility boasts 35,000 m2 of manufacturing space under one roof, including a 7,900m2 warehouse, as well as paved parking for more than 2,000 vehicles.
An official ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of Phase One was held at Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard today. The event was attended by more than 300 dignitaries, including Alabama Governor Bob Riley, US Navy Program Executive Officer RADM Bill Landay, US Representative Jo Bonner and City of Mobile Mayor Sam Jones.
Austal Managing Director Bob Browning said the new facility meant Austal was ideally positioned to accommodate the concurrent construction of major multi-vessel programs. “The on-time, on-budget completion of this facility elevates Austal USA to a new level of highly efficient aluminium ship construction,” Mr Browning said. Not only is this significant investment poised to have a positive effect on the surrounding economy, it also gives Austal unrivalled capacity to facilitate the construction of the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) programs.”
Subject to Austal being awarded the 10-ship FY10 LCS contract, the construction of Phase Two will see the size of the MMF double to 70,000 m2, eventually allowing for up to six 100m-plus vessels to be built each year. The facility will also accommodate an additional 1,200 workers.