Government of the Australian state of Tasmania has cancelled a plan to build two 55,000 gross ton ropaxes for TT-Line Company at the Rauma Marine Constructions shipyard in Finland and is now looking to build the vessels at home .
State premier Peter Gutwein was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) as saying: "On one hand we have a decision whereby we could see more than AUD850 million invested in a European country, supporting European jobs, providing what would without doubt be an excellent product."
"However on the other hand we had the opportunity to explore how much of that investment could occur within the state or within our country."
A taskforce, which will be headed up by Treasury with members from State Growth, TT-Line and the Federal Government, will spend the next three to six months looking into Australian options, the report said.
The ferries had originally been contracted with the Flensburger shipyard in Germany, but the builder’s financial problems led the Australian company to sign a letter of intent for their construction at RMC earlier this year.
RMC said in a statement that it would be happy to re-enter talks with TT-Line Company should the building of the vessels in Finland become an option in the future. The yard has two ropax ferries and four 3,900 tonne displacement naval vessels in its orderbook at the moment.
Australian yards have no previous experience of building passenger vessels of this size. However, the country has a major naval ship building programme in progress and although the vessels are mainly built to Spanish, French and British designs, most of the work is carried out in Australia.
