New floating dock inaugurated
At the floating dock naming - left–right: Hon Brendon Grylls MLA, leader of the Nationals WA and minister for regional development and lands, Hon Troy Buswell MLA, minister for commerce, WA, Mike Bailey, director, Australian Maritime Complex; Paul Booth (project manager, Australian Marine Complex)
Strategic Marine reports that it was involved in the recent naming ceremony for the new floating dock at the Australia Maritime Complex.
The Australian Maritime Complex along with Landcorp recently announced the name of the floating dry dock at an official naming ceremony.
The Floating Dock was given the traditional Nyoongar name Yagan by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Counsel in consultation with Nyoongar Elders. Yagan, the Nyoongar word for tortoise, metaphorically refers to the amphibious functions of the floating dock.
With fully automated ballast and manoeuvring systems the dock has the capacity to lift 12,000 tonne vessels, such as Collins class submarines, and other commercial vessels out of the water for service and maintenance work.
The 99m long by 53m wide structure is claimed to be "the most technologically advanced dock in the world" and is capable of providing the land transfer of docked vessels up to 3,500 tonnes.
Strategic Marine says that it supports the strong government investment in infrastructure and believes government initiatives such as boosting the AMC capacity, will lead the way for business confidence and the state's development.
The floating dock project is a key component of the government's Aus $174.3 million commitment to infrastructure upgrades at the AMC, and will be a valuable addition to Western Australia’s ship building precinct. It has been said that the floating dock is expected to inject well over Aus $2 billion into the State’s economy over the next 25 years.
According to Strategic, it is all too often in large projects, that Western Australian business is overlooked for short term gain through cheaper prices from overseas companies. To compete with this, the company says that it has developed its own offshore production facilities to be a true global competitor.
Mark Newbold, chairman of Strategic Marine spoke of the project with pride, “Winning the tender to build the floating dry dock was an honour for Strategic Marine as there are few marine tenders of this magnitude in the local marine industry. The fact that it was a LandCorp tender made it all the more unique.”
He continued to say that “The floating dry dock has provided Strategic Marine a platform to showcase our global manufacturing capacity, not only in shipbuilding but also in highly technical construction projects, also our ability to structure projects offshore without compromising local content”.
”I believe that we often overlook the importance that these projects have on local industry. By providing local enterprises with the opportunity to work on highly technical construction contracts such as, we ensure that we invest in our most important asset, our people.”
Strategic Marine has recently signed a contract to deliver a 43.8m landing craft for West Australian company, Bhagwan, and is currently constructing tug pen pontoons with Doric for Woodside.
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