The Austal Philippines Shipyard is a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

Balamban Balamban, officially the Municipality of Balamban (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Cebu, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 95,136 people. Balamban is known for its shipbuilding industry. History Th ...

Cebu Cebu ( ; ), officially the Province of Cebu (; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. The coastal zone of Cebu is identified as a ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

ran by the Philippine subsidiary of Australian firm

Austal Austal Limited is an Australian-based global ship building company and defence prime contractor that specialises in the design, construction and support of defence and commercial vessels. Austal's product range includes naval vessels, High-spee ...

. It is one of the shipyards operating in the municipality.

History

Under FBMA (1997–2009)

The Austal Philippines Shipyard was formerly operated by FBM Aboitiz (FBMA) Marine Inc. The groundbreaking took place in mid-1996. The shipyard itself was established in 1997. It was the first facility in the Visayas where fast-craft

catamarans A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

were built. The first ever ship built was the ''Tricat'', a passenger ferry which served

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. FBMA is a joint venture established in that year by local firm Aboitiz and Co. and Hong Kong-based Parkview Group. The stakes was later sold to British firm

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

. Aboitiz and Co. acquired full ownership of FBMA in 2004. However, FBMA was affected by the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. The last vessel FBMA delivered was for an operator based in

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. The ship left the facility in September 2008. In 2009, the shipyard was closed due to decreased demand for ships. FBMA delivered 22 vessels for clients in other parts of Asia, Europe, the United States, and Oceania.

Under Austal (2011–present)

acquired the shipyard from FBMA in 2011. By 2019, Austal has been able to build and deliver 17 commercial ships.

References

{{reflist Shipyards of the Philippines Buildings and structures in Cebu 1997 establishments in the Philippines

History

Under FBMA (1997–2009)

Under Austal (2011–present)

See also

References