The Chairman of Australian Shipbuilder Incat Tasmania (Incat) says the company is poised to “revolutionise the world’s ferry market” following a trip to Europe and the Americas, where Robert Clifford reported very positive engagement with ferry businesses.
Clifford said: “Incat Tasmania led the way in the development of the world’s first car-carrying high speed, lightweight catamarans in the 1990’s and is set once again to revolutionise the fast ferry market. Already we build ships that have lower emissions than our steel competitors as aluminium is only a third the weight of steel, meaning vessels require less power and consume the lowest possible amount of fuel already reducing each ships carbon footprint. With the IMO requiring a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions for new builds from 2025 and a reduction of the world fleet’s overall emissions by 40% from 2030, new opportunities are arising on a scale never before experienced. On my recent overseas trip, I met with some of the world’s largest passenger and vehicle ferry companies, many of which are current customers, and the appetite for fully electric lightweight ferries was staggering.
Over the next decade there will be tens of thousands of vessels that will need to be replaced or refitted and Incat is ideally placed to deliver the world’s first high-speed lightweight ships that are fully electric, with zero emissions.”
Clifford said that Incat is already a world leader in building lighter and stronger ships and will continue this by building lighter, stronger, fully electric, zero emission ferries, and forecasts a significant increase in Incat’s shipbuilding capacity and workforce as a result.
He concluded: “We will need more employees and possibly even another yard once we reach capacity here at the current site. We are also going to need the right strategic advice and support to enable us to grow as quickly as we will need to. “
Such advice should be forthcoming as a result of Incat hiring former Tasmanian Premier and Climate Change Minister, Peter Gutwein, who will join the Incat team in 2023 as Strategic Advisor.
Clifford said: “As we position the company for significant growth Peter’s knowledge and experience will be valuable as we deal with the rapidly expanding low-emission (electric) global market. While we see some competitors continue to construct ships overseas in low-wage economies and with significant incentives offered by some locations, Incat remains committed to manufacturing in Australia. The engineers, designers and research & development teams at Incat and Revolution Design have been working towards the Electric Revolution for several years and anticipate exciting times ahead. We are delighted to have someone of Peter’s calibre providing strategic advice along the journey.”
