Singapore-listed, engineering and construction services firm Civmec has launched a new defence division and has said it could build Australia's next fleet of future submarines in Perth for the Sea 1000 program.
The company, which specialises as a fabricator, constructor and project manager in the resources and infrastructure sectors, has no experience in building submarines or indeed ships, but CEO Pat Tallon said there was a great deal of similarity in the work they are familair with, and that required to build the submarines.
Despite South Australia being tipped to secure a large amount of the federal government's proposed naval defence work, Civmec chief executive Pat Tallon says Western Australia is highly capable of carrying out the work and the debate is ongoing.
"We feel there's a lot of similarity between sub-sea work and what we would be expected to do in the submarine build," Tallon told reporters in Perth on Friday.
The company is looking at constructing $30 million worth of new infrastructure facilities at its heavy engineering facility at Henderson, south of Perth.
Interestingly, Civmec recently appointed former Royal Australian Navy submariner Commodore Mike Deeks as head of its new defence unit to establish a presence in the defence sector.
"We anticipate that we could build submarines here in Western Australia," Deeks said.
Referring to the Competitive Evaluation Process currently underway involving tenders from the Japan government, DCNS and TKMS, Deeks said "our intention would be an in-country build for whoever is successful".