Poor quality aluminium imported from China is being blamed for the delayed delivery of the Royal Australian Navy's new $350 million evolved Cape Class patrol boats. In May last year West Australian shipbuilder Austal was awarded a contract to build six of the 58-metre vessels to replace the Navy's ageing Armidale Class patrol boat fleet.
The ABC can now reveal the launch date for the new fleet has been delayed after a "quality issue" was detected in a batch of aluminium sourced from China.
A company spokesperson said "the aluminium had been independently certified by a globally accredited certification company prior to arriving at Austal".
"A random spot check subsequently conducted by Austal indicated that it did not meet Austal's quality requirements," the Austal spokesperson added...MORE
