It reads pretty straight forward to me, Austal USA has secured a US$450m contract with GD/Electric Boat to build modules for the Virginia and Columbia SSN submarine projects, assumedly utilising the new facilities being built at the Austal USA's Mobile shipyard, as per your link (both announcements say approx. 1000 new jobs); You would think it would have been worth an ASX announcement to coincide with the Alabamia announcement, but it may well have been disclosed in an earlier presso.
Assumedly the CAPEX for the shipyard expansion had already been factored into ASB's forward capital plans, so the US$450m contract is really financially securing the facility that appears to have been built on speculation of contracts forthcoming, no doubt with some hints from GD and USN that there will be plenty of work to justify the investment.
To me the big takeaway is that an Australian headquartered shipbuilder, Austal, is further enmeshing itself with the USN Submarine Industrial Base, which has all sorts of strategic ramifications for the AUKUS agreement. Given their growing expertise in submarine construction, it's entirely possible Austal will eventually become the prime Australian contractor for the AUKUS submarine project.
GLTAH & DYOR!
ASB Price at posting:
$2.38 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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