fter its success delivering two warships ordered by the Philippine government, state-owned builder PT PAL Indonesia says that it has received orders from several ASEAN countries and from Africa.
PT PAL president director Budiman Saleh said African countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Guyana Bissau and Gabon had made orders, while Malaysia was another ASEAN country that had made an order.
“We need support from the government. We will cooperate with the Defense Ministry,” said Budiman in Jakarta on Thursday.
In May, PT PAL sent the second warship Strategic Sealift Vessel (SSV) Davao Del Sur-602 to the Philippines, while the previous SSV ship — BRP Tarlac (601) — was sent in May, 2016.
“People see that the Philippines have used the SSV-123 meter long ships. The ships are a magnet for other countries,” Budiman added.
Budiman said the Philippines had made another order of two SSV and one SSV hospital ship and two 60-meter long missile-armed ships (KCR-60), while Malaysia had ordered a Landing Platform Dock (LPD) that can transport up to five helicopters.
Budiman added that Nigeria had ordered one SSV ship, Senegal had ordered one LPD ship, two KCR-35 meter ships and three KCR-60 meter ships, while Guyana Bissau and Gabon respectively ordered KCR-60 meter ships.
He, however, said that the workload of the company shipyard was still far from its capacity. “The workload in April was only 15 percent of shipyard capacity. Therefore, we need to push marketing to ensure the shipyard is optimally used,” he added. (bbn)
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