SHIPYARD TO CLOSE

The launching of Whangarei's "own" inshore patrol vessel in a few weeks' time will mark the death-knell of the company that built her, Tenix Shipbuilding New Zealand Ltd.
Company manager Alistair Taylor yesterday confirmed the company will close down by the end of the year with the loss of 60 full-time jobs at the Port Rd site.
Mr Taylor was in the same position as everyone else in the workforce - "I'll be looking around to see what work options are available".
Workers have already been leaving, but about 150 remain at the Tenix base. About 90 of these are sub-contractors who will return to their own sites.
Mr Taylor said the closure was no surprise.
"We've lived with this for quite a long time.
"We have always known that this was a possibility at the end of the project," he said.
The pending billion-dollar sale of parent company Tenix Defence in Australia - the buyer is believed to be British Aerospace - had been a factor in closure becoming a certainty, he said.
The workforce had been gradually winding down, with about 16 already moving to jobs in Whangarei, Australia and even the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Taylor said he "preferred to focus on the positive of the tremendous achievement completion of the contract represented for skilled Whangarei workers and sub-contractors".
Australian defence and technology systems group Tenix won the New Zealand Defence Project Protector contract to build seven naval vessels about four years ago.
The $500 million deal for a 8870-tonne multi-role vessel, two 1600-tonne offshore patrol vessels, and four 340-tonne inshore patrol vessels included provisions to do much of the work in Whangarei - which has brought a $110 million tidal wave of cash to the district.
Tenix in Whangarei has built all four IPVs.
It also built some modules for the two 80m offshore patrol vessels, which were barged to the Tenix base in Williamstown, Melbourne, for completion. The 130m multi-role ship Canterbury was built in the Netherlands, also under contract to Tenix.
IPV Rotoiti was launched last August, Hawea late last year and Pukaki last Sunday. That same day, Taupo - whose home port will be Whangarei - was moved out of the shed to the spot vacated by Pukaki.
The Tenix land and buildings are owned by Port Nikau Ltd, the company that owns the former Port Whangarei.
The seven new vessels in Project Protector will increase the navy's number of ships to 13 and offer a wide range of capabilities.
The Government decided to follow naval tradition in naming the ships after earlier vessels that served in the Royal NZ Navy. The four IPVs are all named after lakes - Taupo, Rotoiti, Pukaki, and Hawea, which were the names of New Zealand's Loch Class frigates that fought in the Korean War between 1951 and 1953.
The names were also used for the patrol craft that carried out resource protection in NZ waters in the 1970s and 1980s.
The two OPVs were named after the provinces with which they will be affiliated, Otago and Wellington.
Taupo is associated with Northland, the Rotoiti with Hawke's Bay, the Pukaki with Nelson/Marlborough, and the Hawea with Westland. The Otago will also be associated with Southland.