KEY POINTS:
The company responsible for building New Zealand's four inshore patrol vessels will close by the end of this year.
Manager Alistair Taylor this week confirmed Tenix Shipbuilding New Zealand Ltd would close its Whangarei site with the loss of 60 jobs.
Mr Taylor told the Northern Advocate newspaper the closure was no surprise.
"We have always known that this was a possibility at the end of the project," he said.
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 (IPVs) included provisions to do much of the work in Whangarei and the district has benefited to the tune of about $110 million.
Tenix in Whangarei has built all four IPVs.
A 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, Mr Taylor said.
The workforce had been gradually winding down, with about 16 already moving to jobs in Whangarei, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Tenix land and buildings are owned by Port Nikau Ltd, the company that owns the former Port Whangarei.
- NZPA
