TASMANIAN premier Jeremy Rockliff has told Incat he would inject $5.25 million into the company’s expansion plans if he’s re-elected at next month’s state election.
Incat builds large zero emission ships and currently have the world’s biggest battery electric ferry under construction at its Hobart shipyard. The vessel is about 60% complete.
Incat’s expansion plan is a program of investment, workforce growth, increased production, and expansion of production facilities with the aim of doubling the company’s current capacity.
But financial commitment from the state government would be crucial to Incat’s future.
Incat CEO Stephen Casey told DCN the company’s plan was to increase its workforce from 450 to around 1000 over the next three years.
“We certainly need to expand and improve our training facilities so that we have greater capacity for more apprentices to come through our programs,” Mr Casey said.
“As we bring on more apprentices, we also need more staff around them like trainers, support officers and qualified tradespeople on the floor who can supervise their work.”
And a stronger, larger workforce, means better ship building.
“This funding helps us grow the workforce that will work on the battery electric vessels,” Mr Casey said.
“There’s new things for our people to learn and we’re learning them faster than many of our competitors around the world.
“We also plan on installing state of the art marine recharging facilities at the shipyard to enable the charging of Incat’s new builds and provide charging options for other vessels, including electric ferries, as the marine industry transitions to battery electric in the coming years.”
Despite the commitment from the Tasmanian Liberal Party, Labor is expected to also support the growth of Incat.
“We hosted the Labor party six weeks ago and had positive conversations,” Mr Casey said.
“I’m confident we’ll have support from Labor in some way.”
