US company Pearlson appears to have secured ship lift project

Local businesses are worried they’ll miss out on work when the $515m ship lift project tender is awarded. Read why they’re concerned.

Artist impression of the new shiplift at East Arm. Picture: Supplied

A United States-headquartered company has emerged as frontrunner to secure the $400m tender to construct Darwin’s shiplift.

The NT News has seen a document that identified Pearlson Shiplift Corporation awarded preferred developer status on the $515m project, subject to final resolution and execution of contract conditions.

The document is signed-off by Shane Dahlhelm, executive director of Darwin Harbour Infrastructure Projects.

Darwin’s shiplift could be built by Americans.

Norwegian-based Syncrolift and US-based Bardex Corporation, both of which had local industry participation in their proposals, were advised last week they had been overlooked for the project.

News that Syncrolift’s and Bardex’ tenders were unsuccessful has ignited a debate around local procurement in the $515m ship lift construction.

In response to questions about the deal, Chief Minister Eva Lawler pointed out the first $16.9 million sub-contractor package was awarded last month to local Territory business, Wilga Indigenous Corporation, to supply about 430,000 tonnes of rock for the construction of the project.

“We are establishing Darwin as a thriving maritime services industry hub, both nationally and internationally,” Ms Lawler said.

“Procurement of the Ship Lift system supply is underway and will be announced at an appropriate time.

“Through our tender process local contractors are prioritised but, there are a range of specialised elements that are not available within Australia such as supply of the ship lift system which impacts the application of local content policies.

“For example, the ship lift system supply procurement activity identified only three possible compliant suppliers - all of which are all based abroad.”

The NT News revealed exclusively this month the NT government had slashed local procurement targets for the project.

NT companies are given a 20 per cent favourability weighting when tendering for NT government jobs, but this was changed unannounced for the ship lift project to five per cent without industry or community consultation.

A local businessman expressed fury at Pearlson’s failure to engage with the local community in the lead up to and during the tender process.

“I do not know one local business that has spoken to Pearlson,” he said. “My suspicion is it is 100 per cent overseas.”

Pearlson and the NT government have been contacted for clarification around local procurement opportunities.

The anticipated announcement of the tender selection will be a significant moment in the project’s drawn-out development.

Far and away the project’s largest contract, the $400m tender includes the ship lift system, steel trestles and self-propelling modular transporter contracts.

The ship lift will be constructed on approximately 26.1ha of land.

In December, federal Solomon MP Luke Gosling warned the NT government it had two years to build the ship lift to meet time frames set by the commonwealth’s Plan Galileo to grow and maintain Australia’s navy fleet.

If completed the ship lift will be capable of lifting vessels up to 5500 tonnes for servicing. It is being built with $215m from the NT government and a $300m loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.