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Cabinet reveals new plan for subs

The Cabinet yesterday approved a plan that would allow Taiwanese shipbuilders to construct at least part of eight submarines that the US promises to acquire for Taiwan.

"We have much confidence in the plan, which is not only feasible but also creates a win-win situation," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

"It not only caters to the interests of international arms sellers but also boosts the domestic shipbuilding industry," he said.

Lin made the remark after the second meeting of the Cabinet's cross-ministerial task force for the promotion of the domestic submarine industry.

Under the plan, state-run China Shipbuilding Corp (中船) will send technicians overseas to observe construction of the first two submarines to learn about the design, materials, production and logistics.

The company then hopes to be able to build one-third of the hardware for the third and fourth subs. For the fifth and sixth, the company plans to build two-thirds of the hardware and then build all of the last two, Lin said.

While lawmakers have questioned the ability of China Shipbuilding to build the submarines, Lin said that US and European weaponry experts who have conducted evaluation trips to China Shipbuilding thought the company was up to the job.

"Although the company lacks experience in building submarines, experts concluded that it's capable of doing the job if it gets more equipment and teams up with other related industries," Lin quoted the report as saying.

Countries capable of building subs include Germany, Spain, Australia, Croatia and Argentina.

According to F.C. Chang (張豐州), assistant vice president of China Shipbuilding, the equipment the company needs to buy includes roller machines, testing batteries and other testing devices.

Chang estimated that it might cost the company US$500 million per submarine to build the hardware. Estimates by the navy indicated that it would cost US$12 billion to buy eight conventional submarines from the US.

China Shipbuilding president Fan Kuang-nan (范光男) said that he expected the construction project to gradually revive the company's operations.

"The deal means a lot to us since our last big order was five years ago," Fan explained, referring to the order of eight frigates placed by the Ministry of National Defense.

The company started construction of the last frigate in 2001 and hopes to complete it by March next year.

After laying off 2,700 workers and cutting the salaries of those who remained, the debt-ridden state-run company started to make a profit last year. In the first seven months of this year it had made a profit of NT$263 million.

Even if China Shipbuilding can learn to make submarines, some doubt whether it can acquire the expertise to properly inspect the submarines.

Fan said that this would not pose a problem.

"It's true that we don't have any professional staff to examine and approve the seaworthiness of Taiwan-made submarines, but the problem can be easily solved because we and the navy can send people to take training courses overseas," Fan said.
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