Chris Mackenzie: Ferry Holdings chairman on the six shipbuilders being shortlisted to deliver new Cook Strait ferries

Six shipbuilders have been shortlisted for the job of delivering the much-anticipated new Cook Strait ferries.

This comes after the Government pulled the plug on iReX because of cost blowouts, which was set to deliver new port-side infrastructure and two rail-enabled hybrid ferries.

Ferry Holdings chairman Chris Mackenzie won't disclose the names of these companies.

"We're not making anything public...we will not announce who the six are, we will be announcing the successful shipyard further down the track." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got a little update on the ferries for you. Six
ship shipyards have been shortlisted and we'll be invited to
tender for the chance to build replacements. Chris mackenzie is
the chair of Ferry Holdings Limited. Now this is the
company that's doing the negotiations for us and he's with us. Hey, Chris,
last evening, can you name the six?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No is one of them? There are six shipyards and
the reason that I wouldn't name them is because the
other shipyards will try and do bidding, which you know
is not helpful to the process.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
What do you What do you mean by that? What
harm is it?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
That is, if someone for you used Hondo, if the
others know Hyndos there, they may very well have the attitude,
well why are we doing it? And so to be
fair to all of the shipyards that are shortlisted, we
are not naming any of.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Them because is that if Hyunda is one of the six,
then everybody will know that we're most likely to go
with Hiyundi so that we don't pay the break fee.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's no. What I said is if Hiyondai was one
of the six and we made that public and we're
not making anything public, then the other shipyards would start
to question whether they were in with a chance, and
so we will not announce who the six are. We
will be announcing the successful shipyard further down the track.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying. But wouldn't
it be helpful to have the name Hyundai out there,
because then the other five will know that Hyundi probably
has the edge because we don't want to pay the
break fee, and so then they will really make good
effort and come in low with their price.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
All right, I can tell you this with my hand
on the Bible. Hiondai will not be negotiating to break
free as part of the exercise Hyundai if they are
in the process a clean sheet like the other shipyards.
The break fee is being negotiated between q Rail and

(02:11):
the shipyard and has nothing to do with ferry holdings.
We will negotiate with the six shipyards, all of them
on the basis that they are all within with a chance,
and they will put together the package that they want
us to consider.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
But Chris, you do realize that you have just confirmed
that Hayundi is part of it. I mean by confirming
that a break fee is being dealt with separately. You've
just confirmed that they're wanted the sick, haven't you.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, it's not. What I'm saying is if Hyundai is
in the mix, the break fee will not enter into
our discussions because that is an issue between qu Rail
and Hyundai, and so that's completely outside the picture. The

(02:59):
shipyards are all entering into it with a clean sheet
of paper.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Hey, Chris, you're not doing the negotiations yourself, are you?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
No, I'm not doing negotiation myself.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Our board has gone through pages and pages of information
from the shipyards and we have now put together the
six and our ship's program director is now going to
visit those six shipyards.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Do you reckon? Right? So, if we're still at the
stage where we're just saying, hey, if you want to
be if you want to build us some ships, send
us in your quotes and stuff like that, we're at
that stage. We're halfway through twenty twenty five. Are we
really going to get boats by twenty twenty nine?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
The six shipyards that are shortlisted have all undertaken to
have the ships here by twenty twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, but my builders out the back told me that
I would have my deck built within three weeks and
it's been seven, So do we actually believe it?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
With shipyards, they are reasonably accurate with their building timetables.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
All right, Right, listen, Chris, thank you. I feel like
that was productive and I really enjoyed that very much.
That's Chris mackenzie, Faerry Holding's Limited chair. For more from
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