Trident Subsea Cable has targeted June as the crucial point for a decision on the future of a second submarine cable linking Perth with Asia.
Trident Subsea Cable has targeted June as the crucial point for a decision on the future of a second submarine cable linking Perth with Asia.
The company has told Business News it is confident it will secure funding for its $400 million proposal and enter a binding contract with its subsea construction partner by June 30.
Trident has partnered with TE SubCom – a subsidiary of $US12 billion US-based company TE Connectivity – for the subsea construction, while Fujitsu will manage the on-land construction.
Chief executive Mark de Kock said desktop studies had been completed and the project had entered the due diligence phase for debt funding through the Beijing Engineering and Construction Group, which has agreed to invest $320 million.
Once due diligence was completed and funding confirmed, the contract with TE SubCom would become binding and construction would begin.
At that point, he said, it wouldn’t make commercial sense for rival companies Australian Submarine Cable and SubPartners – which are both progressing similar projects – to continue with their plans.
“We’ve seen less activity from the other two competitors in the marketplace over the last few months,” Mr de Kock said.
“I don’t know whether they’re concerned with our rapid pace of development … but the consortium which achieves contract in force first – meaning manufacturing or construction started – would be the inflection point where, logically, you’d anticipate that whoever is not first would can their project.”
Trident has worked quickly to get to this point, having been the last player to enter the market, with its proposal to build a submarine communications cable from Perth to Singapore via Jakarta announced in August last year.
The Trident plan also includes building a terrestrial cable from Perth to Onslow, Karratha and Port Hedland, which Ausdrill subsidiary Diamond Communications would help construct.
It has obtained permits in Indonesia through a partnership with Matrix Systems and is due to seek permits for the Australian territory.
The other players in the race haven’t backed off, however, and are still talking up the bona fides of their proposals.
Nextgen Group subsidiary Australia Submarine Cable is also planning to reach final investment decision on its project in the coming months.
A company representative told Business News it was locking down firm customer commitments as part of its board approval and believed it was 12 months ahead of competing projects.
Meanwhile, Bevan Slattery’s SubPartners is the third company progressing a cable bid.
It’s in the process of obtaining approvals and permits in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia and is planning to have the cable ready for service by June 2015.
ASC also plans to have its cable completed by the middle of next year while Trident expects project completion in the fourth quarter of 2015.
