Siemens opens maintenance repair facility in SA, urges government to build submarines locally

Siemens has opened a $5 million maintenance and repair facility at Tonsley in South Australia for oil and gas industry equipment and wind turbines. The site used to be home to the Chrysler and Mitsubishi plant, which Siemens Chief Executive Jeff Connolly said symbolises the economic change in South Australia from manufacturing to high tech.

"We thought it was actually a good opportunity for a collaboration centre and there were a lot of people running around at the time saying manufacturing was dead in South Australia — we don't see it that way," Connolly said.

"We think actually the manufacturing is certainly changing its face. We think these sorts of collaboration centres is where you build technologies, where you build know-how."

Connolly also said it would make sense for the next generation of submarines to be built in South Australia, and if the German bid for the project is successful Siemens will expand its Adelaide operations.

Siemens supplies submarine systems and technologies to ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The shipbuilder has already stated it would buy ASC and expand the Adelaide-based operations if it was the successful bidder.

"The German bid has certainly said that they want to build the submarines here in South Australia and a lot of what we're talking about is connecting the technologies in the German submarines to the supply chains that exist locally in Australia."

Connolly said if the German bid did go ahead, the potential number of jobs created in South Australia would be more than that forecast by the federal government.

SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said the Tonsley redevelopment showed South Australia was still a manufacturing state.

"We've got Flinders University, we got our TAFE, we've got emerging manufacturers, we've got an oil and gas hub and services centre of excellence and now Siemens, an internationally renowned engineering company based here in South Australia," he said.

"What that sends is a message to the world, that manufacturing in this state is not dead, manufacturing in this state will grow.

Koutsantonis said the state government did not mind which contract for the submarine project succeeded, as long as they were built in the state.

"We're glad that there's a competitive tender process; we want to see Germany, France competing to build our submarines here in South Australia," he said. "We want to see those submarines manufactured here. In effect we're backing local jobs."

He said the South Australian Government would hold Prime Minister Tony Abbott to his promise to build 12 submarines in the state.

Source: ABC News; Image source: Royal Australian Navy.