Latest news with #defenceindustry
Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Ontario Shipyards partners with province and Italy's largest builder to ready bid for navy corvettes
The Ontario government is boosting efforts to turn the province into an unlikely shipbuilding centre in the hope that its underutilized shipyards can land a multibillion-dollar contract for new Canadian navy corvettes. On Monday, Premier Doug Ford and Vic Fedeli, the Minister of Economic Development, met with senior executives of Algoma Steel ASTL-T of Sault Ste. Marie., Ont., Canada's second-biggest steelmaker. 'We let them know that if they try to pivot into supplying the defence industry and other areas, we would be there to help them,' Mr. Fedeli told The Globe and Mail. Algoma, the country's only publicly listed steel producer, could make steel plate for ships and other heavy military equipment if Ontario Shipyards of Hamilton, the largest ship repair and construction company on the Great Lakes, were to win the corvette contract. Algoma is already listed as a potential supplier to Team Vigilance, the Canadian and international consortium assembled two years ago to bid for the next generation of Canadian naval ships, specifically corvettes. It includes Italy's Fincantieri FNCNF, the largest shipbuilder in Europe and the fourth-largest in the world. Opinion: The USMCA agreement may be circling the drain. Time to fill the trade sink elsewhere Ontario pivots to European defence market with car industry under threat Corvettes are relatively small offshore patrol vessels, or OPVs, that would replace the dozen Kingston Class ships that were built for the Royal Canadian Navy in the mid-1990s and are reaching the end of their careers. The navy announced in July that it will begin to pull eight of the ships out of service in the fall. Those ships are 55 metres long, carry a crew of about 50 and are used for coastal and fisheries patrol, training, minesweeping, search and rescue, law enforcement and drug interdiction. The new Vigilance ships, if built, would be somewhat larger, perhaps 100 metres long, to give them more range and capabilities, said Ted Kirkpatrick, Ontario Shipyards' director of business development and government relations. The federal government has yet to issue a tender for the new corvettes – the navy is reportedly still setting the parameters of the project – and neither Mr. Fedeli nor Mr. Kirkpatrick know the timeline or the expected budget, though the contract could be worth several billion dollars. 'We feel hopeful that this project will move forward fairly quickly,' Mr. Kirkpatrick said, noting that Prime Minister Mark Carney has made rearmament an industrial priority to meet Canada's domestic defence needs and NATO commitments. In an effort to kick-start an ambitious shipbuilding program in Ontario, which has not built a warship since the Second World War, the provincial government last month launched a financial program worth $215-million. The amount is designed to support shipbuilding capacity under the National Shipbuilding Strategy program. Mr. Fedeli said the incentives would be composed of loans and grants and tailored to each project. 'We want Ontario to get back into the shipbuilding business,' he said. Several other funds, including the new Ontario Together Trade Fund, could offer incentives to steel companies and other manufacturers to help them serve Canadian customers. Mr. Kirkpatrick said Ontario Shipyards 'hopes and expects to be a large beneficiary of the incentives programs.' Ontario Shipyards (formerly Heddle Shipyards) was founded in 1987 and has three sites – in Hamilton, Port Weller and Thunder Bay. The company has about 250 employees, and its main business today is repairing coast guard vessels, not building new ships. The company joined Team Vigilance to launch an unsolicited proposal to build a new corvette fleet. In addition to Fincantieri, the group includes Vard, which is Fincantieri's design arm; Thales THLEF, the French defence company that specializes in electronics; and SH Defence of Denmark, a maker of modular loading systems. Ontario Shipyards expects competition for the contract from the other industry players in Canada, primarily Irving Shipbuilding of Nova Scotia, which has a contract worth $8-billion to build the first three River-class destroyers for the navy; Davie Shipbuilding of Quebec, which is making icebreakers for the coast guard; and Seaspan Shipyards of British Columbia, which is building large non-combat ships for the navy and the coast guard. Mr. Kirkpatrick said the three rival shipbuilders have ample work at the moment, leaving only Ontario Shipyards with enough spare capacity to take on a big, new naval contract. 'We have the largest amount of underutilized capacity in Canada,' he said. 'If there is anyone who can put a boat in the water and paint it grey, it's us.' He said the presence of Fincantieri and subsidiary Vard are key advantages for Team Vigilance. Vard would design the vessels, and Fincantieri would handle shipyard layout, procurement and project management. Mr. Kirkpatrick said a team from Fincantieri visited Ontario Shipyards last year to assess the company's capabilities and determine what equipment and training it would need to launch a competitive bid for Canadian navy warships. Fincantieri, based in Trieste, in Italy's northeast, is controlled by the Italian government and is listed on the Milan exchange. The company has built some of world's largest ships for Cunard, Carnival, Princess and other cruise companies. It also builds combat ships, including aircraft carriers and submarines, for the Italian, U.S. and other governments. In Wisconsin, it makes the U.S. Navy's Constellation-class frigates, which are based on the Italian Navy's multipurpose frigates, known as FREMM.
Jordan Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Jordan Times
Military aid to Ukraine — Europe gives more, widening gap with US
PARIS — Europe again increased its military aid to Ukraine in May and June, unlike the United States, and is depending increasingly on its defence industry rather than existing weapons stockpiles, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Tuesday. Europe, the United Kingdom included, sent or earmarked a total of 80.5 billion euros in military aid between the start of the war in February 2022 and the end of June 2025 against 64.6 billion euros allocated by the United States. The Germany-based Institute's data shows that the overall European military aid had outstripped the United States in the spring for the first time since June 2022. "A significant proportion of the weapons provided no longer comes from stockpiles but is procured directly through the defence industry," the institute said. "This means that Europe now also leads the US in terms of total volume of military aid provided through industry since the start of the war." Taro Nishikawa, a project lead at the research body's Ukraine Support Tracker, said it was "a clear indication of the expanding role of defence manufacturing in military assistance." In May and June, Europe earmarked 10.5 billion euros of military aid to Ukraine: Germany put up a package of five billion euros, followed by Norway with 1.5 billion euros and Belgium with 1.2 billion euros. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark each earmarked between 500 and 600 million euros. At least 4.6 billion euros of the European military aid, or 44 percent of the overall amount in May and June, is set to be channelled through procurement contracts, mainly with Europe-based defence firms, notably based in Ukraine, the Kiel Institute said. Over the same period, Washington approved major exports of arms to Ukraine in May but not in the form of military aid under the Kiel Institute's definition because they have to be paid for by Ukraine itself. The United States was the main provider of aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump's return to the White House on January 20, 2025 when he broke with his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden's Ukraine support strategy. US Vice President JD Vance told the conservative news channel Fox News, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, that he believed Washington had now ended its financial support for Ukraine. "But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we are okay with that," he said. Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday to reach, according to the US president, a possible agreement on exchanging territory to bring an end to the war in Ukraine sparked by the Russian invasion more than three years ago.
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Proposed €2tn EU budget would increase funding for defence
A bigger European Union budget of nearly €2 trillion would see more money pumped into efforts to jump-start Europe's economic competitiveness, finance the defence industry and toughen border controls, while overhauling subsidies paid to farmers. The European Commission , the powerful executive that proposed the size and shape of the union's next long-term budget, said more funding was needed to meet major challenges facing Europe. In a significant revamp of how the EU's budget works, different funds for farmer subsidies, roads and other development projects in poorer parts of Europe, border control, fisheries and social policy, would be rolled into one large national pot for each country. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the proposed budget would 'ringfence' some €300 billion for subsidies paid to farmers. READ MORE The Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), which accounts for about a third of the EU's current €1.2 trillion budget, some €378 billion in total, is worth nearly €2 billion a year to Irish farmers. The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), the main farming lobby group, criticised efforts by the EU executive to 'downgrade' the Cap in the next budget. The commission's proposal is the start of what will be a tense two-year negotiation between the EU executive body, the European Parliament and national governments, to hammer out a final budget. The next seven-year budget will run from 2028 until the end of 2034. The commission wants to set up a 'competitiveness fund' worth more than €400 billion to double research funding available under the EU's Horizon scheme, set more funds aside for digital investments, and significantly increase funding for defence and security. The EU's popular Erasmus scheme, which allows for university student exchanges, would also see its funding increase substantially. [ Trump's 30% tariffs would effectively cut off EU-US trade, Sefcovic says Opens in new window ] The commission has floated the idea of a 'crisis' lever that would allow up to €400 billion in funding be raised to finance loans to EU states, to cope with unforeseen future emergencies, similar to the Covid-19 pandemic. The commission's vision for the budget, which is the starting gun on what will be a protracted fight over its final size, was the result of marathon talks between the teams of Dr von der Leyen and the other 26 commissioners that ran through the night into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The budget does not propose increasing the contributions EU states pay into the union's budget. However, the commission proposed several ways it might raise money, including a tobacco excise duty and a charge on consumers to dispose of non-recycled electrical waste. The commission suggested the EU could introduce a money-raising levy on large companies, which the Irish Government and others are likely to oppose. The commission wants companies with an annual turnover of €100 million to pay the EU at least €100,000 a year, with higher rates charged for bigger firms. [ Farmers protest in Dublin over EU plans to merge Cap budget into single fund Opens in new window ] A majority of MEPs in the European Parliament need to approve the budget, as do all 27 national governments. Traditionally frugal states, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, have already signalled opposition to the increased size of the budget. The two biggest groups in the parliament, the centre right European People's Party (EPP) and the centre left Socialists & Democrats (S&D), pushed back on planned reforms of farm payments and regional development funding. Speaking in Brussels, Dr von der Leyen said the next EU budget would be 'larger, smarter, sharper'. 'Agriculture will be strengthened. What we have safeguarded is the direct payments to farmers, that is one part that is clearly safeguarded and secured,' the centre-right German politician said. The head of the commission said merging different EU funds into national pots could make it easier to divert money to housing, which was an area that did not fit neatly into any of the existing funding schemes. [ Ireland backs €150bn defence plan as EU moves to rearm Opens in new window ] EU commissioner for agriculture Christophe Hansen said the amount of funding set aside for direct payments to farmers would not be cut. 'What the farmers get remains stable and that was our priority,' he said. About €450 billion would be set aside for 'cohesion' funding for regional development, about half of which would be earmarked for poorer regions. Some €100 billion of the proposed budget would be put towards support for Ukraine. The budget will contain a clause allowing it to be renegotiated in the event a new country joined the union during the seven-year period. EU funding in the next budget will come with stricter 'conditional' strings requiring countries to respect the rule of law.
CTV News
26-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Irving Halifax celebrates recent achievements
Atlantic Watch An increased federal budget on defence brings hope of more work to the Irving Halifax shipyards.
News.com.au
20-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Russian economy on verge of recession, minister warns
Russia's economy minister warned that the country was 'on the verge' of recession, issuing the downbeat message on the second day of a forum designed to bolster economic confidence. The Russian economy has been marked by volatility since it launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, with growth now slowing after a period of what officials called 'overheating'. Moscow reported strong economic expansion in 2023 and 2024, largely due to massive state defence spending on the conflict. But economists have cautioned that growth driven by the defence industry is unsustainable and does not reflect a real increase in productivity. 'Overall, I think we are on the verge of a recession,' Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told journalists at a panel on the second day of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum. He said this view was based on 'current business sentiment and indicators' that were pointing to a slowdown. 'Everything else depends on our decisions,' Reshetnikov said, calling for the central bank to show a 'little love for the economy'. Russia's central bank jacked interest rates to an eye-watering high of 21 per cent last October to combat inflation and kept them at that level until earlier this month, when it eased them to 20 per cent. Economists had warned for months that the high interest rate and a downturn in manufacturing were weighing on the economy. Russia's economic growth slowed to 1.4 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest quarterly figure in two years. Prices have also been rising across the Russian economy, driven up by the massive government spending on the Ukraine assault and widespread labour shortages. Annual inflation ebbed below 10 per cent in May but has been more than double the central bank's four per cent target for over a year.
