India, France shipbuilders qualified to join DND bidding for frigates

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense has declared shipbuilders from India and France as qualified to bid for the purchase of two Navy frigates worth P18 billion.

Indian firm Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. and French company STX France SA are now eligible to submit offers for the project, which aims to boost the Navy’s territorial defense capabilities.

The two companies were initially disqualified due to supposed deficiencies in the documents they submitted.

However, they submitted motions for reconsideration to enable them to proceed to the next phase of the bidding.

“Their motions for reconsideration have been granted by SBAC-1 (Special Bids and Awards Committee 1). We will conduct technical discussions on their proposals,” said Commodore Ronald Mercado, head of the Navy technical working group handling the project.

The development has raised to six the number of bidders for the frigate project.

The other qualified bidders are Navantia Sepi (RTR Ventures) of Spain and South Korean firms STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Inc.

A source revealed to The STAR that the initial disqualification of Garden Reach and STX France was due to technicalities.

“The two bidders are big and renowned companies. They were disqualified previously because their documents reflected different accounting procedures,” the source said.

“But after some computations, it was evident that they are capable of undertaking the project. It was just about semantics or the wording of some rules.”