A North Saanich marine equipment supplier is looking to inch its way into the global submarine supply chain after South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean formalized teaming agreements with the company as Parliament works to procure 12 new subs for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).
On Thursday (March 26), a delegation of representatives from shipbuilder Hanwha and K.C. Ltd. – a Korean manufacturing firm that’s partnered with Hanwha – met with the team at EMCS Industries, a nearly 71-year-old Vancouver Island company that builds anti-fouling, anti-corrosion and marine growth protection systems for watercraft.
“I am so honoured. I just got back from the [ceremonial signing] and I am thrilled,” said Trevor Tasker, who bought EMCS in 2015. “I mean, there’s no other way of putting it because it really is a very big honour for us. I mean, they could have chosen anybody for this role, but we are really the only company in Canada that has been around this long with this level of expertise.”
Hanwha is one of two companies – Germany’s Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems is the second – vying to be the submarine supplier for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project – a procurement project with the goal of replacing the aging fleet of U.K.-built Victoria-class submarines that were built between the 1980s and ‘90s.
“It’s a $60-billion project for Canada, but the requirement by the Canadian government is that much of it needs to be as Canadian as possible. Which is where we come in,” said Tasker. “So, every piece of equipment that goes on the submarine needs to be able to be either manufactured or assembled or maintained or serviced by a Canadian company.”
EMCS was founded in 1955 in downtown Victoria, and was the inventor of the first marine growth prevention system for watercraft. Almost every ship, ferry, and large watercraft relies on internal seawater systems for a multitude of reasons, from engine cooling to potable water. Tasker says those systems can be clogged by barnacles, mussels and other ocean objects. Marine growth prevention systems prevent that buildup and prevent clogs that can be detrimental to a ship – or a submarine.
Tasker says that although a chunk of the work would be done in South Korea, Canadian shipyards and manufacturers would still be assembling the submarines, and if the deal goes through, he suspects he will likely need more hires as the project would increase EMCS’ workload, which is a net positive to the B.C. economy, he says.
Joining EMCS, OSI Maritime in Burnaby and Jastram Technologies in North Vancouver have also signed agreements with Hanwha as they work to win the procurement contract.
On March 25, the Republic of Korea Navy, joined by Canadian ambassador to South Korea Philippe Lafortune, announced a KSS-III submarine – the class of submarine the RCN would buy if Hanwha wins the contract – is making the 14,000-kilometre trek across the Pacific Ocean and will be stopping in Esquimalt in May before embarking on a joint navy training exercises with the RCN and other allied navies.
It will also allow the Canadian government and other local stakeholders, like EMCS, an opportunity to look at what could be the future of the Canadian Navy and the future of B.C. shipbuilding.
The RCN requires its first new submarine to be delivered by the mid-2030s.