The Austal Limited (ASX: ASB) share price is falling today despite the company announcing delivery of a new littoral combat ship to the United States Navy. During morning trade, the Austal share price reached $3.00, but has since retreated. At the time of writing, its shares are trading lower at $2.90, down 0.3%.
Let's take a look at Austal's market update today.
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New ship delivery
Austal advised that it has delivered an independence-class littoral combat ship to the US Navy.
The warship is the 13th of its kind to be built at Austal's US shipyard. In a symbolic move, the vessel was named USS Mobile after the city of Mobile in Alabama where the shipyard is based.
The new combat ship is a high-speed, shallow-draft surface combatant with an aluminium trimaran hull that provides class leading, multi-mission capability. The ship is designed to defeat growing littoral threats and provide access and dominance along coastal waters. In addition, the vessel has operational flexibility to execute surface warfare, mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare missions.
Currently, Austal's US shipyard has four other littoral combat ships at various stages of construction. Under the program, USS Savannah and USS Canberra are being assembled. USS Santa Barbara and USS Augusta are under construction in the module manufacturing facility.
In addition, construction of USS Kingsville and USS Pierre has yet to start but both have been signed off by the US Navy. Another 14 expeditionary fast transport vessels are also under contract, with 12 vessels already delivered. The remaining two ships include one that is being built and the other scheduled for future construction.
What did management say?
Austal CEO David Singleton welcomed the achievement, saying:
What better way to end this challenging year than with the delivery of the future USS Mobile in its namesake city. This ship is a fantastic tribute to the spirit and determination of the people of Austal USA and the City of Mobile.
Our warmest congratulations to the US Navy on the delivery of their latest independence-class littoral combat ship; another great symbol of the success of the United States defence industrial base and a highly capable addition to the fleet.
About the Austal share price
The Austal share price is heading towards recovery from a rolling 6 months. After reaching highs of $3.68 in June, the company's shares are trading almost 22% lower today.
Austal has a market capitalisation of $1.04 billion and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 11.7.
