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Austal sets new course by focusing on operations in US and Philippines

20180822 factory

The second Pacific patrol boat shapes up in Henderson, WA.

HAMISH McDONALD, Contributing writer

CEBU, Philippines -- It starts with a giant cutout. A computer-guided router moves over a large sheet of aluminum laid flat on a table, cutting out as many shapes as possible without wastage. Then Roland Cmusos and fellow workers pick up the pieces with a gantry-mounted crane and shift them to a pallet to be wheeled away.

"It's a bit like a giant Ikea flat-pack," says Wayne Murray, their boss.

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