Austal shares hit record high as global tensions rise on Trump’s Venezuela raid, foreign policy threats

Growing global tensions have helped send shares in naval shipbuilder Austal to a record high, doubling the value of South Korean suitor Hanwha’s holding in less than a year.

The WA-based defence stock has been on a tear the past week, fuelled by US President Donald Trump’s abduction of the Venezuelan president, the threat of a US intervention in Iran and renewed hardline US rhetoric over Greenland and Cuba.

Austal shares hit a new peak of $8.82 on Tuesday before closing 6.7 per cent higher at $8.73, increasing their gain over the past seven trading days to 32 per cent and revaluing the group at $3.7 billion.

In December, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers approved an application by Hanwha to double its stake in Austal to 19.9 per cent.

Hanwha, which lobbed an unsuccessful offer of $2.85 a share for the Australian company in 2024, bought into Austal at $4.45 a share last March.

Similarly, Austal’s share price surge has delivered for Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Tattarang, the shipbuilder’s second biggest shareholder with 19.6 per cent. Based on its average purchase price of little more than $2 since October 2021, Tattarang has made more than $500 million on the investment.

The share price run has been supported not just by the uncertain global environment and Hanwha’s interest, but a growing order book that now stands at $14 billion and rising global spending on defence.

Having started out making aluminium crayfishing boats in the late 1980s, Austal has been turning out ships for the US Navy and US Coastguard for nearly 20 years, while also delivering patrol boats for Australia and regional allies.

In Australia, it is set to share in more than $20 billion of contracts to build landing craft and Japanese-designed frigates for the Australian Defence Force.