The Chief Executive of Ferguson Marine, David Tydeman, has said that Ministry of Defence work could potentially provide a “solid base” for the future of the troubled Port Glasgow ferry builders.
Mr Tydeman insisted the shipyard was now in much better shape and was ready to re-establish its reputation with new orders.
“We have the opportunity, starting with 802 over the next year, to show we are as good as we were 10 years ago,” he said.
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Speaking to the BBC, Tydeman said that the yard has recently secured some new work for BAE Systems, delivering Type 26 frigates. Adding that, Despite the difficulties with the current CalMac ships, the yard is also hopeful of future work for the state-run ferry operator, particularly for smaller vessels similar to ferries the yard has successfully delivered in the past. Tydeman added that seven planned CalMac vessels, along with Ministry of Defence work, could potentially provide a “solid base” of work for the next five to ten years.
“They are exactly in our sweet spot of what we could do well. We’ve just got to price them properly and deliver them on time – and win some hearts and minds to give us that contract.”
Not all doom and gloom – a history of bidding for naval work
Unfortunately, Ferguson Marine missed the boat a couple of years ago on the chance to carry out supply-chain work for the Type 31 Frigates being built on the east coast. Then Defence Secretary Michael Fallon visited the Ferguson Marine shipyard at Port Glasgow in 2017 where he remarked upon the opportunity for the Clyde yard to build the new frigates. Babcock, Thales, BMT, Harland & Wolff and Ferguson Marine had teamed up to form ‘Team 31’ a consortium to bid for the Type 31 Frigate.
Babcock CEO Archie Bethel said:
“Team 31 will allow Babcock and Thales to take forward the key lessons from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance and apply them in a new and highly capable team with Harland & Wolff, BMT and Ferguson Marine.”
While Babcock eventually won the bid, Ferguson Marine was no longer able to receive any work due to the issues at the yard. After Harland & Wolff and Ferguson Marine both collapsed into administration, Bethel told the Financial Times that both yards would still “get a chance to bid” but the company “would not risk the programme”subcontracting work out to them.
Ferries and Frigate parts
On a brighter note for the yard as it exists today, Ferguson Marine had recently said that that they intended to work with defence contractor BAE Systems “to re-engage with them as a supply-chain partner” for the eight, complex Type 26 Frigates being built upriver. Ferguson say that this third-party work will contribute millions to the costs of running the shipyard and help sustain workforce skills. Luckily for them, they got the work.
“The FMPG board also approved our acceptance of a letter of intent from BAe for FMPG to re-engage with them as a supply-chain partner for their T-26 programme. This type of 3rd party work will develop during the next 3-6 months, and we have assumed will contribute ~£6-7m to the costs of running the shipyard through to handover of 802 (thus reducing the costs charged to Glen Sannox and 801 in 2023/24 by this amount) and creating work for staff not required on the ferries as commissioning of Glen Sannox progresses through to handover.
Overall, the revised best estimates of costs to complete include assumptions on efficiency improvements, contributions from 3rd party work, allowances for inflationary pressures and other economic factors such as cost of living, energy costs, and, importantly, sensible estimates of contingencies that may be required.”
The third-party work on behalf of a military shipbuilder upriver in Govan requires quality, precision and exacting standards. It’s a very big deal when it comes to sustaining the future of the Port Glasgow yard and it, in my opinion, demonstrates the trust the shipbuilding industry has in the Port Glasgow shipyard.
A brighter, more transparent future
It’s no secret that the two vessels, Hull 802 and the Glen Sannox, will be more than £150m over budget and five years late.
The structural completion of Hull 802, which had been scheduled to begin in September 2022, will now happen in late November of this year. With final dry docking and trials finished by the first quarter of 2024, practical completion is now scheduled for the end of December 2023.
All of the above being said, activity at the yard appears to be increasing and if recent statements are anything to go by, I think the transparency the yard now appears to be committed to shows a far more professional situation than the yard’s workforce endured previously. Yes, there are setbacks – massive setbacks actually – but the largest shipbuilder in the country has given them a vote of confidence and that speaks volumes.
They’re lucky to get a second chance. If they screw up on 26 they won’t get a third. I think/hope they realise that. We need all the shipbuilding capacity we can get for the future so good luck to them.
Interesting with Ferguson working on T26 sections and Methil and Lewis working in FSSS sections. Shows the benefit of small yards when you can pair them with large facilities like H&W and Rosyth.
I wish Ferguson Marine’s work force all the best.
The uk will need some kind of fabrication, assembly yards. So the question is do people needing these services get things made in the uk or get them completely from some where abroad and ship it? Hopefully the uk businesses can compete in some areas to keep them busy. Fingers crossed for the people who work in these sectors.
I could see the UK using foreign fabrication yards for blocks to reduce price for exports.
It simply depends on the level of automation that anyone is prepared to invest in as well as how energy prices impact.
A lot of a plate line can be fully automated including cutting bending, prep and coating as well as QA.
Some of the welding does need to be done by hand.
The real reason for this that BAE are desperate for the T26 program not to slip and the main issues BAE has are welders and other skills.
Everything has a cost benefit. Depends how much these automated machines cost to purchase and run versus the old method. Also would depend how much work is coming.
Hopefully with a steady stream of orders coming it provides some certainty for the future.
BAE could maybe squeeze a few foreign ship orders while doing the Royal Navy vessels.
Labour is now so expensive and hard to find that that almost anything improves efficiency as well as quality is a go.
Downturns are great times to invest as you get really good deals from suppliers. And they value the custom more. Although they always forget you in the good times!
I’ve just bought a £35k machine for one of my businesses (£5k discount) at 1.5% finance over 60 months. Crazy, most of that machine will be free after 5 years of present inflation. They had a year end target to meet and a pile of stock to shift: so time to get negotiating.
I am utterly baffled as to why anyone would put any work near this yard given their track record beggars belief, they are a complete shambles . They are an embarassment the documentary showed very clearly how incompetent they are but yet this MOD work is trusted to them just Bonkers – just who controls the procurement & the purse strings . They can’t even deliver on existing ferries contracts & new contracts have gone overseas if they were any use that wouldn’t have happened .
Well clearly BAE trust them to deliver what they have ordered. The Ferries are a chain round Ferguson’s neck and the sooner they are finished the better.
They are a different company to what they were before state ownership.
Time will tell if they deliver on time and on budget. If they don’t that will probably be the end of the yard and I think the yard know that.
Just hope BAE is on top of the QA on this. I wouldn’t trust Fergies to build a rowboat until proven otherwise.
For a maritime nation that were shipbuilders to the world, it is embarrassing to see how far we have fallen down the pecking order.
Not just on price, but on quality, quantity, innovation and just getting things done.
I hope the yard, and rest of the UK yards, can pull it back, but it will need much hard work . It is however good to see BAE finally investing in some new infrastructure, hopefully that will aid quality and price.
I wish them well. There are other areas of military construction that could learn the lessons of transparency and governance.
Why on earth with their record two ferries over budget and delayed, plus the scandal with links to the SNP. Why is this government hell bent on spending money north of the border to pacify the SNP at the expense of shipyards in England and Northern Ireland. If Scotland gets their independence who says what blackmail tactics they’ll use with these unfinished ships.
This order is by BAE and has no input from the governments. Also it’s BAE and Babcock decision to build the ships ordered where’s their like. It’s not the governments decision which part of the uk the companies build ships in.
The government could have said they preferred not to have them built there purely because of the poor reputation of Fergusons they can’t supply two ferries and they expected to deliver a more technically advanced module.
It’s BAEs call to who they use and they will no doubt have to deal with the situation if it goes wrong. We all know what happens when the MOD get to involved in projects.
It’s a shame BAE virtually closed Vosper Thornycroft when they bought and it was a far better facility than either on the Clyde.
Trafalgar Shipyard is still operational at the old VT Portchester site, mostly involved in superyacht refits and repairs, although they also maintain the MOD Serco fleet. There are some other interesting facilites around such as Wight Shipyard at Cowes, which opened in 2010 and specialises in aluminium construction of high-speed ferries and high-end expedition and scientific vessels such as the Arksen family of explorer yachts. https://www.arksen.com/