Harland & Wolff recently welcomed Anas Sarwar MSP, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party to its Methil site, as the company positions itself at the heart of Scottish and UK efforts to decarbonise and boost energy security.
Representatives from the company shared Harland & Wolff’s ambitious plans for the company’s Methil site, discussed future opportunities and how governments can help overcome barriers.
As part of his visit, Mr Sarwar was given a tour of the site and observed ongoing work. Harland & Wolff recently announced completion of the first barge built at Methil since 1856, for the recycling and waste management company, Cory, who will operate them on the River Thames.
Cory is one of the largest commercial operators on the Thames, and its use of the river to transport waste removes around 100,000 truck journeys from London’s roads each year.
The current projects underway at Harland & Wolff, such as the recently launched green tug boats and partnership to develop batteries for the marine sector, are bringing innovative green technologies to UK shipbuilding and engineering, which can support the UK’s ambitions to become a clean energy superpower.
The company briefed Mr Sarwar on the need to enforce local content requirements, which would see offshore energy developers being required to use Scottish and UK supply chains to deliver their projects. The UK Government is currently consulting on how to boost domestic supply chains through reforms to the Contracts for Difference scheme.
Mr Sarwar met some of Harland & Wolff’s expanding workforce, which currently stands at 925 employees. He was also introduced to apprentices and was able to see first-hand, how Harland & Wolff is creating secure and high-quality opportunities for young people and breaking down barriers to opportunity.
John Wood, Chief Executive Officer of Harland & Wolff said:
“We thoroughly enjoyed the chance to welcome Anas Sarwar to Harland & Wolff Methil today and to introduce him to some of the talented apprentices who will be crucial to building Scotland’s industrial and clean energy future. We believe we can play an important role in helping the country to decarbonise and ensure energy security. We are poised to support governments in unlocking the opportunities available through co-investment in green infrastructure and driving renewed local manufacturing.”
It’s a pity he did not get next door to Rosyth. I feel increasingly certain the T32 program won’t happen and ship building at Rosyth will cease. A real shame for a facility that can knock out Frigates at just £250 million a piece which would have been an unbelievable price just a few years ago.
the Type 32 will happen but it is likely to be an improved Type 31 design
I think that is relatively clear.
T32 with full whistles and bells cost too much.
T31 with Mk41 VLS and the odd bells (NSM) comes in the price range and is a major force addition.
TBH I expect a B2 T31 of three to keep the lines running while T32 is finalised.
Pure speculation but batches of three are quite normal and a class of eight has always been an RN ideal in terms of training, spares and pipeline.
I think you are right on the batch 2 T31 it would be sensible…it would be nice it see 4 batch 2s and one more 1 T26 out of that line to give a solid future escort fleet of 24….which everyone knows is the minimum required……then sharing the work on whatever the new air warfare ship is going to look like in the last 2030s and early 2040s….or give the AAW ship work to BAE and move to a T32 for Rosyth with a 1 ship every two year drumbeat to replace tand sell the T31s when they hit 18 years…
We are far better flogging ships at 15-18 years getting some money back, stimulating ship building for a continuous drum beat ( and getting money back from tax base) than getting the RN running nackered ships for 25 years plus..that need expensive Lifex refits a few years before scraping them.
I expect he, and many others, will be all over Rosyth when the first T31 is rolled out. And I wouldn’t be too pessimistic about the future prospects there, Babcock have two overseas contracts for the design, and I am willing to put money on there being more contracts in negotiation. And given the way of the world at present I wouldn’t bet against a second batch of T31’s.
I do hope so, I think having a frigate fleet composed of 8 type 26s, 8 type 31s and say 5 type 32s would be really decent. Then move onto the type 83 destroyer programme and get at least 12 of those. Job done.
You so funny !😆
He’s hoping 😏
I think that is a good wish list, but I am not holding my breath! What concerns me about the projected T32 is that it will become an “all things to all people” ship, which means that it will be required to host the MCM force, the RM raiding parties, do counter drugs and humanitarian work, as well as being a proper “grown up” frigate. You can see a political fudge coming.
Small point about getting a dozen T83. The 45’s replaced 14 42’s plus Bristol. I appreciate the current AAW system in the 45’s makes Seadart look old, which it was, but a ship can only be in one place at a time, however good its weapon system. We have gone from 15 units down to 6 for AAW, the excuse being they are so much more effective, if that logic continues to flow from Whitehall we will be lucky to get 3, more likely 2 !! Forgive me for being cynical.
T45s replaced the 12 T42s. The other 2 T42s were lost in the Falklands war and replaced with T22s. Bristol was converted to a training ship in 1987. The last time the RN had 15 destroyers was in 1986 right before HMS Glamorgan decommissioned, and hasn’t had more than 12 since 1987. Having a ridiculously large destroyer fleet makes little sense when the frigate fleet is so small.
What will make sense is having ships with ability to do all roles basically perhaps specialising in one role.
The type 83 may accomplish this seizing as the 80 numbers are for multi role ships.
Really cost is going to be a big factor.
Absolutely correct, the point I was trying to make, perhaps badly was that there were a significant number of destroyers replaced by a considerably lesser number. I hold no opinion as to the mix of destroyers, AAW, versus frigates, ASW/everything else but maintain we still have too few for the potential future tasking. In an ideal world we should have more, when I was in we had 70+ but that was some while ago! Back then we had only one enemy,,now we have several.
We can all play fantasy fleets, but I would love to see more ships in the Fleet, if we could achieve that the next problem is how to crew them.
Type 32 is a platform for autonomous vehicles… or that’s what it’s been described as, apart from that we know nothing. If it ever gets built we will see just what it is but ATM nothing is set in stone.
Be interested to know more about H&W ‘ambitious plans’ for Methil: their web site describes 3 substantail assembly halls, 2 of which are 134m in length.