On 30th October 2024, Jim Shannon, MP for Strangford and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, directed a question to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) regarding potential discussions to support Harland and Wolff in resuming ship manufacturing for the Royal Navy.
Harland and Wolff, an iconic name in British shipbuilding, is a subcontractor within Team Resolute, the consortium tasked with delivering Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships for the Navy.
Responding to the question, Maria Eagle, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, outlined the government’s stance:
“Harland & Wolff Plc, a major sub-contractor and a member of Team Resolute, the consortium delivering the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships for the Royal Navy, announced on 16 September 2024 that they would be winding down its non-core operations, but the four shipyards will continue to operate.”
Eagle acknowledged that Harland & Wolff had recently scaled back non-core operations due to financial pressures but assured that its core shipyard operations would persist. She underscored the government’s view on the matter, saying:
“Following a review of their financial situation, the Government is clear that the market is best placed to address the challenges the company is facing. We continue to work extensively with all parties to find an outcome for the company that continues to deliver shipbuilding and manufacturing in the UK.”
In her response, Eagle also confirmed that the MoD remains focused on ensuring the success of the FSS programme. The department has been working closely with Navantia UK, the primary contractor for the project, to monitor and support Harland and Wolff’s role in the contract:
“The successful delivery of the FSS programme remains a priority. There is extensive engagement with Navantia UK as the Prime Contractor to understand what steps the company is taking to ensure delivery of the FSS contract and management of its supply chain.”
Hmm. If words alone were enough to move mountains then this mountain should be moving surely…
It is all well and good to say we want to buy these ships off you, but if you have already said that you don’t think the company is stable enough to back financially then I think the market has every right to be sceptical.
Hopefully, one of the interested companies (preferably a UK company) will step in and back H&W and work can crack on with the FSS ships. Of course, crewing will need to be sorted out before these ships are completed or they’ll just end up tied up alongside somewhere…
Cheers CR
OT…Reading that Reaction Engines has gone into administration.
If they’re that advanced with their SABRE tech and involvement with our Hypersonic missile aspirations when why have they not been taken over by HMG like Sheffield Forgemasters?
If it’s major shareholders BAE and Rolls Royce weren’t willing to put more money into the company, does it make sense for the U.K. Government?
No.
No idea why this govt is so scared to invest in govt owned enterprises, the french etc have no problem doing it.
RE has high quality tech in intercoolers and related technologies, just turn it into a Royal Reseach Lab or something if all else fails!
MoD bought Forgemasters because they were sick of the govts inability to manage the steel industry, and now its thriving, one of the few places that can do reactor forging, they’re primed to do the new barrel forging, and all manner of state of the art facilities and research.
This is when China buys or steals the tech and takes the lead, as they are doing with everything the west dithers about, like Thorium nuclear reactors to name but one
It’s exactly like Thorium reactors, an internet scam that doesn’t work. If Reaction Engines tech worked people would be using it. If Thorium reactors were worth having they would have developed them in the 70’s.
Single stage to orbit has always been known to be very much sub-optimal, the realm of Thunderbirds. That’s why nobody does it. You have all of the mass, all of the time, with engines compromised across the flight profile. You can’t cheat physics.
SSTO is dead, I agree with you there.
But RE had just realised that the heat exchanger tech they developed for SABRE had a load of other applications for conventional hypersonic missiles and cooling. They’d partnered with one of the F1 teams and had a study going on cooling for naval ships, so I don’t think the company as a whole is as worthless as you imply.
SFM was bought for another major reason and now due to the decline in steel production it has to be able to produce certain steels in house.
The overarching reason for being Nationalised was its unique capabilities to build very high quality large precision castings many of which are used in Nuclear Submarines. It’s already in the public domain that now includes components for the USN (just go digging in SFM website for a hint).
The slump in orders in the early part of this century pretty well left them as one of the last companies in the west (other one in Europe is Le Cruesot in France).
The problem was that to continue to survive and be able to meet increased demand it needed a level of investment that was far in excess of its “paper” value. But as it was deemed to be of Strategic importance it had to happen, so BW and MOD stepped in and there is now over £400million of investment going into it.
Stupid thing is that this should never have happened because the Brown Labour Government had agreed an £80 million investment loan, but Mr’s Cameloon and Oddborne cancelled it in 2010.
Funny thing is when BW left as Defence Secretary and made his last speech as such, he said how ironic it was that he was a Tory but one of his proudest achievements was Nationalising SFM
FYI it was Nationalised in 2021 for just £2.6 million and at that point being able to make gun barrels again wasn’t even thought of (Mr Putin changed that).
IMHO H&W at Belfast should also go down this route, civil servants and politicians are clueless at running industry, but the GOCO system of Government Owned, Contractor Operated works very well.
Yes, precisely my point, sometimes its not just about the on-paper profits but securing the technology base and future potential. RE actually has legitimate world leading intercooler/precooler/heat exchanger technology, even if you set aside SABRE, they have proven demonstration of hypersonic level engine mods on roll-royce engines, and in a world where we are pushing hard for get hypersonic off the ground are basically our only game in town. RR are simply not what they used to be w.r.t innovation.
I agree H&W should go down the same path.
They been peddling this for years, if there was anything in the tech it would not have gone under. It’s not for lack of investment from HMG RR BAE and others.
Obviously the Tory government who gave the contract to team resolute didn’t check deep enough into H&W financial situation,so there to blame as well has H&W CEO at the time.
A bit of an update on the takeover:
https://news.sky.com/story/spanish-shipbuilder-navantia-races-to-finalise-harland-and-wolff-takeover-13247380