Harland and Wolff has completed the installation of eleven cranes bought from a County Down supplier for £1.5 million, in preparation for building three Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Navantia UK stated.
The purchase forms part of a £98.5 million modernisation and recapitalisation of the Belfast yard under its new owner, intended to prepare it for advanced shipbuilding and naval projects.
The last of the eleven, a gantry crane with a twenty metre span known as a semi-Goliath, was commissioned at the end of August. It can lift twenty tonnes, which the company compares to two double-decker buses, and will move steel and other shipbuilding components around the site.
A semi-Goliath runs one leg along a ground rail, making it a halfway version of the two yellow Samson and Goliath cranes that dominate the Belfast skyline and are currently undergoing renovation.
Alongside it, the company has bought six electric overhead travelling cranes and four jib cranes for use in and around the fabrication hall, which has been enlarged with a 5,000 square metre extension. The specification included full radio control, anti-collision technology, digital weigh load indication and magnet enabled preparation within each control panel.
All eleven came from Walter Watson Ltd, a family-owned structural steel and industrial crane business based at Castlewellan in County Down and established in 1967.
Carlos Lopez Carregado, General Manager at Harland and Wolff, said: “Our local-first means that we award contracts to local businesses wherever possible. That means the economic benefits of shipbuilding for the Ministry of Defence flow straight into the community.
“This new crane will play a key role in shipyard operations. It will be a vital piece of equipment as we assemble ship blocks in readiness to build the Fleet Solid Support ship, and many future ships in Belfast. We’re pleased to be working with Walter Watson, a world class local supplier.”
David Barr, Managing Director of Walter Watson Ltd, said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded the contract to manufacture, instal and commission these 11 cranes for Navantia UK’s Harland and Wolff site. In particular, it’s a privilege to have been entrusted to supply and commission this twin hoist Semi Goliath Crane under the shadow of the iconic Samson and Goliath cranes, from which this model takes its name.
“All of these units were manufactured and tested at our County Down based facility in Castlewellan. We used our in-house transport capabilities to deliver them to Harland and Wolff’s site on Belfast Harbour, prior to erecting them with an 80-tonne mobile crane from our own plant fleet.”
According to the company, the purchase is the latest in a series of recent contracts with local suppliers, under an approach to procurement it describes as local-first, intended to ensure investment from the Fleet Solid Support programme delivers economic benefits across the region. The company says it is committed to using British suppliers wherever it is technically and commercially feasible.
The wider recapitalisation of the yard has involved installing a new panel line and plasma cutting equipment, along with digital design tools and improvements to buildings and infrastructure.
Work has begun at Belfast on the three Fleet Solid Support ships, which will carry ammunition, stores and provisions to warships at sea, and Navantia UK says it is ready to take on additional work funded under the £298 billion Defence Investment Plan published in June.
This sounds like unalloyed good news?
Capital investment, tooling up, supporting local suppliers and jobs…
Seems rather cheap.