Navantia UK has marked one year since completing its acquisition of Harland and Wolff, pointing to major investment in shipyard infrastructure, workforce growth and early delivery milestones on the Fleet Solid Support programme.
The company said the past twelve months had focused on stabilising operations and accelerating modernisation across its UK facilities, culminating in the first steel cut for the Fleet Solid Support ships at Appledore on 3 December. A second steel cut took place in Cádiz last week, underlining the programme’s parallel build approach.
According to Navantia UK, more than £115 million has been invested over the past year to support modernisation and capability upgrades. This has included the installation of new heavy lifting cranes, robotic plasma cutting systems and automated quality control processes intended to support higher throughput and more complex naval construction work.
Significant investment has also been directed toward the Belfast yard, where more than £90 million has been committed to recapitalisation. The programme includes a new panel line and upgraded fabrication halls, which the company says are intended to position the site among the most advanced shipyards in Europe. Workforce expansion has formed a central part of their strategy, the firm add. Navantia UK reports that more than 1,100 highly skilled roles are currently supported across the business, with plans to grow to around 2,000 by 2030. Apprentices currently account for roughly 20 percent of the workforce, with 222 apprentices in place across the group.
The company said the transformation programme is intended to support future naval and industrial opportunities beyond the Fleet Solid Support ships, with a particular emphasis on long term capability rather than programme specific investment. Looking ahead, Navantia UK said the next year would focus on delivering key project milestones, advancing major capital investments, expanding industrial capacity and executing its innovation plan while seeking additional future work.
Did they buy it or were they paid to take it away? Is the investment money theirs or taxpayers?
I thought we read on here the later.
Latter. Edit function back would be great.
Yes, or delete function.
Almost certainly incentivised to take it away.
The previous H&W bid seemed to be structured around regenerating that yard anyway – this time lead by yards that have build naval ships.
I take nothing away from the obvious energy of the previous management and how that fell down the gap of governmental indecision.