Navantia UK has secured a second new-build vessel export contract for its Methil yard in Fife and is recruiting 60 additional skilled workers as activity at the site increases, according to the company.
The order follows an earlier export contract secured during 2026 and comes after the yard completed construction of Navantia UK Seahorse, a barge being used to support delivery of the Fleet Solid Support ship programme for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Navantia UK said the latest recruitment campaign will focus on experienced welders and platers, alongside riggers, scaffolders and painters, with the new personnel intended to support a growing programme of work at Methil.
The company has also announced a further £12 million of investment in the Fife facility, covering training infrastructure, new machinery, site improvements and technology. That takes total investment at Methil to £26.7 million since Navantia acquired the yard in January 2025.
Employment at the site has grown from 180 people at the point of acquisition to 275, while 75 apprentices are now undergoing training there. The additional 60 posts would further increase the permanent skilled workforce as new vessel work moves through the yard.
According to a news update from Navantia UK, Steve Chisholm, General Manager at Methil, said: “Winning another export contract shows the progress being made at Methil and the confidence customers are placing in the yard.
“With Seahorse completed, new work coming in and investment going into the site, we are now recruiting more skilled people to help build the yard’s future workload.”
The Methil facility has a long history of heavy engineering and offshore fabrication, with the latest recruitment drive intended to add experienced trades alongside the company’s apprentice intake.
Navantia UK included comments from several long-serving workers at the site. Allan Lister, a plater who began working at the yard in 1985, said: “I’ve worked all over Britain, and the guys you worked with here, nine times out of ten, were better than anybody else.”
Peter Ednie, who started as a burner in 1982, said: “I’ve cut steel over 300 millimetres thick.” Welder Willie Gibson, who also joined the yard in 1982, added: “We’ve got some really good apprentices.”
Katherine Thorn, Head of Talent and Culture at Navantia UK, said: “These are good skilled jobs, with the opportunity to work on significant programmes, develop long-term careers and contribute to the future of shipbuilding in Fife.
“We are looking for experienced welders and platers who want to join a growing team at a yard with a proud industrial heritage and a stronger pipeline of work.”
The company also pointed to potential future work connected with the floating docks programme for HM Naval Base Clyde. Navantia UK said Methil is well placed to support the programme following an announcement by the Chancellor earlier this month that the infrastructure would be built and delivered through UK shipyards.
The yard is already involved in work connected with the Fleet Solid Support programme through construction of the Seahorse barge, which is supporting delivery of the new replenishment ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Navantia UK acquired the Methil facility in January 2025 and has since been investing in its workforce and industrial capability as it seeks to build a broader order book spanning domestic and export work.
Rhea Wolfson, GMB Scotland secretary, said: “Under new ownership, this shipyard is going from strength to strength with new investment being reflected in orders and recruitment.
“The importance of these skilled jobs and quality apprenticeships to the communities of Fife and Scotland’s industrial capability cannot be overstated.”
The new export order is the second secured for Methil during 2026, while the recruitment campaign will add welders, platers and other specialist trades to a workforce that has already increased by more than 50 per cent since Navantia UK took control of the site.
If only navantia and not the SNP had taken over Ferguson.
Starmer did a pretty good job on this one. Long may it continue.
Didn’t methil once belong to bi-fab. ( Burntisland fabrications) ? Didn’t the snp take a minority stake in bi fab to save it from closure years ago? Might not have been around for Navantia to buy otherwise.
all the Scottish site Navantia UK has were Bought by Harland & Wolff group from bi-fab
Good job of copying and pasting Navantia’s press release.
PS No mention of what the order actually is.
Yes thanks Grinch
I read the article and thought???
So an export order? to whom? and the Methil built barge maybe for the transport of Spanish made fabrications to Belfast for the replenishment ship contract?
So when does that count as an an export contract?
Exports from industry and trade are what keeps our country going
A fact our leaders and people are forgetting and we will be the poorer for that
Navantia didn’t say, this is the second time they have not disclosed the customer for an order at Methil nor what is actually being built. It’s all very mysterious.
Apparently, those in the know suggest the corporate client behind the scenes here is almost certainly Navantia’s own parent in Spain or one of its specialised global subsidiaries … which explains the secrecy. In the maritime industry, when a parent company quietly funnels contracts to a newly acquired yard without naming an external buyer, it usually points to an internal arrangement.
The first likely option is Navantia Spain itself. As a large, state owned Spanish shipbuilder, their commercial wing handles multi billion pound global export programmes out of their main domestic yards. It is highly probable that Methil is being given subcontracted assembly modules or components for international naval or commercial contracts that Spain has already won globally. By farming the steel fabrication out to Scotland and paying for it from Madrid, the money flows internationally, technically qualifying it as a UK export contract.
The second option is ‘Navantia Seanergies’, their green energy wing. Before Navantia took over, the Methil site historically focused on offshore energy fabrication. Seanergies constructs huge offshore wind infrastructures, so these mystery vessels or specialised structures could easily be commissioned through this wing to support European wind farm grids.
The real strategic client Navantia is trying to please is the UK Ministry of Defence. Navatina bought these struggling yards in January 2025 specifically to secure the FSS ship programme. By using internal corporate funds to keep the Methil yard busy, modernised, and heavily staffed, Navantia ensures the yard looks robust and viable.
… It’s a clever way to keep the workforce primed so they are in the best possible position to win upcoming domestic sovereign contracts, like the Chancellor’s recently announced floating docks programme for Faslane.
The first export contract was won in a international competition against American and European shipyards so the first order couldn’t have been an internal contract between Navantia and Navantia UK
The second contract who know , they are very sparing with detail but if i had to guess it’s a follow on contract from the first
they are calling them vessel so more likely to be ship or a barge rather offshore wind infrastructures that’s more Arnish area now
@Mr Anderson,
I’m not suggesting the first contract was anything other than a winning contract. My comment refers only to the second contract and two possible reasons for it, I led with the stronger one, but I like options.