The Scottish Government has confirmed that Chinese shipyards will not be excluded from bidding on two new Northern Isles freight ferries, despite calls from Labour MSP Paul Sweeney to apply restrictions under the UK Procurement Act 2023.
In a written answer issued on 5 November, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said there is “no policy or approach that excludes Chinese companies from bidding for work on Scottish Government led or funded projects.”
She added that Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the state-owned procurement body, “considers bids for vessel contracts in accordance with the requirements of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.”
According to Hyslop, CMAL is expected to carry out “appropriate due diligence, including financial and other checks on all of the companies they invite to tender.”
Her response follows Sweeney’s earlier question, lodged on 17 October, asking whether ministers would instruct CMAL to disregard bids from Chinese shipyards “in light of reported concerns regarding unfair, market-distorting state support for Chinese shipbuilding firms, and the lack of a trade agreement between the UK and China as defined by section 89 of the Procurement Act 2023.”
The £200 million contract to build two freight ferries for the Aberdeen–Kirkwall–Lerwick route has shortlisted four shipyards: Cemre and Tersan in Turkey, Guangzhou Shipyard International in China, and a UK–China partnership involving Stena and China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Weihai.
The vessels are intended to replace older freight ships and will carry both cargo and up to 200 passengers at peak times.
Concerns have been raised that Chinese yards could have an unfair advantage due to state subsidies. However, the Scottish Government has now made clear that it will not intervene to prevent them from bidding.
Because supporting the maritime power of what is essentially an authoritarian regime that mixes the best characteristics of communist and fascist and is working its way towards maritime dominance is such a good idea.. well done SNP give your head a wobble.
Are we talking about the Scottish or the Chinese…?
Would rather buy from China (or Turkey) than English yards. Tells you everything you need to know about the mentality of that bunch.
Insane.
Treasonous.
No UK shipyard put a bid in to build the two Scottish freight ferries.
The foreign Shipyards that put bids in to build the two freight ferries have been shortlisted to shipyards from Turkey and China.
Challenger No English Shipyards put bids in to build the two Scottish freight ferries.
The Scottish government cannot give the contract to an imaginary English shipyard that put a bid in that is only in your head.
We don’t block bids for other matters, and this is in essence a private procurement for which rules apply. Changing those rules is a matter for Westminster, and the internal market act.
Can you imagine the squeals from the SNP if Westminster overruled them?
Those same squeals that Westminster uses in response to something not invented there? Having new ideas and new approaches is the whole point of intelligent politics. What procurement law allows the concept? You politicise for no point. Have you ever heard of the principal of value for public money, frequently used by UK Ministers?
Nic the SNP government can choose how it procures its a fully integrated state run service and they have alway had the option completely controlled their procurement..
And procurement laws are devolved so It has the power to make regulations and issue statutory guidance, and has done so through the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.
So you you want the Scottish Government to bend to your wishes? Why is value for public money allowed to be used for Westminster projects, but somehow it should be ignored when it is the Scottish Government. Yes, if a bid from a local supplier is competitive then it will win. The bids are not being evaluated yet. Concerns such as these are taken into account during that phase. Far better to circulate our money around our economy.
What I’m saying it’s a stupid move, feeding china’s maritime industrial complex is stupid and all western nations will pay the cost.. if Westminster ordered Chinese ships I would call them stupid. And as it is the UK is a single tax base and the Scottish government is spending UK taxpayer money on a ship they may procure from china.. that pisses me off and I’m allowed to be pissed off if they do.
As for value for money, it’s that obsession with a very specific neoliberal paradigm of all that matters is cost that has got the west in the trouble it’s now in.. if it was a bit less bottom line money and more what is the correct geopolitical and geostrategic decision for our nation we may not be staring down the barrel of a set of wars with totalitarian states.
Couldn’t agree more! But the comments are rather premature. An explicit refusal to consider a bid from them could cause diplomatic and trading problems in other areas. Much better to let them bid and lose out during evaluation. Their bid details can provide information across othe disciplines.
Is there something wrong with the SNP they do realise China is our practically our enemy and wishes to annex vast areas of international waters and that keeping Chinese shipyards in action helps them
Quick fellas, bin all the Chinese Tat you’ve got lying around !
I have no issue with buying plastic tat from them, they have to make a living.. it’s just supporting those industries that will make them the dominant world power and number 1 on the list is shipbuilding.. it’s like step one in idiots guide to global domination.
By the very nature of our bargain hunting purchasing habits, China has been given the money to dominate world trade and the ability to build up their military.
Didn’t Norway just discover that its new Chinese made buses can be remotely stopped?.
Can they or is this just a rumour?
There are articles on it. The guardian reported “the manufacturer has direct digital access to each individual bus for software updates and diagnostics.” The Chinese buses tested had a Romanian SIM card, whereas Dutch-made buses didn’t. If you are taking the steps to build an internal firewall to isolate the buses, you obviously have some sort of suspicion. Or just buy from China, or pull the SIM card out.
The ferry manufacturer?
Any software can be hacked. This suspicion underlay the concern about mobile base stations! It needs assessing appropriately as part of the procurement.
I was talking about the Chinese made buses. This isn’t a hack, the manufacturer has direct access to the bus, according to Norway’s testing. Also, there’s no need for a product to have direct access to the internet, so it can brick your property on purpose.
I don’t trust that CCP companies can have access to something important like a ferry.
All software can be hacked or disrupted. No one is saying that they can be trusted. However, what has happened is an open bid. It is during the evaluation of the offers that a decision has been made. No decisions have yet been made which sems to have missed the attention of many. An ITT is open. That is all. Some people are jumping to conclusions. We have issued the ITT which means many potential suplpliers are interested.
Just do what the French do. Let everyone bid place them on a short list. And then just award it to a French company. Or Scottish in this case.
France just has a French focused procurement process.. it factors in all the social, tax and industrial benefits in it’s procurement process.. essentially if the French produce costs 2 billion.. but 1 billion goes back into the coffers via tax, industrial and social benefits.. then the external bid will only win if it’s less than 1 billion.
Hi Jonathan I totally agree with that attitude. I just wish we would do it.
Honestly 🙄 next the Chinese Embassy in London .
Funny to read all the brainwashed comments having no issues to gift thrilions of their taxes to C✡️NCER controlled companies, but once there is good deal coming from China or Russia they’ll punish the “baddies” by paying twice the price elsewhere
This is against net zero, its as bad as all those idiots jetting to South America for jolly pretending to reduce emissions. China and India still building coal power stations. They are transferring carbon abroad and ignoring human rights abuse and spying. The location of Chinese London embassy is a threat to fibre optic data cables, the splicing machines are waiting to be shipped.