Shipyard: Harland and Wolff Insolvency Request to Be Filed

6th August 2019

This aerial photo Afloat adds shows the expanse of the Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries site located on Queen's Island, Belfast Harbour Credit: Belfast Harbour -twitter

A formal legal process to place Harland and Wolff into administration will be completed later today.

As the BBC News reports an insolvency request is expected to be filed at the High Court in Belfast.

On Monday, the company announced that accountancy firm BDO had been appointed administrators to the Belfast shipyard.

Having employed more than 30,000 at its peak, the move could now put 120 jobs at risk and spell the end of the iconic firm, best known for building the Titanic.

Unions representing workers have called for the shipyard to be renationalised, arguing it would be cheaper for the government to keep the shipyard open.

However, the government has said the crisis is "ultimately a commercial issue".

For more on this story in addition to the history of the famous shipyard click here.

Published in Belfast Lough

Tagged under

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.