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Displaying items by tag: Ship Repair

The commercial ship repair division of shipbuilder, Cammell Laird, Birkenhead has experienced significant growth towards the end of 2023, as business was up by 50% when compared from this time last year.

In the last two months alone, the facility on the Wirral Peninsula, welcomed more than 11 vessels for ship repair works – including new and returning customers.

Cammell Laird now operates as part of the wider APCL Group of shipbuilders and shiprepairers - (among them A&P Group) which has helped the movement of vessels across all four facilities.

In addition to the company’s recent shipbuilding contract with Mersey Ferries, Cammell Laird also undertook the Royal Iris of the Mersey's annual maintenance works which included overhaul on both rudders, pulling of both shafts, new seals and steelwork inserts on the hull. 

Other vessels include returning customer Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's Manannan (see latest related story) Boskalis' Deo Gloria, Svitzer Pembroke, Boskalis Freeway (see Waterford dredging story), Svitzer Surrey, the Calmac ferry, the Lord of the Isles and the Vos Patriot.

Mike Hill, Managing Director of Cammell Laird, said: “I am delighted to see our commercial division so busy which is up 50% from this time last year.

"Over the past few months we have seen significant growth and dock utilisation across as well as having multi-ship, multi-year framework agreements in place with several customers."

"It is a fantastic end to 2023 and we look forward to welcoming further vessels in 2024."

Published in Shipyards

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).