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New Charter-Service Fleet Division at Harland & Wolff to Support Group's Shipyards and Clients

23rd January 2024
A new service from shipbuilder, Harland & Wolff, is to focus on its UK and Europe-wide sea freight, towage and workboat charter to clients in addition the dedicated fleet will provide support in the internal movement of structures between the Group’s yards in Belfast, Scotland and England.
A new service from shipbuilder, Harland & Wolff, is to focus on its UK and Europe-wide sea freight, towage and workboat charter to clients in addition the dedicated fleet will provide support in the internal movement of structures between the Group’s yards in Belfast, Scotland and England. Credit: Harland&Wolffplc-facebook

Shipyard group, Harland & Wolff has formally commenced its marine services offering under Harland & Wolff (Marine Services) Ltd, this is part of its five-market, six-service business growth strategy.

(HWMS), HWMS will be focussed on growing and maturing its UK and Europe-wide sea freight, towage and workboat charter offering to its clients in addition to dealing with internal movement of structures and parts between the Group’s yards and client facilities.

Currently the HWMS fleet is made up of three vessels; H&W Terramare, H&W Valonia and a third that will be named shortly. The latest addition to the fleet is now at Harland & Wolff’s Appledore facility undergoing a refit and repainting and is scheduled to go into operation next month. Over time, HWMS will be acquiring more vessels to augment its growth ambitions and meet demand as it arises.

HWMS will be led by Julian Northway, who will assume the role of Managing Director of this new operation. Julian, an experienced Captain, along with his operations team, have gained a strong reputation right along the South West coast, the Isles of Scilly and in European waters. Julian and his team enjoy the confidence of several international companies for delivering high quality and reliable customer service, and this will continue to be the key differentiator for the business.

Commenting on the launch, Julian Northway said: “Joining the Harland & Wolff family represents a fantastic chance to scale up and ultimately, offer even better services to the Isles of Scilly, UK and further beyond. I can’t wait to get started and look forward to commissioning our third vessel next month.”

John Wood, Group Chief Executive Officer of Harland & Wolff, said: “I am delighted to have launched Harland & Wolff Marine Services. I am confident that under the leadership of Julian Northway, and with the support of our group resources, this new business will grow significantly and provide even greater options across the South-West region, the Isles of Scilly, with the aspiration to have a UK-wide and international presence in due course.”

Published in Shipyards
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

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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. 

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Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.