Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: to privatise

In Scotland, ministers of the Government intend to return the troubled shipyard of Ferguson Marine to the private sector, a senior Scottish National Party minister has confirmed.

The SNP minister Neil Gray and Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, said it was hoped the shipyard (located downriver of Glasgow at Port Glasgow) could become commercially successful again.

Ferguson Marine as Afloat has reported over the years, has been at the centre of controversy over the construction of two newbuild ferries for CalMac, a subsidiary of David MacBrayne Ltd, which is wholly owned by Scottish Ministers.

The first of the two newbuilds of around 5,000 gross tonnage, the Glen Sannox and an unnamed twin are substantially delayed and overbudget.

Each of the 102m ferries have a capacity for 1,000 passengers, 127 cars and 16 lorries that are to serve island communities and tourism.

In March a report by Audit Scotland had raised doubts over the long-term viability of the shipyard, which was to have completed building the first of the ferries in 2018 at the yard that in the following year was nationalised.

For more, The Scotsman reports.

Published in Shipyards

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.