SCOTLAND’S last commercial shipyard Ferguson Marine is limited to building ships of around 100 metres due to the constrained size of the shipyard.
But nearby underutilised infrastructure such as Inchgreen Dry Dock and Hunterston offer huge potential for the Clyde to expand towards large-scale shipbuilding as seen in Finland, France, Italy and Germany – which between them build around 90 per cent of the world’s complex cruise ships – and where average wages are actually higher than in the UK.
Those countries have succeeded in this competitive market because they viewed it as a long-term national industrial objective to patiently support investment in infrastructure and skills; and they have captured the world market in the process.
Ferguson Marine is the country’s only remaining player in what is one of the most competitive and capital-intensive heavy industries in the world.
From dominating world shipbuilding a century ago, when the Clyde alone built more tonnage than the whole of Germany, the river today accounts for less than1% of global tonnage.
The success of the Port Glasgow shipyard is therefore critical as it is a platform from which to rebuild the country’s global market share and form the basis of a renaissance in commercial shipbuilding.
The two new dual fuel ferries under construction there for CalMac are crucial to this objective. The delays encountered by the yard during their construction are not unexpected due to the complexities of re-scaling the industry from near extinction just four years ago, but also because of design changes made by the customer, which have added to the cost.
In a feast and famine industry like shipbuilding, the competing pressures of maturing the ship’s design but also of keeping the workforce on the shop floor gainfully employed can be a difficult balancing act for shipyard managers, especially when scaling up the yard’s workforce from almost scratch and building what is essentially a working prototype.
Delays by the Scottish Government in signing the contract initially also added to costs, as the integrated propulsion system has been designed, manufactured and imported and has been subject to unfavourable currency fluctuations.
If we are to commit to a credible and sustainable commercial shipbuilding industry in this country, then the Scottish Government must accept that there will be risks of delays and snags as we re-learn the complex operation of large-scale shipbuilding and work collaboratively with our industry to learn those lessons.
Public sector contracts like the new CalMac ferries are an excellent way for the industry to develop the necessary resilience and efficiency in design, build, testing and commissioning vessels of this size so that it can then tender competitively around the world for contracts in the future.
The Germans Finns and Italians have shown the way. We need to do the same. We have done it before and we must now view this project at Ferguson Marine as a national mission to reinvigorate commercial shipbuilding and associated industries in Scotland.
Paul Sweeney is a Scottish Labour MP for Glasgow North-East.
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