Once, Britain was the shipbuilding powerhouse of the world. Now her shipbuilding industry is being revived again with the creation of a giant shipbuilding company that will be called Shipco.
The Times
October 14, 2006
Buoyant future for UK dockyards
By David Robertson
Shipbuilding companies that have for decades struggled to stay afloat, while many sank, are now on an even keel
Industrial powerhouse: In 1914, when Britain was the world's superpower and the "Workshop of the World", British shipyards were producing more new tonnage, both naval and merchant, than the rest of the world put together.
A CENTURY ago the dockyards of the Clyde, Tyne and Mersey were employing hundreds of thousands of men and launching ships that extended Britain’s military and economic power across the globe.
Yarrow, Harland & Wolff, Swan Hunter and others made the ships that helped to build an empire on which the sun was never supposed to set.
But after the Second World War a new economic reality dawned. Air travel relegated ocean liners to a romantic notion and commercial shipping moved to Japan and then Korea and China, following cheap labour and cheap steel.
The term “shipbuilding” in the UK became synonymous with “closure” as yard after yard went into receivership and thousands lost their jobs.
The Royal Navy's new giant aircraft carriers - the largest warships in Western Europe - will all be built in Britain
It has taken a long time for the industry to recover, but the few yards still operating have reason to be more optimistic.
The optimism extends from yachts, where the UK is developing as a centre of excellence in the construction of superyachts, to aircraft carriers.
The Ministry of Defence has placed orders for six destroyers and is about to commission two aircraft carriers, which has guaranteed work for British yards for years.
But Lord Drayson, the defence procurement minister, wants the industry to take advantage of this boom in Navy orders and reshape itself.
Lord Drayson believes the industry needs to “fix the roof while the sun is shining”, merging assets to create one shipbuilder capable of winning international orders once the MoD building spree ends.
The first serious fall in the UK’s shipbuilding industry started almost immediately after the Second World War as yards became dependent on government handouts and over-budget orders.
The Government’s support for the industry was formalised in 1977 when Prime Minister James Callaghan nationalised both the ship and aircraft building industries, creating the British Shipbuilding Corporation and British Aerospace.
Institutionalising the industry’s failure did nothing to prevent further trouble and Margaret Thatcher set about privatising the assets in 1983.
In the two decades that followed, yards closed and others were transformed into repair outfits. Only VT Group’s Portsmouth facility, BAE’s Scotstoun and Govan yards and Babcock’s Rosyth are now considered by analysts capable of winning and building large orders.
Harland & Wolff, which built the RMS Titanic and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic between 1909 and 1914, did bid to build Cunard’s Queen Mary II but lost out to a French yard. It now concentrates on building oil rigs and other offshore equipment.
Swan Hunter on the Tyne, which built the blue riband-holder RMS Mauretania, has lurched from production to receivership for years. It is now owned by Dutchman Jaap Kroese and has no orders. It may become either a ship dismantling yard or be turned into housing.
On the Clyde, which was once the world centre of shipbuilding, the yards belonging to Scott Lithgow in Port Glasgow and Greenock have closed. The upper Clyde yards, Scotstoun — once Yarrow — and Govan, have survived and are among the assets likely to be merged into the proposed Shipco.
thetimesonline.co.uk
The Times
October 14, 2006
Buoyant future for UK dockyards
By David Robertson
Shipbuilding companies that have for decades struggled to stay afloat, while many sank, are now on an even keel
Industrial powerhouse: In 1914, when Britain was the world's superpower and the "Workshop of the World", British shipyards were producing more new tonnage, both naval and merchant, than the rest of the world put together.
A CENTURY ago the dockyards of the Clyde, Tyne and Mersey were employing hundreds of thousands of men and launching ships that extended Britain’s military and economic power across the globe.
Yarrow, Harland & Wolff, Swan Hunter and others made the ships that helped to build an empire on which the sun was never supposed to set.
But after the Second World War a new economic reality dawned. Air travel relegated ocean liners to a romantic notion and commercial shipping moved to Japan and then Korea and China, following cheap labour and cheap steel.
The term “shipbuilding” in the UK became synonymous with “closure” as yard after yard went into receivership and thousands lost their jobs.
The Royal Navy's new giant aircraft carriers - the largest warships in Western Europe - will all be built in Britain
It has taken a long time for the industry to recover, but the few yards still operating have reason to be more optimistic.
The optimism extends from yachts, where the UK is developing as a centre of excellence in the construction of superyachts, to aircraft carriers.
The Ministry of Defence has placed orders for six destroyers and is about to commission two aircraft carriers, which has guaranteed work for British yards for years.
But Lord Drayson, the defence procurement minister, wants the industry to take advantage of this boom in Navy orders and reshape itself.
Lord Drayson believes the industry needs to “fix the roof while the sun is shining”, merging assets to create one shipbuilder capable of winning international orders once the MoD building spree ends.
The first serious fall in the UK’s shipbuilding industry started almost immediately after the Second World War as yards became dependent on government handouts and over-budget orders.
The Government’s support for the industry was formalised in 1977 when Prime Minister James Callaghan nationalised both the ship and aircraft building industries, creating the British Shipbuilding Corporation and British Aerospace.
Institutionalising the industry’s failure did nothing to prevent further trouble and Margaret Thatcher set about privatising the assets in 1983.
In the two decades that followed, yards closed and others were transformed into repair outfits. Only VT Group’s Portsmouth facility, BAE’s Scotstoun and Govan yards and Babcock’s Rosyth are now considered by analysts capable of winning and building large orders.
Harland & Wolff, which built the RMS Titanic and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic between 1909 and 1914, did bid to build Cunard’s Queen Mary II but lost out to a French yard. It now concentrates on building oil rigs and other offshore equipment.
Swan Hunter on the Tyne, which built the blue riband-holder RMS Mauretania, has lurched from production to receivership for years. It is now owned by Dutchman Jaap Kroese and has no orders. It may become either a ship dismantling yard or be turned into housing.
On the Clyde, which was once the world centre of shipbuilding, the yards belonging to Scott Lithgow in Port Glasgow and Greenock have closed. The upper Clyde yards, Scotstoun — once Yarrow — and Govan, have survived and are among the assets likely to be merged into the proposed Shipco.
thetimesonline.co.uk