Feelings were mixed at Belfast's Harland & Wolff shipyard yesterday when it emerged that the company had lost out on a £2.8 million sterling (€4.6 million) contract to build a local ferry despite winning an arbitration hearing over money it was owed by a US customer on Thursday night.
The North's Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister, Sir Reg Empey, welcomed the arbitration ruling, which awarded H & W almost the entire £23 million owed to it by Global Marine for a drill ship Global had removed from the yard without payment in August, as a "small mercy".
"It will give the company the opportunity at least to survive, albeit in a reduced form in the short-term - and that's the key. Once a company closes and the assets are dispersed it is extremely difficult to build up again. I think we must be grateful at least for small mercies," the Minister added. The dispute had centred on the completion date of the drill ship, which H & W said it had repeatedly offered to Global Marine from July 24th onwards. Global refused, claiming the vessel had not been completed to its satisfaction. The US company then obtained a High Court order to remove the ship from H & W without paying the final instalment of £23 million. The arbitration tribunal ruled in H & W's favour, ordering Global to pay virtually the full amount to the Belfast yard. The chairman of the Assembly's Enterprise, Trade and Investment committee, Sinn Fein MLA Mr Pat Doherty, yesterday welcomed the ruling but warned that it must not open up the way for more public money to be pumped into the company until its "appalling" employment record was addressed.
"Of nearly 2,500 workers in the various companies of H & W in Belfast, only 186 people are declared as Catholic, according to 1999 returns to the Equality Commission. This represents less than 7.5 per cent of the total workforce," Mr Doherty said. H & W's management yesterday confirmed that it would be pressing ahead with its restructuring plan, which trade unions fear could lead to a reduction of the workforce engaged in shipbuilding to under 300 from 1,250.
Yesterday's announcement by the Minister for Regional Development, Mr Gregory Campbell, that a £2.8 million ferry for the Portaferry to Strangford crossing at Strangford Lough, Co Down, would be built by the Merseyside shipyard McTay Marine in England rather than H & W was greeted with disappointment at the yard. The only firm order in the yard's order books is currently a contract to classify a drilling rig, the Bulford Dolphin, for its parent company, Fred Olsen Energy.
A contract for four roll-on, roll-off ferries for the Bahamas-based shipping company Seamasters International has not yet been signed. Sir Reg said he did not expect the order to be confirmed until November at the earliest, which would mean work on the ferries would not start for another six months after that. H & W is also part of a consortium which has tendered for up to six ferries for the British Ministry of Defence.
