RE: Next stop 20p13 Feb 2023 19:22
We’ve been given an opportunity here?.?.?.?This relationship is not just for one programme, this relationship is for the future.” Wood told the Financial Times, in an office with a view of the huge yellow cranes, dubbed Samson and Goliath, that have dominated the Belfast skyline for half a Wood is sanguine about the junior role the Aim-listed company, which ditched the InfraStrata name in 2021 and now trades as Harland & Wolff, will play alongside its larger Spanish partner in the Team Resolute consortium.
Navantia will be “supervising and holding our hand and making sure we’re doing things right”, he said. With rising construction and energy costs having the company alongside “really de-risks the programme totally for us”, he added.
Team Resolute will invest £77mn to upgrade Harland & Wolff’s four sites, with the majority spent on modernising the shipyard in Belfast. Since buying the Northern Ireland business in 2019, it has added two yards in Scotland and one in Devon.
Construction of the navy support vessels is due to start in 2025 with all three completed by 2032. By then, Wallace expects a major £4bn government programme, designed to revitalise the UK shipbuilding industry and construct 150 ships in the next three decades, to bring more work to Belfast
Peter Renton, an analyst at London-based Cenkos, Harland & Wolff’s broker, said the contract would help position it for future opportunities, such as offshore wind projects. “I think they have the capacity to do it?.?.?.?it’s regenerating these shipyards and putting them in a better place”.
Wood has sought to future-proof the firm by diversifying into five markets: defence; oil and gas; renewable energy; commercial ships; and cruise liners and ferries, which should ensure continuity of work and avoid the problem that has plagued the industry of having to lay off staff when a contract ends. “The reason shipyards die is?.?.?.?because they’re generally only in one market.”
Sign In
Follow the stocks
