Rescuing southern UK shipbuilding

The Portsmouth Shipbuilding UK group proposes to utilise the existing skills, facility and management expertise to create a successful and sustainable shipbuilding company at Portsmouth Dockyard that produces small and medium commercial/naval vessels for the domestic and export markets.

Sarah Stanton, project director at Stanton Burdett Ltd, told The Motorship: “The skills base from a long history of shipbuilding is still here in Portsmouth, we just need to drum up the orders, but we’re already receiving interest from the domestic commercial market.”

“There is a lot of opportunity on the south coast and customers are wising up to the fact that building abroad is not always better. When you take into account the compromise in quality and delivery turn around times, owners can get a much better product built at home.”

The group wants the government to reconsider the decision regarding the build of three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) granted to Scotland and reconsider granting a single OPV build to Portsmouth.

This it says would enable the company the required time to generate its own future sustainable order book or retain the skill sets required to move workers into future maintenance required within the dockyard post 2018.

Portsmouth Shipbuilding is currently conducting a full feasibility study and lobbying the government and Secretary of State over the issue.

BAE Systems is due cease shipbuilding operations in Portsmouth in September 2014 when 1000 employees will lose their jobs.