Clyde yard fought hard for contracts

It has emerged that the Clyde-based Ferguson shipyard reportedly went to great lengths in its failed bid to win a vital contract from the Scottish Executive. The closure-threatened Port Glasgow yard made two different offers to build a CalMac ferry in the Europe-wide tendering process. One was for £29million, and would have seen the hull built in Romania while the other offer was 100% Clyde-built, but more expensive at £33m.

However, a rival Polish firm, Remontowa of Gdansk, was still able to undercut Ferguson by with a bid of £26-27m. Remontowa also easily beat the Scots’ price for a fisheries protection vessel recently.

The awards sparked a furious political row, with accusations that the Executive was not protecting Scotland’s interests. Critics have been angered further by an ongoing EU investigation into allegations that Remontowa received illegal state subsidies. Richard Deane, managing director of Ferguson, said: “The big difference is that in Poland, shipbuilding is considered a national industry and, despite what they say, they receive all kinds of subsidies.” He added: “But this is the world we live in.”

Remontowa is under investigation by the European Commission after allegations that it received illegal state aid. However, Deane said the investigation would likely take a year to reach its conclusion, by which time it will be too late to have any bearing on which company builds the vessels.

Deane added that Ferguson was also in the process of submitting bids for three other executive contracts, including a new fisheries protection vessel, ?Minna?, and a further CalMac ferry order. Although union leaders have warned that these vital contracts, which could save the troubled yard, may not be awarded in time to stop job cuts, Deane remained hopeful. “We’ll know about the last of these contracts in eight or nine weeks, and we’ll keep going until then anyway and see what else we can pick up in the meantime,” he said.