Yard shipshape once again

A south Tyneside shipyard which faced extinction a year ago has doubled its workforce and bounced back to commercial success. In stark contrast to struggling Swan Hunter, which could close soon due to lack of orders, the McNulty Offshore yard in South Shields will be showcasing a double barge contract completed as part of the massive Kashagan Caspian Sea development.

The yard has boosted its workforce from 300 to 700 in recent months, and managing director Steve Keyworth has promised more orders are on the way. “We have been up to 750 staff in recent months, and even with the completion of the barge contracts we still have something like 500 to 600 people in the yard. We also have the current contract on a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which we are carrying out in collaboration with A&P Tyne at Hebburn, which will provide work until the third quarter of this year.” McNulty has also been successful in securing other projects in Norway, which will provide more work for the yard later this year.

About 200 workers were initially recruited last August to work on the conversion into floating accommodation blocks ? including many made redundant just months earlier.

The firm has made a remarkable recovery since it almost closed this time last year when a damaging contract row with French firm Technip forced it into administration and sparked hundreds of redundancies at the yard.