Is it the End of Swan Hunter?

The UK does still need further shipyard consolidation (unless the yards can survive on commercial contracts) but whilst all the yards agree on this they all equally agree that it has to be the other yards that take the pain. The politics of which constituencies the yards fall in make it a minefield. VT seem to be the most competent of the UK ship builders, BAE are the one with financial muscle, I’d imagine the former Yarrow yard on the Clyde and the Barrow yard are reasonably secure, but I’ve no idea about the others.

I think Turbinia makes a good point about how far shipyards like Swan Hunter are going to be able to compete with ones in countries where the labour is much cheaper. Personally I’m really pleased Lyme Bay is being handed over – no sense in pooring good money after bad, even if the shipyard suffers as a result.

If I remember correctly, wasn’t there a plan to merge Swan Hunter with other yards some months ago that fell through? If this signals the end of the current management, might it make it easier for a takeover and merger? Or would the others not be interested in a failing business? Or would they be tempted for a rock-bottom price?

Swan Hunter should never have been lead contractor for these LPD(A) vessels, if they’d been sub contracted to build two hulls with a bigger company as lead they may have done better. The reborn Swan’s didn’t have the resources and project management skills to bite off something this big, at least not yet anyway.

Great post Bager1968, I couldn’t have put it better 🙂

Who would want to work in a British ship yard? Unless you’re high up the chain you’re looking at short term contracts, calculated to avoid employers liabilities for pensions, sick pay etc., no job security and no idea where your next job will be. Then they wonder why they struggle.
This boils down to cost, there is just no way the developed world can compete in labour intensive, low margin work like commercial ship building without heavy subsidies when developing nations can provide comparable work at a fraction of the cost, and without continuous work shipyards can not maintain the skills base to provide high quality, project management expertise and design innovation. This is not just a UK thing, most developed nations are suffering, even Norwegian yards are building hulls in countries like Romania then towing them to Norway for the high value fitting out part of the contracts.

He is NOT referring to profit margins, but to the fact that a steady, regular building schedule allows the work-force to become very good at their jobs… which reduces delays, defects, mistakes, and bad planning or detail design work.

The way the UK government has handled things requires the shipyards to hire a lot of semi-skilled (or skilled in other fields) workers for a “3 at a time” contract… then let them go when the ships are done because there is no more work for them.

The most skilled (those who would be teaching the new hires in a proper setting) quickly find work elsewhere, and are not willing to give up their secure, steady jobs for another short-term (3-5 years then goodbye) MOD contract.

This means that the new hires have to teach themselves how to build the ships… while they are building them!

Any wonder there are problems?

That is not entirely true Steve, government orders are always on the verge, no real gain there. Most of the profit from shipbuilders comes from Merchant/Commercial vessels. If your shipbuilders have to depend on low profit government orders, they have little life left.
It’s a pitty to see once again a high quality yard disappear, but the cheap contract always wins. I wonder why the money has become so important and quality so neglected… 🙁 I for example would love to pay even the double for an all metal scisors (all in all I think it would even be cheaper to produce too, as they did in the past) instead of one with these stupid plastic finger parts that always break! In the end you’re paying more! And at least those old all metal things are nearly endless (idd, very bad for a manufacturer), but I guess it reflects what is happening on the big scale too.

🙁 If our governments had supplied our shipyards with a steady supply of work instead of their stupid feast or famine procurement polices those shipyards would be in a better position to deliver the quality and costs the government wants.