6 days ago
Ferguson chief says shipyard needs ferry contract with no competition
The Ferguson shipyard faces a 'very difficult' future unless ministers hand it a ferry replacement contract, the chief executive has warned.
Graeme Thomson said he had already lobbied for the Inverclyde yard to be given the mandate to build the successor to MV Lord of the Isles. That vessel normally sails from Lochboisdale on South Uist to the mainland at Mallaig.
Fiona Hyslop, the transport secretary, said in April that money was available for a replacement to be built with CMAL, the procurement agency, looking at designs.
The yard has been in public hands since 2019 after it ran out of cash building the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa ferries.
Holyrood ministers decided in March this year that they could not legally find a way to directly award Ferguson the work to build seven electric ferries for the small vessels replacement programme and that went to the Polish yard Remontowa.
Thomson, who started at Ferguson in May, told the Scottish affairs committee at Westminster that the state-owned yard could not compete on price with overseas rivals. A direct award would mean Ferguson being given the contract without it having to go through procurement.
Thomson said he had 'lobbied for a direct award' and believed the Scottish government was considering whether it was possible. He said: 'I'm not aware of what might be challenges or blockers to that.'
Asked by MPs what the future might hold if the yard did not win that contract, he said: 'It would be very difficult for us and very challenging.'
Thomson argued there was a need to give UK yards a better chance to win domestic work with about 150 non-navy vessels due to be built over the next 30 years.
He said: 'As long as there is a situation that international yards can do it cheaper than us, whether because of labour rates or tax breaks, then we will never be playing on a level playing field. We need to move the conversation away from a race to the bottom on price.'
Ferguson recently won a contract from BAE Systems to build structural steel blocks for HMS Birmingham as part of the Type 26 programme.
Thomson is hopeful that the scope of work could be expanded in the future, while it is also looking into bids to build pilot boats and tugs.
He said: 'If the portfolio starts with smaller boats, then we get back into larger boats, then I'm very content we would protect as much of the workforce as we can.'
Thomson told MPs he was confident that Glen Rosa, which is already seven years late and vastly over budget, would be ready for handover in the second quarter of next year.
Separately, Shona Robison, the finance secretary, said that the Scottish government continued to talk with bus operators and transport authorities to establish demand levels for double-decker buses as part of its efforts to find a future for Alexander Dennis.
The bus builder is proposing to shut its Scottish manufacturing division, with 400 jobs at risk across Falkirk and Larbert.
