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Contracts flow in to struggling yard
NEW ARRIVAL ... the Pride of York ferry comes into the Tyne. Picture by KEVIN BLAIR.
THE tide is beginning to turn for a struggling South Tyneside yard, which is now winning fresh contracts.
An orders drought recently hit A&P Tyne, Hebburn, which was forced to make 90 workers redundant after the yard lost part of a £55m Royal Navy aircraft carrier contract, when the work was controversially switched to BAE Systems in Portsmouth.
But now the borough yard – which boasts the biggest dry dock facilities on the east coast of England – is again clinching orders to keep the yard afloat.
The Pride of York, the second of three P&O ferries to undergo an overhaul at the yard, was captured by local photographer Kevin Blair as it docked at A&P Tyne this week.
Stewart Boak, managing director of A&P Tyne, said the latest ferry contract signalled the start of a “busy period” at the yard.
He said: “The third vessel, and by far the biggest contract, will be the Pride of Bruges, which is due to dock at Hebburn on February 20 through to March 10.
“Both the Pride of York and the Pride of Bruges operate between Hull and Europe.
“The Pride of York berthed alongside and will enter the dry dock, remaining in until January 31. When in dry dock, essential underwater work will be completed, along with general regulatory annual inspections, repairs to the ship’s mooring equipment, repairs to the stern ramp and internal ramp system and various other repairs which are required to be undertaken on the ship, that first came into service in 1987.
“This is the start of a busy period for A&P Tyne, with another vessel, the Rockwater 1, due to be under repair in dry dock between the two P&O ferries.
“At the same time, we are also securing new work for our fabrication hall, with ongoing projects for Sparrows Baricon on carousel rebuild and tower fabrication works and also for Subsea 7, with the TLS fabrication project.
“After the recent quiet period and restructuring, it is encouraging to see work now coming back to the yard and also a pleasure to welcome back our customer P&O Ferries, who have been docking with A&P since 1999.”
Ironically, after the defence contract was switched, sparking more than 90 job losses at the Hebburn yard, there are reports that BAE Systems is considering axing the historic Portsmouth yard, putting up to 3,000 jobs at risk.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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Havyasay
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:52 PMIt is good to see the management at A&P are out there looking for work to keep the yard from going under. Credit should be given for not sitting back after loosing the major contract with the aircraft carriers. The unions only cry out when redundancies are on the horizon, its about time they commented and give credit to the manegement behind the scenes working tirelessly to secure orders. Take note T. Brennan (GMB).
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