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Yard work begins, despite cuts fears
A SOUTH Tyneside shipyard is at the cutting edge of a flagship £55m aircraft carrier contract following major investment at the site – despite dire warnings of big UK defence cuts.
A&P Tyne in Hebburn is helping build sections of the carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
And work on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) project has been boosted significantly after the company recently upgraded its steel fabrication workshop at Hebburn.
The revamped facility is now being used for work on the MoD contract, which will help safeguard more than 200 jobs at the yard over the next five years.
But the contract is being developed as experts again warn the Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget could be slashed as the Government is forced to make big savings.
New figures from the Royal United Services Institute suggest the MoD budget could fall by 11 per cent in real terms by 2016-17, with defence expert Professor Malcolm Chambers warning a reduction of 15 per cent over the next three years "cannot be ruled out".
But work is progressing as normal on the carriers contract at the Hebburn yard.
A company spokesman said: "The systems are fully commissioned and have already been working successfully on fabrications for the first of the Queen Elizabeth class carriers.
"In addition to this work, A&P Tyne are bidding for a number of projects, both within the marine and civil industry.
"We believe these new enhancements will ensure they are competitive on a Europe-wide scale. It is expected that the facility will have an annual capability of 10,000 tonnes per year of fabrications."
Stewart Boak, managing director of A&P Tyne, said: "We are very pleased with this new investment.
"This, together with a significant dredging operation last year and a planned upgrade to the quaysides, demonstrates a commitment to the future."
A&P Tyne now has one of the most state-of-the-art fabrication facilities in Europe, capable of turning out huge amounts of steel for marine and civil structures.
The QE class aircraft carriers will be the biggest warships ever built in the UK.
Bosses at the A&P Group, which was taken over last summer by the Cardiff-based Bailey Group, say the enhanced fabrication facilities at Hebburn will deliver greater volumes of fabricated products for a number of industries in a more efficient and cost effective manner.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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