Harland and Wolff: Titanic shipbuilder sailing to sunnier shores

Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic, looks to be sailing to sunnier shores just a few years after it was saved from administration.

The Belfast-based firm was named as the preferred bidder for a £120m contract to build a new port for the Falkland Islands yesterday.

The two-year project involves installing new floating pontoons to improve facilities at the port, which is based in the Islands’ capital Stanley.

This was the latest in a string of upbeat announcements from the company Harland and Wolff, which had to be rescued from administration in 2019 via a £6m deal with energy firm InfraStrata.

Almost 80 jobs were saved at the time, while the shipyard’s giant yellow cranes Samson and Goliath, two iconic features of the Belfast skyline, also survived.

Now the rescue looks to be paying rich dividends for nearby communities at its four sites in Devon, Fife, the Isle of Lewis and Northern Island’s capital.

In November 2022, it was announced that naval shipbuilding would return to the company’s shipyards after a two-decade hiatus.

That was followed up by the award of a £1.6bn military shipbuilding contract from the Ministry of Defence, which created around 1,200 jobs, 900 of which are in Belfast.

And following news of the £120m Falkland Islands project, the shipyard today announced a fresh £3m deal to build subsea structures for a global oil services company, at its Arnish site.

A further boost could follow should it receive a £200m loan facility from UKEF. Shares shot up 22 per cent in late December after negotiations moved into the advanced stage, following government clearance.