The state-owned Ferguson shipyard is still waiting to receive most of the investment in new equipment promised by Scottish ministers more than a year ago.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes announced in June last year that the Inverclyde firm would receive £14.2m over two years to invest in new machinery to help it become more efficient and win new orders.
A few months later procurement orders were issued for major items such as a new “panel line” to process steel plates but it has now emerged that these notices were withdrawn in March.
The Scottish government said it remained committed to providing the full amount of funding subject to “due diligence and commercial standards being met”.
The GMB union said it was worried about the slow pace of new investment, which was vital to help the shipyard move on from the long-running ferries controversy.
The Port Glasgow firm, which employs about 300 staff, is currently working to complete MV Glen Rosa, the second of two long overdue CalMac ferries, but it has no ship orders beyond that.
Earlier this year the shipyard had hoped to rebuild its reputation by securing an order for seven much smaller CalMac ferries, widely seen as more suitable for the yard’s size and capabilities.
However in March, government-owned ferries procurement body CMAL announced that the small vessels contract, worth about £160m, would instead go to a Polish firm which had undercut the Scottish shipyard on price.
Procurement notices for a new steel cutting machine and a semi-automated panel line were cancelled three weeks prior to that announcement.
The biggest trade union at Ferguson Marine, questioned the delays and said the investment was essential to restore the shipyard’s reputation.
GMB Scotland’s general secretary Louise Gilmour said: “When this investment was first promised it offered workers some reassurance for the future but, more than a year later, the lack of action feels like the opposite.
“The workers are blameless for the mistakes of the last 10 years and only want the opportunity to restore their yard’s reputation.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said the investment programme began last December but declined to reveal precisely how much money had been spent so far.
However, the new Ferguson Marine chief executive Graeme Thomson told MPs in July this year that the figure was in the “low hundreds of thousands”.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster he suggested the yard would have to secure a new order before purchasing new equipment.
He said: “We have this circle where we need to secure some work, get the investment, do the investment and then have the investment completed in readiness for when we actually start building that programme that we have won.”
Mr Thomson said the planned new equipment would eventually reduce steel production hours by 30-40%, giving the yard a level of productivity comparable to other modern shipyards in the UK and abroad.
‘Phased’ investment
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said ministers had “committed to invest up to £14.2m over two years subject to due diligence and commercial standards being met”.
The Ferguson Marine management said the promised investment money was being phased in over time according to a plan agreed with the government
Chief financial officer David Dishon said an assessment of the site was currently under way, and the rest of the funding would be released once that was concluded.
He added: “We are incredibly grateful to the Scottish government for its long-term commitment to Ferguson Marine, demonstrated by the £14.2m capital investment, which will enable us to increase our reliability and productivity to compete in the open marketplace.”
