The 2022 Maritime UK Awards came to the Glasgow Science Centre last Thursday with the Secretary of State for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, giving the keynote address, emphasising the recent launch of the UK Government’s refreshed national shipbuilding strategy.
Amongst the sponsors contributing to the ceremony were BAE Systems, with its long history of Clyde naval shipbuilding, City of Glasgow College, whose Riverside Campus is one of the UK’s most important centres of nautical training, marine engineering specialists Malin Group, who are aiming to bring near to 1,000 jobs to their Scottish Marine Technology Park development at the former Carless site in West Dunbartonshire, and the University of Strathclyde with its world-eading centre of naval architecture and marine technology. Maritime industries retain an important place in Glasgow’s economy.
Over 20 years ago I was a member of the team supporting the Clyde Shipyards Task Force, established by the then Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Wendy Alexander to respond to job losses on the Clyde. Many of the issues raised then remain features of the UK Government’s new shipbuilding strategy.
Striking a balance between the competitive procurement requirements of the Ministry of Defence and the goal for a thriving shipbuilding industry will always be tricky. The new strategy announces a National Shipbuilding Office (NSO), reporting to the Minister of Defence to oversee all Government shipbuilding work, while there is to be an office in the UK Government’s Edinburgh hub to make a direct link to Scottish shipbuilding. Alongside the NSO, there will be an industry-led shipbuilding forum to drive industry competitiveness.
How these interact will be crucial. Constant change in government procurement strategies, especially in the allocation of batches of ships, undermines the ability of shipbuilders to achieve learning curve productivity and make the investments needed to upgrade facilities.
The centrepiece of the refreshed strategy must surely therefore be the 30-year pipeline of new vessels, mainly for the Royal Navy but also for other government departments and the devolved administrations.
The document explicitly recognises that a stop and start approach damages the industry, and commits to a ‘continuous shipbuilding pipeline’. One wonders how much the dreadful circumstances in Ukraine will reinforce the critical need for that pipeline.
The extent to which domestic government orders help secure exports does appear to have improved since 2001. There was a concern then that very advanced Royal Navy specifications made it difficult to sell overseas. However, BAE Systems is currently building the first of three Type 26 destroyers at Govan and, with UK Government support, it already has orders for nine from the Australian Government and 15 from the Canadian. Babcock has also just sold three frigates to Poland.
There is a welcome recognition in the strategy that local industry clustering needs to be supported and the Clyde is recognised as one important concentration. The Scottish Government’s Clyde Mission initiative is already actively backing the cluster.
Perhaps though, the biggest challenge the industry faces stands in complete contrast to where we were back in 2001. The task then was to minimise job losses but today every company in the Clyde maritime cluster is searching for talent. The growth of the cluster will depend on skills and the maritime sector is yet another crying out for new workers. That must depend on persuading Glaswegians the maritime industry has an exciting future. The shipbuilding strategy certainly makes that clear.
Stuart Patrick is chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
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