The nationalised shipyard firm at the centre of Scotland's ferry-building fiasco has indicated that their bid to secure new contract seen as vital for its future will be more expensive than competitors.
Ferguson Marine said it will be bidding with a "small premium" against other yards while the Scottish Government has so far rejected calls for a £25m injection of public money to modernise the facilities and make it competitive for future work.
The Herald revealed concerned had surfaced over of the shipyard firm as MSPs say they were told there was no sight of future work.
The worries came after members of the Scottish Parliament’s net zero, energy and transport committee were shown around the Port Glasgow shipyard on Friday and left concerned about its future prospects.
In November, then wellbeing economy secretary Neil Gray said that it had so far been unable to agree to put new investment into the shipyard firm to support a business plan that takes it beyond just the delivery of the much-delayed lifeline ferries.
The group left the meeting believing that the only thing keeping the yard going is the money for completion of two wildly delayed and over budget ferries.
Plans to begin procurement of a new wave of initially seven vital lifeline ferries for Scotland's islanders has already been delayed by nearly two years.
READ MORE: Fears for nationalised Ferguson Marine with 'no sight of future work'
But there are concerns that without a direct award to Ferguson's of the ferries, the yard would fail in a competitive tender for the work, that is seen as crucial for its future.
And the yard has admitted that in competition with other yards for when pitching for the ferries it would currently have to add "a premium" against some of the other yards in Europe. The amount that would be is still to be quantified.
It further indicated that an interim upgrade was required to improve productivity of the yard in advance of any work on any more new ferries.
Ferguson Marine had failed to get onto the shortlist of potential contractors after failing at the first Pre Qualification Questionnaire hurdle for the £105m contract for the first of two two-ferry contracts that were given to the Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard in Turkey.
And it subsequently failed to even bid for the work on building the £115m second batch before it was again awarded to the same Turkish shipyard.
Ferguson Marine conducted a detailed analysis of bidding for the contract but concluded that, based on the associated documents published, the probability of winning the contract was "sufficiently low to recommend declining to bid".
Papers associated with the decision showed that it was believed that the qualification conditions in the tender documents contained criteria Ferguson Marine could not meet.
Key factors included that the two vessels in the series had already been awarded to Cemre Marin Endustri.
Two new ferries Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa being built at the nationalised Ferguson Marine shipyard were due online in the first half of 2018, with one initially to serve Arran and the other to serve the Skye triangle routes to North Uist and Harris, but are at least six years late, with costs expected to be quadruple the original £97m contract. It has been confirmed that both are now to serve Arran.
READ MORE: Revealed: Sturgeon forged ahead with ferry fiasco deal despite warning on key issues
Glen Sannox, was launched by Nicola Sturgeon nearly seven years ago and is not expected to be ready till around August at the earliest.
Glen Rosa was meant to be delivered to CalMac in August 2018, but that is currently scheduled for May 2025.
But the dates of arrival have been constantly in a state of flux as their construction has been plagued by design challenges, cost overruns and delays.
In the midst of the delays and soaring costs, Ferguson Marine under the control of tycoon Jim McColl fell into administration and was nationalised at the end of 2019 with CMAL and the yard's management blaming each other.
Chris McElneny, general secretary of the Alba Party, and former SNP group leader on Inverclyde Council said the small ferries project "must" be given to Ferguson's.
"Like Scotland’s oil should be refined in Scotland’s refinery, Scotland’s ferries should be built in Scotland," he said.
"The Scottish Government owns a company that procures ferries [Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited], a company that operates ferries [CalMac] and a shipyard that builds ferries.
"The award of the seven small vessels to Ferguson’s in Port Glasgow will be vital for the yard to complete a period of delivering ferries on time and on budget. This is vital for its long term survival.
"If the Scottish Government allows CMAL to tender these vessels and again risks the work going overseas they will be putting the future of the yard under greater jeopardy than the Tories ever did under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. People in Grangemouth will not accept Grangemouth no more, and likewise people in Inverclyde will not accept Ferguson’s no more.
GMB Scotland, the main union in the yard, said decisions over the potential to direct award need to be taken soon as workers are already being seconded to other yards, which risks it losing the necessary skills and experience.
David Tydeman, chief executive of Ferguson Marine has said a sophisticated plating line which was one of the key components of the £25m investment requested, was about "positioning the yard for the broader, more complex vessels in the future whether those are wind farm support vessels offshore patrol craft, or broader or larger and more complicated ferries".
He said: "The lead time for that type of equipment is the same is 18 months to two years. And so if we don't join the procurement queue, we keep delaying the date by which we might have that type of equipment installed."
He told MSPs on the parliamentary net zero, energy and transport committee: "I think if we can get the small ferries contract secured in the coming months, it would take us a year 18 months planning before we would cut steel.
"So there is a time window that we need to get moving on even for the small ferry programme. And we could upgrade the yard on an interim basis, stage one if you'd like, so it's not wasted, money which would improve productivity.
"We could do that without buying sophisticated equipment on long lead times. And so we could improve the yard significantly over the coming months and next two years in parallel with completing [Glen Rosa]."
He has said that if it could get the small ferry programme and a pipeline of work from the Type 26 frigate programme being completed on the Clyde they would have a "sustainable five-year vision ahead of us".
It has been trying to position itself as a key subcontractor for the delivery of the City Class Type 26 frigates.
Contract work from BAE Systems which is delivering the frigates and trumpeted as "signalling a new dawn" at the yard was valued at just £2m. But the yard is pushing for more work.
And Mr Tydeman has said that even if it got more work from BAE Systems, it would not keep the yard completely busy after the second of the two ferries was completed and that they "need something else".
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