Harland and Wolff, Nothing on the order books
The entire workforce of Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, almost 1,750 employees, has been served with a 90-day protective redundancy notice. The shipyard said it had no option but to issue the notice to staff at the yard's shipbuilding division and its two subsidiaries because of the uncertainty of securing future work. Harland and Wolff's only remaining order is close to completion and, at present, there is nothing on the order books to replace it. The company said survival now depended on winning the multi-million pounds order to build the new superliner, the Queen Mary II.
Harland and Wolff's wants to build the Queen Mary II, the flagship for Cunard, but as things stand the negotiations between both companies are unlikely to come to a successful conclusion. The shipyard says it can deliver the vessel at the right price and on time, but it was unable to put together the financial package required to build it. The company lost one recent order to Korea, and British Ministry of Defence orders have been put back by the British government. At this stage if the shipyard cannot secure the Queen Mary II there will be no future for Harland and Wolff as a shipbuilder.
