The Falkland Islands government has selected the shipyard responsible for building the Titanic as its preferred bidder to win a £120million contract for a new Falkland Island port. The Falkland Islands government selected Harland & Wolff, a Belfast-based company, for the project.
Work on the two-year contract is expected to start later this year, subject to finalizing the commercial negotiations and agreeing to the final contract price.
The group will build, transport, and install four 90-metre floating pontoons to the South Atlantic.
The pontoons are replacing the existing port facility located in Stanley (the capital), which is made up of six barges linked together. Harland & Wolff also constructed the port in 1984. The facilities are now outdated.
If it is awarded the contract, Harland & Wolff has said that the construction of port would be spread across multiple facilities in order to “de-risk” the fabrication of the pontoons.
All four of the company’s sites, located in Belfast, Devonshire, Fife, and Isle of Lewis, are capable of building pontoons.
John Wood, chief executive of Harland & Wolff Group said: “The Falkland Islands enjoy an excellent relationship and a wealth heritage given that Harland and Wolff constructed the six linked barges that make up the current port facility 45 year ago.”
The contract could be a further boost for the company, which was saved in 2019 from going into administration after being bought by InfraStrata of London for £6million.
Harland & Wolff announced in November that they would be resuming naval shipbuilding for the first 20 years.
The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £1.6billion contract to InfraStrata (formerly Harland & Wolff) which purchased the Harland & Wolff yard from administrators in 2019. This contract is for the assembly of three new vessels that will serve the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers as well as the wider fleet.
The contract with the government will result in 1,200 new positions at the company. 900 of these jobs will be located in its historic Belfast Shipyard.
Harland & Wolff, founded by Edward Harland in 1861 with his German business partner Gustav Wolff. Around 1,000 people are employed across the four sites.
Harland & Wolff shares closed at 12 1/4p up by 2 1/4p or 23.2 percent.