Confidence in yard ‘totally misplaced’

A BARGE being built at Ferguson Marine was completed elsewhere after customer CMI Offshore realised it had ‘totally misplaced’ its confidence in the shipyard.

In 2018, the Port Glasgow yard was paid to build a hull for the world’s first selfpropelled, air-cushioned barge designed for oil industry operations in the Caspian Sea.

But on leaving the yard two years later it was taken to other shipbuilders to complete the work. Richard Keisner, managing director of Mangistau ACV Solutions, part of CMI, said: ‘In retrospect, we would say that any confidence we placed in the ability of the yard, its management or workforce to build vessels was totally misplaced.’

A Ferguson Marine spokesman said: ‘It is important to recognise the majority of the experience described by this customer was under the previous management.’