Plan to put Britain’s shipbuilding industry back on crest of a wave
NEW construction techniques could help to relaunch the British shipbuilding industry, even enabling it to compete with Far East superyards.
The Government will unveil its shipbuilding strategy this week. Ben Murray, manager of the trade body Maritime UK, expects it to say that the future lies in digital engineering and modular construction techniques whereby parts of the ship are built by different yards before being brought together for assembly. This has been used on the Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carriers and the research ship Sir David Attenborough, famously nicknamed ‘Boaty McBoatface’.
He said: ‘We are now in a position to use that modular concept, building in different parts of the country, to compete with the superyards in the Far East, which are often state-subsidised.
‘We want to see that expertise spill over into commercial shipbuilding. For a long time the Government has not turned to UK yards for procurement, outside naval vessels, so recent ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary were built in South Korea. We want that to change because the UK leads the world in high-tech, specialist vessels. The cutting edge engineering that allowed us to construct the carriers can have much wider benefits commercially.’ Next week is Shipping Week, when industry leaders will meet the Prime Minister in Downing Street.