200 jobs to be created with conversion of ship

Apr 17 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

AROUND 200 jobs will be created at the A&P shipyard in South Tyneside after the company won a £30m contract. The A&P team will convert an icebreaking ship known as Ice Maiden I into a floating accommodation vessel, or flotel, for use in the offshore oil and gas industry.

The 300-strong staff at A&P is to grow to 500 with the new permanent and contractor jobs to handle the sheer scale of the contract, with some workers added to the payroll and some hired as contractors.

The project will take nine months to complete with the vessel due to arrive on the Tyne next month, carried here from the US on a heavy lifting cargo vessel known as the Fairstar Fjord.

A&P will fit some 1,400 tonnes of new accommodation block steel work, providing living space for 399 workers.

Beyond that, there will be a further 1,900 tonnes of steel work fabricated and fitted to form new decks and machinery spaces.

The yard will also fit additional machinery and thrusters to help the vessel manoeuvre in its new role.

Fred Newman, executive director of A&P Tyne, said: “Given our normal annual turnover is in the upper £40m, this represents the full turnover for the business for the nine months it will be with us. It provides capacity within the period. But the nature of the beast is we should be able to do work on other contracts as well.

“We have a good record of delivering conversion contracts on time, and as they get bigger and more complex, they catch the eye of more people.”

The conversion contract, potentially worth more than £30m, has been awarded by the C&M Group of Aberdeen on behalf of the owners Silters.

The Ice Maiden I will be the first vessel of her type to be fully ‘ice classed’ and will be capable of operating in conditions of -40ºC.

The news of A&P’s latest contract follows the announcement in February that the yard had joined forces with McNulty in South Shields to win work on the £4bn MoD aircraft carriers project.

The two yards will help construct part of the carriers in conjunction with BAE Systems in Barrow, Cumbria.

Yesterday Mr Newman said: “The commitment is there to proceed (on the carriers work) at some point, but it needs someone to press the button.”

And last month A&P Tyne managing director David Skentelbery said he wanted to bring back shipbuilding to the Tyne. “We have the ability to build new ships. The skills are still on the river,” he said.

“There are projects with potential and if the right opportunity comes along, then it’s something we will consider doing. Over recent years we have built a stern and we have built a bow. We have the skills and ability to build a ship and bring shipbuilding back to the river.”