Ferguson Marine CEO says ‘unfair competition’ will harm tender for new ferry contract

The CEO of FERGUSON Marine has said his shipyard would face “unfair competition” in its bid to secure CalMac’s next ferry contract.

The move comes after it was announced on Tuesday that the yard had been refused a direct award of the Scottish Government’s new £175m contract for seven ferries.

Deputy Prime Minister Kate Forbes said her understanding of the tender was that the yard would still be eligible to bid.

Speaking at Port Glasgow shipyard on Thursday, John Petticrew said: “We are facing, in my view, unfair competition.

“We all know that the governments of the countries we are bidding against are investing money in their shipyards.”

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He later said he would be “disappointed” if state subsidies to foreign shipyards meant the yard lost future tenders.

Most countries with a significant shipbuilding industry subsidise their shipyards, but the UK gradually stopped doing so in the 1970s and 1980s.

Poland and Turkey, which have built or are under contract to build many of CalMac’s large ferries, both have some form of subsidy for their shipbuilding industries.

At Tuesday’s press conference it was also announced that Ferguson Marine would receive £14.2m in funding to help it bid for future work.

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Although hopes of the shipyard getting the new contract appeared low Tuesday, officials still intend to have the company submit a bid.

The deputy foreign minister also said that the decision not to award the contract directly to the shipyard was due to legal considerations.

Forbes said: “The reason the contract is not awarded is because of the legal uncertainties and risks. When it comes to a direct award, we have to satisfy the Consumers and Markets Authority.”

“It’s a very sensitive sector, it’s designated as a sensitive sector, and that means there would be significant risks if we were to continue down this path.

“It would create the worst of both worlds: the yard would not be able to get the work it needs to keep its jobs and the islanders would not get their ships.”