Devon’s Appledore shipyard has won a £2m contract to build a steel pontoon for a lifeboat station on the river Thames.
Harland & Wolff (Appledore) Ltd has been chosen by London-based Herbosch-Kiere Marine Contractors Ltd to fabricate a steel pontoon measuring about 53m by 14m and weighing 450 tonnes.
It is set to replace the existing Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Tower Lifeboat Station based under Waterloo Bridge on the north bank of the Thames.
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The contract works will involve the manufacture of the foundation, stairways and handrails for the RNLI lifeboat station. Work is expected to span about eight months and to be completed in June 2022.
The award of this contract is the first to be won by the Appledore yard since it was acquired by Harland & Wolff Group Holdings Plc and the board considers it to be a major achievement, enabling the ramping up of Harland & Wolff's Appledore yard and its workforce.
This contract will position the company strongly to win further and larger fabrication and shipbuilding contracts and comes just days after the shipyard signed a deal with the RNLI for the repair, maintenance and refurbishment of its fleet of more than 400 lifeboats.
Meanwhile, a huge cargo vessel, the MT Entsha offshore supply ship, is due to arrive in Appledore on Monday, November 15 for a major fit-out.
In September 2021 it was announced that the huge £2m vessel, which flies the Luxembourg flag, will be refitted at Appledore shipyard marking its revival as a major engineering facility.
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At Appledore, fabrication work has already started on a major crane upgrade at the yard and on creation of a mezzanine deck as part of wider conversion works that will be undertaken once the vessel has docked.
John Wood, group chief executive of Harland & Wolff, called the major Herbosch-Kiere Marine Contractors Ltd fabrication contract “a significant and exciting milestone for Harland & Wolff Appledore”.
He added: “Since we acquired the yard, we have had great confidence in the potential of this business, and we are starting to see the strategy that we set out come together.
"We have already started to ramp up our workforce and prepare our yard for the project. This pontoon will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the excellent fabrication and shipbuilding skills within our Appledore workforce and will give our apprentices at Appledore a fantastic project to work on at the start of their careers with us."
Under the terms of the new RNLI framework agreement, Harland & Wolff (Appledore) Ltd will be responsible for the works programmes for lifeboats and other vessels.
The agreement will span many years and each docking will be priced as a bespoke agreement based on the scope of works required to be performed on each vessel that comes into Appledore.
The RNLI currently has a fleet of 431 lifeboats and 238 lifeboat stations that will require repairs and maintenance on a regular basis in order to keep them active and ready for deployment.
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Appledore will be working in conjunction with RNLI's internal team to perform defined works programmes on vessels that come into the yard .
Whilst the size of each individual programme is not expected to be significant, given the size of a fleet, the company expects “meaningful cumulative volumes and revenues” on an annual basis.
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Harland & Wolff is a multisite fabrication company, operating in the maritime and offshore industry through five markets: commercial, cruise and ferry, defence, energy and renewables and six services: technical services, fabrication and construction, decommissioning, repair and maintenance, in-service support and conversion. As a result of the acquisition of Harland & Wolff (Appledore) in August 2020, the company has been able to capitalise on opportunities at both ends of the ship-repair and shipbuilding markets where there will be significant demand.
Harland & Wolff is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc (previously known as InfraStrata plc), a London Stock Exchange-listed firm. In addition, it also owns the Islandmagee gas storage project, which is expected to provide 25% of the 海角视频’s natural gas storage capacity and to benefit the Northern Irish economy as a whole when completed.