Shipbuilding In Ireland

Frogeye

Hi

just wondering if there is any shipbuilding left in ireland?
I was looking at the defence forces website and noticed that a few of their ships were built in cork in the 80's. I'm guessing that this ship yard is long gone. The other obvious candidate is Harland and Wolff but looking at their website it seems that they are more geared towards refurbs and offshore platforms. Is there any where else?

Is ship building viable in ireland? The japs can build ships, the brits are still building ships ( just about...BAE are closing some yards after the next aircraft carriers are delivered), and the Koreans. None of these is exactly a low cost country. It seems strange that we don't build ships since we are an island nation ? Wouldn't it be great to have a big shipyard in ireland? Skilled jobs , serious engineering skills and equipment and a final product that you can stand back and be proud of?

Victor

There isn't the specialist engineering base to support it. Unless you are building dozens of ships per year, you just can't compete with China and Korea.

gobnaitolunacy

The Verholme Shipyard in Cork still exists, but they do refits and small work, they haven't built a ship in decades.

traco

Not shipbuilding but serious pieces of watercraft http://www.safehavenmarine.com/ and based in Cork

rcdk1

The guys in the Maritime forum might give you more info
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1539

Victor

Reference here to the construction of GARDIAN 8 at Arklow.
http://www.wicklowmaritime.com/2012_page01.htm

Killybegs also builds small craft.

323

Victor wrote: »

There isn't the specialist engineering base to support it. Unless you are building dozens of ships per year, you just can't compete with China and Korea.

Believe the engineering base is still here if the market for more specialized vessel was chased. We have quite a few respected specialist engineering companies operating in international markets.

Korea, great at mass producing fairly standard, relatively low tech ships, tankers, merchant etc.

China, cheap and nasty. generally incapable of any sort of quality work.

Link below is an example of what can happen with Chinese yards. Technip's new Deep Energy, an Offshore Construction Vessel. No doubt the, bean counters thought they would save a few 10's of millions by having her built in China. word is she will end up a few 100 million more.

Photo below is her being transported from china to Norway to essentially be rebuilt

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1419470

Hundreds of tons of steel, substandard - replaced

kilometers of welds, substandard - redone

10's of kilometers cable, substandard/wrong spec - pulled out and replaced

That was just the start.

long range shooter

If I where to build a dry dock in Ireland,I would rather do it for ship repairs and maintain acne,rather than building ships.
It's more money to make on it in the long run.
And another option could be to make a drydock big enough to maintain and repair oil rigs from the North Sea,like they do in Invergordon,Scotland,Gdansk in Poland,or Ølen in Norway.

Tabnabs

http://www.arklowmarine.ie/ are doing some interesting small commercial vessels.

Frogeye

thanks for the replies. I had a look around Arklow Marine Services website. glad to see we can at least build some "ships" in this country.

as for Technip and China, i'm not surprised. Every job I work on has restrictions on materials from outside western europe and the US placed on it by the client(-Technip being one of them!). Technip recently broke our hearts over the origin of steel we used and certification. Company I work for had a bad experience a few years back with a big pressure vessel fabricated in China. Bit of confusion over first angle and third angle on the part of the chinese!

The reason i started the thread was just to see what was out there. It occured to me that to grow an economy you have to make something. Given that we are an island nation in a strategic position it seemed strange that we didn't do more of it. Services are important but unless you make something your really just moving money around instead of bringing it in Making money off moving money around doesn't really create jobs for the average working class man in the street. And it is the working class men who are mostly on the dole.


If the government decided to start a ship building industry here, how would they go about it? Lets just assume its possible for the purposes of the discussion.
would we need a steel plant? Are there iron ore resources in Ireland or could we import it at a competitive price? What would our target market be? how about engineering skills? where could those be found? how would we train engineers and tradesmen?

Victor

You work with the skills you have and build off the experience you have. What some companies are doing is building hulls in places like Romania and fitting them out in Western Europe.

That way, you match the skills and quality control as appropriate - the metal working is cheap in Romania, while the quality control on the fitting out is much better in Dutch or German yards. Using the two yards probably means you can use the resources of the premium yards much more efficiently.

Having a steel mill is useful, but not essential, unless you are making things like chains, large anchors and heavy engine casings. What you want is a good price for steel at the appropriate grade. The cost of making steel is fundamentally about the cost of energy, which isn't cheap here.

Frogeye

Yeah, I know a thing or two about steel fabrication in eastern europe.....one thing it is , is cheap. Quality can vary.

Moving the hulls from Romania to Germany must be very expensive but I guess it is still significantly less than the cost of fabricating the hull in Germany etc.

There are steel mills in the UK so materials wouldn't be a problem, but what about the naval design capability? And things like radar and control systems, do we have that knowledge here?

wjr

Hello, "Regarding Shipbuilding in Ireland" we submitted a plan several years ago to build 20 Mtr. Patrol vessels, with return comments from the Minister: "your vessels are not capable of operating offshore, speed is not an issue as 20K. is adequate" and they (Irish Government) was in the negations to purchase two-three larger craft from a shipyard in the U.K. at a cost for two exceeding €150,000,000 (for two). The vessels are currently set for delivery in 2014. These vessels will replace older vessels currently in service. Their mission will be offshore patrol for smuggling, human traffic, fishing area patrol, interdiction and surveillance. It was also indicated that the vessels would travel to various ports in the EU to show the "New Irish Navy"


Are these vessel even needed for the Irish Waters?

The facts are there will be only two vessels available at any one given time (possibly only one) to cover roughly 5,000 Nm of Irish Coast Line and only if the vessels are not on show in France or the Med. The speed of these vessels are a meager 20K.

Our concept and presentation: Was to build smaller faster high performance long range vessels capable of operating off-shore in severe (Beaufort 10) weather conditions and be able to operate in shallow waters where large ships fear to go; here in Ireland, by the island inhabitants; the proposed 30 vessels could have ben built for less than the purchase price of two larger vessels purchased in the U.K. and would have spurned a new industry for domestic use and export.

It was estimated the cost to build thirty of our aluminum vessels, with more capabilities and performance, patrol coverage area (entire Irish coast-line), was less than the two large vessels currently under construction. Design, and digital engineering for mass production was done in the Netherlands.

If further information on this subject please contact me

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Thanks

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