Posted on 08/06/2019 6:25:01 AM PDT by C19fan
For more than 150 years, it has played a key part in the maritime, economic and cultural story of these islands.
As of 5.15pm yesterday, however, Harland & Wolff ceased to exist as a company.
Once the greatest shipyard in the world — producing some of the most famous ships in British history — the Belfast institution had seen its workforce dwindle from 35,000 to just 125 employees.
They have now received redundancy notices and, this morning, the firm of accountants appointed as administrators, BDO, will file for insolvency.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
A time to....
A time to...
A time to..
A time to.
THEIR TIME HAD COME AND GONE, LIKE TWO SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT...................
Out of curiosity, I looked it up. The eight largest shipbuilding companies (as of 2016) are all in Asia. Number 9 is in Italy. Number 10 is in Russia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_shipbuilding_companies
Technically, I believe that Harland & Wolff stopped being a shipbuilding firm some time ago. They were reduced to marine engineering and ship repair if memory serves.
Interesting. Why do you suppose the USA doesn’t have at least one in the top ten? The only element I can think of as a likely financial disadvantage is labor cost.
Interesting. Why do you suppose the USA doesn’t have at least one in the top ten? The only element I can think of as a likely financial disadvantage is labor cost.
Labor cost, regulations, taxes...
As of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry has been the prime focus, and 75% of the company's work is based on offshore renewable energy.[3]
How's that New Green Economy working for you, Harland & Wolff? Good enough to kill off a 150 year old company.
he Japanese, Korean, and European Governments made it a standard practice to support their shipbuilding subsidy programs
“My father shovels ashes in the shipyard.”
Best said while literally holding your tongue.
Also consider the existence of steel plants and machine works that exist in Asia but are gone from the west. Those heavy industry companies like Mitsubishi make more than ships, like aircraft, cars and trucks, kitchen appliances, and electronic gadgets. Maybe Ford is the only one I can think of, but is tiny in comparison.
Commercial ship building in the U.S. essentially ended in the 1980’s. There are heavy industry companies in the U.S. Caterpillar, GE etc. Korea and Greece decided to subsidies ship building and the U.S. threw in the towel. China and Japan later followed suit in the ship building subsidy.
I worked for Mitsubishi in a former life. We also made steam, gas and combined cycle turbines. We got out of the small consumer electronics business (computers, radios, televisions, etc.) during my time there and, in return, our friendly competitor Sony agreed not to go into large consumer electronics (refrigerators, washers, air conditioning units, etc.)
Just so!
Private enterprises CANNOT COMPETE with government subsidies!
That is one reason that Airbus has managed to wrangle sales away FRom Boeing prior to the 737 Max disaster!
Airbus R&D costs are subsidized by FRiendly governments, and their competitors have to recover R&D costs FRom their sales.
Airbus can sell airliners far cheaper than their competitors thanks to government subsidies!
“Insolvency right ahead”!
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