BELFAST'S historic Harland and Wolff shipyard is being placed into administration today as 130 employees are given redundancy notices.

The shipyard, which is where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911, has been struggling in recent years due to stiff competition from abroad.

It is understood that the iconic firm, which once employed 30,000 people will file for insolvency tomorrow at the High Court in Belfast.

The company’s Norwegian owner, Dolphin Drilling, filed for bankruptcy in June and put the Belfast shipyard up for sale.

The company’s yellow cranes – named Samson and Goliath – dominate Belfast’s skyline but the workforce at the yard has declined from a peak of more than 35,000 in the 1920s to only 130 - as Northern Ireland’s shipbuilding industry has all but disappeared.

The yard, which now focuses on repair work on ships and oil rigs as well as wind turbines, made a loss of £5.8m (€6.3m) in 2016 – the last year for which it filed accounts – compared with a profit of £1.1m (€1.2) in 2015.

A spokesman for Harland and Wolff who confirmed the news today said: “There has been a series of board meetings, the result of which is that administrators will be appointed over the course of the day.”

It is understood that trade unions representing the firm's employees met with administrators today arguing that it is cheaper for the government to keep the shipyard open.

An employee who has been with Harland and Wolff for the last 37 years said the company is a crucial part of the city's history.

Robert Walker said: "I’ve worked for this company for 37 years now and it’s absolutely in my blood. It’s in my blood; it’s in Belfast’s DNA. This city was built around this company. It would be a terrible shame for us to lose it." </s> The Belfast shipyard famous for building the Titanic is set to go into administration later.

Harland and Wolff, one of Northern Ireland’s most historic brands, is facing closure after its trouble-hit Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer.

Workers have occupied the site since last Monday as part of a high-profile campaign to save the yard, which is due to formally cease trading at 5.15pm on Monday.

The shipbuilder, whose famous yellow cranes Samson and Goliath dominate the Belfast skyline, employed more than 30,000 people during Belfast’s industrial heyday, but now the workforce only numbers around 125.

It has diversified away from shipbuilding in the last two decades and until recently had primarily worked on wind energy and marine engineering projects.

Famed for building the doomed White Star liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg, Harland and Wolff was one of the UK’s key industrial producers during the Second World War, supplying almost 150 warships.

Workers have called on the Government to step in to rescue the operation, potentially through nationalisation.

But the Government has declined to intervene, insisting the issue is a commercial one.

Officials insist that EU State Aid rules limit the scope to offer financial support through public funds.

Speculation around potential eleventh-hour bidders has so far proved unfounded, with no-one tabling an offer to stave off administration.

Workers are due to meet this afternoon when they will decide whether to continue the occupation and prevent administrators accessing the site.

They will also meet DUP leader Arlene Foster at Stormont to discuss the situation.

Barry Reid, shop steward with the GMB union and a Harland and Wolff steel worker, questioned the contention that EU state aid rules prevented Government intervention.

“It’s a waiting game today, we are waiting to hear news,” he said.

“The Government keeps quoting European law – that’s all we get out of them, European law. It’s very strange when on October 31 we are out of Europe, so why are they hiding behind European law when they don’t want to believe in European law?” </s> BELFAST — The Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, Harland and Wolff, will be placed into administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, on Monday, a spokesman for the firm said.

“There has been a series of board meetings the result of which is that administrators will be appointed over the course of the day,” the spokesman said. </s> The iconic Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the Titanic, is going into administration on Monday.

[BELFAST] The iconic Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the Titanic, is going into administration on Monday.

"There has been a series of board meetings the result of which is that administrators will be appointed over the course of the day," said a spokesman for the shipbuilder.

Democratic Unionist Party lawmaker Gavin Robinson earlier told BBC Radio Ulster that a short-term solution "seems increasingly unlikely" and that "we've pulled all the political levers that we can."

The shipyard is due to formally cease trading at 5.15pm (1615 GMT) on Monday.

Dolphin Drilling, the Norwegian parent of Harland and Wolff, is struggling to find a buyer for the giant of Northern Ireland's industrial past, whose huge yellow cranes have towered over the Belfast skyline for decades.

The shipbuilder employed more than 30,000 people in the early 20th century, but now has only 130 workers.

Many of them have protested at the site since last week in a bid to save the yard, calling for the government to intervene amid rumours of last-minute buyouts.

"It's a waiting game today, we are waiting to hear news," said Barry Reid, shop steward with the GMB union.

As well as building the doomed Titanic, which sank in 1912, Harland and Wolff supplied almost 150 warships during World War II.

It has since moved away from shipbuilding and was until recently working mostly on wind energy and marine engineering projects. </s> 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.

Though the company had been in steady decline for the past half a century — and had not made a ship for more than 15 years — it had been attempting to reposition itself as a force in the offshore energy sector.

However, having spent nine months seeking a buyer, its Norwegian owners, Dolphin Drilling (part of the Fred Olsen empire), have given up.

The two giant ‘H & W’ yellow dockyard cranes — known as ‘Samson’ and ‘Goliath’ — may be to Belfast what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.

As of today, however, they merely serve as memorials to the days when the city was the engine room of the British Empire.

As the Financial Times recorded in March 1914, Belfast was then ‘the premier shipbuilding centre of the entire world’.

And it owed its global pre-eminence to a partnership formed in 1861 between Yorkshire-born Edward Harland (a former apprentice to George Stephenson, ‘father of the railways’) and Hamburg-born shipbuilder Gustav Wolff (who went on to become a Tory MP).

Through innovations such as iron decking and broader hulls, the company developed a reputation for building stronger, larger vessels, culminating in a fleet of ocean liners — including the Olympic, the Britannic and the Titanic.

The sinking of the latter, in 1912, was one of the greatest disasters in maritime history. Yet it did nothing to dent the prestige of Belfast or of its most famous employer.

That same year, Harland & Wolff acquired new yards in Govan, Liverpool and Southampton, while the Observer editor, James Garvin, noted: ‘Belfast has never been more prosperous, more progressive and more proud of itself.’

Having played a key part in warship production during World War I, Harland & Wolff branched out into aircraft production in the Thirties and was central to efforts during World War II.

As well as producing more than 130 warships, and several aircraft carriers and the cruiser, HMS Belfast — still moored in pride of place next to London’s Tower Bridge — the workforce also manufactured Stirling bombers and hundreds of Churchill tanks.

This prodigious output came at a price. In 1941, Harland & Wolff was the principal target of the Belfast Blitz. On April 15, 932 people were killed and 50,000 homes were destroyed.

No city outside London — not even Coventry — suffered such losses in a single night. Since there had been no widespread evacuation programme, many of the dead were children.

Come peacetime, the company gradually began to lose its pre-eminence as British shipbuilding was overtaken by cheaper, more efficient rivals.

Even so, it was Harland & Wolff which produced one of the great post-war liners, P&O’s Canberra, in 1960.

Having featured in the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, she is best-remembered for her role as a troopship in the Falklands War, serving in the thick of the action.

As Northern Ireland suffered from the Troubles, so, too, did the shipyard. Historically, Harland & Wolff had always maintained a predominantly Protestant workforce.

Links between the yard, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Orange Order were strong, unambiguous and the source of frequent charges of sectarianism.

For their part, Unionists pointed out that the workforce had also included Joe Cahill, a convicted murderer who went on to be the IRA’s chief of staff.

The company was nationalised in 1977 and then returned to private hands in 1989 following its sale to a consortium made up of management, the workforce and Norway’s Fred Olsen shipping empire.

With the largest dry dock in Europe, it focused on a new range of ships for the oil industry and the Royal Navy. However, it proved hard enough to compete with British rivals, let alone the wider world.

In 2000, H&W pinned its hopes on the contract to build the new Queen Mary 2 for Cunard, only to lose out to the French.

The last of more than 300 ships to bear the imprimatur of Harland & Wolff was a roll-on/roll-off ferry commissioned by the Ministry of Defence.

Called the MV Anvil Point, it left the yard in 2003. The company continued to seek new contracts repairing other ships and servicing the increasingly lucrative renewable energy market.

Last year, it was involved in assembling wind turbines for the North Sea. But it was not enough.

Despite the latest demands for emergency government intervention, the gates have now closed.

‘People will not be surprised but they will be wistful,’ says the Belfast-born historian and academic Lord Bew, 69, recalling that his parents were both GPs with thousands of their patients employed at the shipyard.

‘When I was growing up, the very idea of Belfast without shipyards was unthinkable.’

In his book, Auld Hands, former H&W employee Tom Thompson recounts the lively culture of the shipyard and some of the famous people connected to it. The singer, Van Morrison, grew up in the shadow of Harland & Wolff where his father, George, worked as an electrician.

Our most famous flautist, Sir James Galway, is the son of an H&W riveter, ‘Jimbo’ Galway, a well-known local musician in his day.

Another riveter, Bob Bishop, was responsible for discovering a promising young Manchester United footballer called George Best.

Ironically, despite the company’s many triumphs, it is Harland & Wolff’s greatest disaster for which it is best remembered.

The old shipyard district has been rebranded as ‘The Titanic Quarter’, complete with museum and packed waterfront restaurants.

Thanks to the enduring appeal of the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster, the Titanic story continues to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Last month, the city’s port and tourism authorities jointly pulled off one of the great public relations masterstrokes of modern times: opening a new purpose-built cruise ship terminal on a site dedicated to the worst cruise ship tragedy of all time.

So, Harland & Wolff may sadly be no more. But as the Oscar-winning theme tune goes: ‘My Heart Will Go On . . .’ </s> Cables are strewn over the ground in front of the Samson Crane at the Harland and Wolff shipyard after workers voted to continue their occupation of the shipyard, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Aug. 5, 2019. Harland and Wolff, which is one of Northern Ireland’s most historic brands with credits including for building the RMS Titanic, is facing closure after its trouble-hit Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer. (Liam McBurney/PA via AP)

LONDON (AP) — The Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic has called in administrators after last-ditch efforts failed to rescue a company that had once typified Britain’s industrial might.

Harland and Wolff appointed BDO as administrators after its Norwegian parent company, Dolphin Drilling, failed to find a buyer, union officials said. An insolvency hearing is set for Tuesday.

The shipyard was best known for constructing the doomed White Star liner, Titanic, which sank on its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg. But the firm was one of U.K.’s key industrial producers during World War II, building some 150 ships. Its massive yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath, are considered landmarks of Belfast — a point of pride.

It once boasted a workforce of 30,000, but now employs only about 125, though it supported hundreds of other jobs in its supply chain.

Shipyard workers vowed to occupy the shipyard until heavy industry and shipbuilding could be secured, but the government so far has declined to intervene. Union officials blame Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative government, accusing them of having no coherent plan to safeguard manufacturing jobs.

“The future of Harland and Wolff is more than a ‘commercial issue’ that the prime minister can stand by and do nothing about,” said Michael Mulholland, an organizer for the GMB union. “But we will not give up on this famous shipyard. The occupation will continue and our battle will continue.”

In recent years, the shipyard has diversified to work on cruise liner retrofits and wind energy projects.

This story has corrected the spelling of Samson. </s> Image copyright Rebecca Black/pa

Accountancy firm BDO has been appointed administrators to Harland and Wolff, a spokesman for the Belfast shipyard has said.

An insolvency request is expected to be filed at the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday.

The move puts 120 jobs at risk and could spell the end of the iconic firm, best known for building the Titanic.

Union sources said staff were given redundancy notices saying the business will cease trading on Monday evening.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The history of the Belfast shipyard

A week ago, workers said they had taken control of the site and established a rota to ensure their protest continued around the clock.

After the administrators were appointed on Monday, workers said their protest would continue.

At a press conference, trade unionists representing staff warned they will stand against the DUP in a forthcoming general election if the party does not do more to support workers.

Image copyright Pacemaker Image caption Unions representing H&W workers held a press conference on Monday

Harland and Wolff's best known vessel is the Titanic, which was built at the yard between 1909 and 1911.

At its height, Harland and Wolff employed more than 30,000 people.

The firm had been up for sale amid serious financial problems at its Norwegian owner.

Unions representing workers have called for the shipyard to be nationalised, arguing that it would be cheaper for the government to keep the shipyard open.

However, the government has said the crisis is "ultimately a commercial issue".

'No order book'

East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson, from the DUP, said officials had advised against government intervention.

"We've pulled all the political levers that we can," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Image caption DUP MP Gavin Robinson said government intervention would conflict with state aid rules

The MP said Harland and Wolff had asked the government for shortfall funding of £650,000, which would have given the company "breathing space" for the month of August "so that they could explore other options".

But he added: "The official advice is that it cannot be done for three reasons: there is no order book at present so the money would be going in with no generation of product or profit; and there was no ability to secure the loans or pay them back; and it would also conflict with state aid rules."

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would have nationalised the shipyard and he accused the government of betraying the workers.

Image caption John McDonnell said Harland and Wolff could win future Navy contracts

Mr McDonnell, who visited Harland and Wolff staff in Belfast on Monday, said the shipyard has the potential for future work.

He said he saw no reason why naval ships could not be built in Belfast in the future, in order to maintain the skills and capacity at Harland and Wolff.

Warships

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said the shipyard "should be returned to the people".

"The entire trade union movement across these islands stands as one with the workers at the shipyard," said ICTU assistant general secretary, Owen Reidy.

Image copyright fox photos/getty images Image caption The HMS Eagle was launched by Princess Elizabeth in March 1946

Prolific builder of ocean liners

The shipyard was founded in 1861 by Yorkshireman Edward Harland and a German, Gustav Wolff.

By the early 20th Century, it was the world's most prolific builder of ocean liners.

It was one of Northern Ireland's key industrial assets during World War Two, producing 140 warships, 123 merchant ships and more than 500 tanks.

Its workforce reached a peak in the post-war years when it employed about 35,000 people.

By the late 1950s, the yard was facing increased global competition and the impact of the rise of air travel.

Image copyright Ron Case/getty images Image caption The Canberra was built for P&O to sail between London and Sydney

The launch of the Canberra in 1960 marked the last cruise liner to be built in Belfast.

By the mid-1960s the business was in serious decline.

At one stage in 1966, the management went to the old Stormont government and pleaded for a subsidy because it did not have enough money to cover the next pay day.

That was the start of more than 30 years of subsidies, during which about £1bn of taxpayers' money was pumped into Harland and Wolff to keep it afloat.

The firm was nationalised in 1975 with the Northern Ireland Office minister, Stan Orme, describing the business as having "a sorry financial record".

Image copyright Peter Macdiarmid/getty images Image caption Much of the shipyard's work in recent years has been in the construction of offshore wind turbines

By that stage it was still employing about 10,000 people.

It returned to private ownership in 1989 through a management-employee buyout, backed by the Norwegian industrialist Fred Olsen.

It increasingly focused on the oil and gas sectors, but struggled to compete against major shipbuilders in east Asia.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Anvil Point beneath the Harland and Wolff cranes after it was built in 2003

The yard built its last ship in 2003 - a Ministry of Defence ferry called the Anvil Point.

Since then, it has worked on other areas of marine engineering such as oil rig refurbishment and offshore wind turbines.

What happens now?

The administrators will try to restart a sales process.

There is likely to be some interest. The Newry firm, MJM, that specialises in ship fitout, is a potential bidder.

At least one property company is also interested in the business.

But the future is not bright for the workforce, even if the business is sold to a new industrial operator. </s> Cables are strewn over the ground in front of the Samson Crane at the Harland and Wolff shipyard after workers voted to continue their occupation of the shipyard, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Aug. 5, 2019. Harland and Wolff, which is one of Northern Ireland’s most historic brands with credits including for building the RMS Titanic, is facing closure after its trouble-hit Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer. (Liam McBurney/PA via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Belfast-based consultancy BDO Northern Ireland Partners says it will oversee the administration of the shipyard that built the Titanic after the firm ran out of money.

Harland and Wolff appointed BDO as administrators after its Norwegian parent company, Dolphin Drilling, failed to find a buyer following its insolvency.

The Belfast shipyard was best known for constructing the doomed White Star liner that sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. It once boasted a workforce of 30,000, but now employs about 125, though it supported hundreds of other jobs in its supply chain.

In recent years, it has worked on wind energy and marine engineering projects.

BDO said Tuesday it is engaging immediately with employees and stakeholders “to take all necessary steps to ensure they are supported throughout the administration process.” </s> A iconic piece of the United Kingdom's industrial heritage is set to be lost forever today when the Belfast shipyard which built the Titanic closes its massive steel gates for the final time after 130 years.

Harland and Wolff, founded in 1861 and one of Northern Ireland's most historic brands, is set to fold after its trouble-hit Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling failed to find a buyer.

Its mighty 300ft-tall yellow gantry cranes, named after Biblical fighters Samson and Goliath, have towered over the Belfast skyline since their construction in the late 1960s and in its heyday the dock employed close to 35,000 workers.

It launched the White Star Line's other Olympic Class liners - the Olympic and the Britannic - as well as HMS Belfast, the Royal Navy cruiser which now lies at anchor as a museum near Tower Bridge in London.

But after decades of decline of heavy industry across the UK, and having narrowly missed out on the contract to build the Queen Mary II in 2003, the dock has struggled to remain viable despite diversifying into wind energy and marine engineering projects. 



A well-publicised campaign by the GMB union on behalf of the 125 remaining staff called on the government to 'save our shipyard', but despite a week-long occupation of the site by staff facing redundancy the famous yard is due to cease trading at 5.15pm this afternoon.

The shipbuilder diversified away from shipbuilding in the last two decades and until recently had primarily worked on wind energy and marine engineering projects.

Famed for building the doomed White Star liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg, Harland and Wolff was one of the UK's key industrial producers during the Second World War, supplying almost 150 warships.

It also built the SS Canberra, the mighty cruise liner which was used as a troop transport to ferry British soldiers to the Falkland Islands during the 1982 conflict.

Workers have called on the Government to step in to rescue the operation, potentially through nationalisation.

But the Government has declined to intervene, insisting the issue is a commercial one.

Officials insist that EU State Aid rules limit the scope to offer financial support through public funds.

Speculation around potential eleventh-hour bidders has so far proved unfounded, with no-one tabling an offer to stave off administration.

Workers are due to meet this afternoon when they will decide whether to continue the occupation and prevent administrators accessing the site.

This morning administrators arrived for a meeting with workers, who have maintained a round-the-clock demonstration at the gates of the historic shipyard for a week in hopes of a last-minute deal to save it.

With just hours to go until trading is due to officially cease at 5.15pm, workers are holding meetings with the administrators and later with DUP leader Arlene Foster at Stormont.

They will also meet DUP leader Arlene Foster at Stormont to discuss the situation.

Barry Reid, shop steward with the GMB union and a Harland and Wolff steel worker, questioned the contention that EU state aid rules prevented Government intervention.

'It's a waiting game today, we are waiting to hear news,' he said.

'The Government keeps quoting European law – that's all we get out of them, European law. It's very strange when on October 31 we are out of Europe, so why are they hiding behind European law when they don't want to believe in European law?'

Ulster Unionist MLA Andy Allen has been at the gates of Harland and Wolff where workers are maintaining their week-long demonstration and said it is not too late for a last-minute rescue for the shipyard.

'We're heading towards the final hours but it's still not too late to deliver a solution for the workforce,' he said.

'We have seen empty platitudes from the Government so far, they need to step up to the mark, they really need to take this by the mantle and deliver for this workforce, the Secretary of State hiding behind Europe and the Prime Minister not coming out and delivering for this workforce will have a massive impact and massive ramification for the wider community here in east Belfast, but not only east Belfast, right across Northern Ireland.

'We as politicians need to step up to the mark, I've said before I believe it is a dereliction of duty that we are not up there in the Assembly delivering for the men and women of the shipyard and the rest of the manufacturing industry right across Northern Ireland and indeed every family, we have 125,000 people on the hospital waiting list and we are failing them. It is not acceptable.'
Harland and Wolff, known for constructing several famous ships, including the RMS Titanic and HMS Belfast, collapses into administration. All 130 employees have been given redundancy notices, and the company is expected to cease trading after 158 years.