Macduff Shipyards secures £3.3m contract

The contract is for four 150T steel feed barges and two 15m landing craft general purpose fish farm vessels. The barges and vessels have been designed by the yard in cooperation with Macduff Ship Design and will have a capacity of 150T each, to be fitted with Orbit GMT feeding systems, and powered by John Deere engines.

Jim Gallagher, Managing Director of Scottish Sea Farms, said, “This latest contract is part of our £13 million planned investment programme for new site activity and we are looking to spend as much of this money with Scottish firms as we can. Two of these vessels are destined for our new sites in Orkney and Kishorn, where we are creating at least 10 new jobs and fresh opportunities for trainees and apprenticeships. The others are upgrades for our existing sites and mainland operations. The new sites are required to help us meet the growing demand from our domestic clients and will develop over time to create export values of approximately £10 million per site.”

Managing Director of Macduff Shipyards Ltd, John Watt, commented: “The contract will be completed in the Macduff and Buckie yards and this type of project allows us to plan for the future. The yard has just taken on 10 new apprentices this year and increased the workforce to cover the additional work. Also it is good news for subcontractors who work at the yard and the local economy, it’s good to be competitive and keep this type of work in Scotland.”

Although Macduff Shipyards Ltd has worked on refurbishing barges and vessels for Scottish Sea Farms for many years, this is the first time that new barges have been built at the yard.

Two barges are due to be delivered by the end of 2014 with a further two barges and the two vessels next year.

The yard is currently completing the Benarkle for local skipper Mark Addison and partners and has started construction of a 15m scalloper for Kallin Shellfish.