Harland & Wolff Group Holdings shares rose 2.8% to 22.3p in late afternoon trading on Monday following reports that the company won a contract from P&O cruises for dry docking two cruise vessels in Harland & Wolff’s Belfast dock.
The two ships are scheduled to make port for dry dock later this year, with Cunard’s Queen Victoria entering from 2-19 May and P&O Cruise’s Aurora entering the yard from 9-23 June.
“We are delighted to be able to have these two ships at a UK shipyard with such a long heritage and reputation and we very much look forward to supporting the UK maritime industry and working closely with the Harland & Wolff team on this project,” said Carnival UK vice-president maritime David Varty.
The contract reportedly marks another milestone for Harland & Wolff’s re-activation strategy across its key markets, which include its goal to operate in five markets and six service sectors in a bid to ensure project continuity, and to provide longevity for its key workforce, with the aim of providing an improved productivity and reduction in project costs for vessel owners.
The company famous for facilitating the construction of the RMS Titanic mentioned that the recent release of the National Shipbuilding Strategy would be a key factor to boost productivity levels at Harland & Wolff.
According to the group, the addition of 150 domestic vessels to be built in the coming years is set to kick the group’s projects up several notches into gear as it anticipates a fresh wave of projects.
“When acquiring the assets of Harland and Wolff (Belfast) in December 2019 and in a pre-pandemic period, the cruise industry was one of our key target markets,” said Harland & Wolff CEO John Wood.
“Our facilities are ideally placed to capitalise on these types of large projects whilst we continue servicing our smaller but regular clients.”
“We have now secured contracts in four out of our five markets; commercial, cruise & ferry, renewables and energy – we now hope to complete the final milestone of securing a defence contract in the near future.”