Titanic creator Harland & Wolff prepares to relaunch

Harland & Wolff was awarded a £1.6 billion contract to build three ships.

Belfast-based shipyard Harland & Wolff plans to restart production for the first time since 2003. The company that built the legendary Titanic at the beginning of the last century signed a major contract with the British Royal Navy.

According to The Financial Times, the new owner of the shipyard was the head of the London energy company InfraStrata John Wood, who bought the business at auction for 6 million pounds sterling.

Wood reported that Harland & Wolff received a state contract to build three ships for the British Royal Navy worth 1.6 billion pounds. The shipyard's partner on the project will be the Spanish company Navantia.

The businessman noted that after the change of ownership, Harland & Wolff is carrying out a “serious transformation” of the business, and the conclusion of a new contract will allow “breathing new life” into both the shipyard and the region itself.

Harland & Wolff will create up to 700 additional jobs as part of the expansion. Construction of the new ships is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2032.

Harland & Wolff was founded in 1961 and by the early twentieth century was considered the largest ship builder in the world. About 30 thousand people worked in the state of the shipyard. The Titanic was built from 1909 to 1911. In addition, Harland & Wolff produced 140 military and over 120 merchant ships. The last launch took place in 2003 - it was the Anvil Point ferry commissioned by the British Ministry of Defense. In subsequent years, the shipyard did not build new ships, but specialized in the repair of ships, wind turbines and floating platforms.