Harland and Wolff shipyard faces cuts or closure

The future of Belfast's troubled Harland and Wolff shipyard is at risk, the company announced yesterday.

The future of Belfast's troubled Harland and Wolff shipyard is at risk, the company announced yesterday.

It said any proposal to keep it going would involve a "substantial reduction" in employees. A shipyard statement said the process on deciding the way forward would be concluded within the next week.

Workers were last night waiting to hear whether any rescue package would involve another round of job losses - or worse. Norwegian parent company Olsen Energy held a board meeting in Oslo yesterday to discuss the yard's future. Later, Harland and Wolff admitted "the very future of the yard" was at risk.

Union leaders who met Fred Olsen, Harland's major shareholder, this week fear that hundreds more jobs could be axed or even that the entire yard may be shut down. The yard has little work, empty coffers and no firm orders, although it has conditional orders and letters of intent for work worth £500m.

Harland and Wolff has said it is hopeful of confirming the orders in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, after hundreds of the troubled yard's workers were made redundant earlier this summer, the 1,250 workers are on short time while Olsen Energy is having to foot a monthly wage bill of £2.5m.

The object of Olsen's board meeting is understood to have been to decide how long the drain on its resources could continue. Not much longer seems to have been the answer.

The most recent blow to the yard was a London High Court decision enabling United States oil company Global Marine to take delivery of a drill ship without paying the final instalment of £23m. The US firm claimed that the second of two vessels was not completed to its satisfaction by the 31 July deadline - a claim disputed by the shipyard.