Northwest England News

Around 600 workers at Liverpool port, one of Britain's busiest ports, will end strike action after agreeing a pay deal with employer Peel Ports, the Unite union said on Thursday.Unite said workers had voted "overwhelmingly in favor" of pay rises worth 14.3%-18.5% negotiated earlier this week, ending a wave of strike action that began on Sept. 19.The port in Liverpool, northwest England, handles more than 70 million tonnes of cargo from across the globe, according to Peel Ports.(Reuters - Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Global commercial fishing activity for 2020 fell by around 1 million hours as of end-April, a 6.5% decline over the two previous years, the result of plummeting demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns, according to Global Fishing Watch.Fishing fleets spent 14.4 million hours on the water for the year so far to April 28, a decline from an average of 15.4 million hours for the same year-to-date periods of 2018 and 2019, according to the nonprofit organization that tracks fishing operation worldwide.Global Fishing Watch collects and analyses data from onboard identification systems known as AIS…

RRS Shackleton, RRS Endeavour, RRS Falcon, RRS Fish ‘N’ Chips and RRS Kanye are just a few of the suggestions submitted in an open campaign to name the U.K.’s next state-of-the-art polar research vessel. But leading the vote is a name that’s even more out of the ordinary: RRS Boaty McBoatface. The U.K.’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) last week issued a call for the public to recommend names for the country’s new £200 million polar research ship. “We would like the name to be inspirational and about environmental and polar science…

Britain's energy ministry on Friday approved the expansion of Dong Energy's Burbo Bank offshore wind farm in the Liverpool Bay of northwest England, paving the way for the Danish company to build on its leading position in the UK market. Britain's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change gave the green light to the project which will comprise up to 69 turbines totalling 250 megawatts (MW) in capacity, enough electricity for 170,000 homes. "Today's announcement is an important step in clearing the way for the company to make a final investment decision on Burbo Bank Extension," said Brent Cheshire, DONG Energy's UK chairman. Onshore construction on the project is expected to start in November…

Global container carrier Evergreen Line announced enhancements to its services to/from Dublin (Ireland) and Liverpool (Northwest England). From its hub in Rotterdam, the line will offer a twice-weekly service to Dublin and dedicated slots on a weekly basis to Liverpool. The move is designed to more effectively integrate the line's services to/from the North of England and Ireland with its extensive global network, the company said. Evergreen will run its own independent service on a weekly shuttle basis between Rotterdam and Dublin and will also commence a slot exchange arrangement with common carrier X-PRESS feeders on its weekly Dublin service from Rotterdam.

A British shipbuilding union sought urgent talks on Friday with the UK trade secretary to save 700 jobs threatened by the likely loss of a contract at Merseyside shipbuilders Cammell Laird Holdings Plc, Reuters reported. The Italian cruise liner Costa Classica, owned by the Costa Crociere unit of U.S. group Carnival Corp, had been due to arrive for refitting at the docks in northwest England but was now heading back for Genoa. "It is bad news for the Merseyside yard...but we are not purely a shipbuilding company," a Cammell Laird spokesman said. Cammell Laird's shares and bonds sank on the news the company faced potentially lengthy litigation over the contract. The stock closed down 39 percent on Nov. 24.

Cammell Laird Holdings Plc is trying to hammer out a new agreement this week to save a nearly $76 million (51 million pound) cruise liner contract and protect hundreds of jobs, the Daily Telegraph reported. Cammell was also looking for a breakthrough later this week on talks about bank financing for a 350 million pound order for two cruise liners from Luxus (U.K.), a new start-up company, the paper said. It said senior executives headed by Chief Executive John Stafford were studying fresh proposals on the cruise liner contract. They were put forward by Costa Crociere, the Italian cruise line owned by U.S. Carnival Corp., after two and a half days of talks in Genoa last week, the paper said.

The finale of a long-standing saga is not good news for Britain’s Cammell Laird, which announced that it lost a crucial $74.7 million contract on Wednesday, which is likely to put hundreds of jobs at risk. The company is considering its legal options. The shipbuilder and repairer said the owner of cruise ship Costa Classica, Costa Crociere of Italy -- a unit of U.S. group Carnival Corp -- had terminated a contract for the ship's conversion. Bonds of Cammell Laird tumbled 20 points after the announcement. Cammell Laird said the letter it had received terminating the contract was unclear and that it was taking legal advice to ascertain what impact it had, if any, on the existing arbitration process initiated in November 2000.

Cammell Laird, under threat of losing a key $500 million deal with U.S. cruise ship firm Luxus, said it had won a U.K. Navy contract, helping safeguard 150 jobs at the group. "The work will generate employment security throughout the period (82 days) for some 150 personnel," Cammell Laird Holdings Plc said in a statement. The contract to repair the Fort George ship at Tyneside, northeast England, is worth just under $7.17 million. "It's certainly nowhere near the size of the Luxus contract, but it shows the market that we're out there fighting and winning work," Cammell Laird Managing Director Dave Skentelbery said. The company's stock has fallen more than 90 percent since November…

Struggling British shipbuilder Cammell Laird, which called in receivers last week, is to mothball its yard at Teesside, northeast England, and cut over 300 jobs nationally. Accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who are acting as receivers, said on Wednesday there would be 110 job losses at Teesside, 150 cut at Birkenhead, northwest England, and around 60 cuts at Tyneside, northeast England. The company, whose main shipyard was set up in 1824, had laid off an unspecified number of U.K. workers in recent weeks, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said. The group has a total U.K. workforce of nearly 2,000. Cammell Laird entered receivership after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances, causing it to suspend trading in its stock and bonds.

Trade in the shares and bonds of troubled British shipbuilder Cammell Laird was suspended on Wednesday, leaving investors and workers fearing the worst ahead of an announcement on its financial position. The company, whose main shipyard at Birkenhead near Liverpool in northwest England was established in 1824, has been under threat of losing a key $500 million dollar deal with a cruise ship firm. About 1,500 jobs at the Liverpool yard depend on the contract’s go ahead. Cammell Laird's shares were suspended at their Tuesday closing price of six pence at the company's request. The company has been headed toward a downward spiral for the last few months with its shares having fallen by more than 90 percent since November…

Insolvent British shipbuilder Cammell Laird Plc is cutting a further 117 staff, a spokesman for its receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers told Reuters on Monday. The spokesman said 34 jobs out of 59 were being shed at its Tyneside operation in northeast England while 83 of 136 jobs were being cut at Birkenhead in northwest England. Cammell Laird went into receivership in April after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances. Earlier this month, the firm, a symbol of the decline in British shipbuilding, announced it was axing 330 jobs on top of more than 600 job cuts made earlier in the year. Last Friday, ship repair outfit A&P Group Holdings bought the plant and equipment of each of Cammell Laird's yards at Birkenhead, Tyneside and at Teeside, also in northeast England.

Struggling shipbuilder Cammell Laird Plc, which has entered into receivership, is to cut a further 71 jobs in Britain on the back of over 600 previously announced redundancies. A spokeswoman for accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), acting as receivers for the group, said that the latest job cuts had arisen after the shipbuilder completed work on existing contracts. Cammell Laird, whose main yard was established in 1824, called in the receivers after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances, causing it to suspend trading in its shares. The decline in its fortunes marked a further fall in Britain's once-proud shipbuilding industry.

Cammell Laird Plc has axed another 146 jobs in the U.K., but a proposed management buyout of one of its yards held out the prospect on Wednesday of saving hundreds more. Cammell Laird, which called in the receivers in April, has announced over 600 job cuts in Britain this year after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances. A spokeswoman for accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), acting as receivers for the group, said that a management team had made an indicative offer for the Tyneside shipyard in northeast England. And PwC expects another management offer for Cammell Laird's plant at Birkenhead, northwest England, which was first established in 1824. The company has a current UK workforce of around 770.

Struggling shipbuilder Cammell Laird Plc, which is in receivership, has announced a further 187 jobs cuts in Britain on top of over 600 previously announced redundancies. Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), acting as receivers for the group, said on Wednesday that the latest cuts would see 95 jobs go at Tyneside, northeast England, and 45 redundancies at Birkenhead, northwest England. The company, which currently employs just under 700 workers in the U.K., called in the receivers after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances, causing it to suspend trading in its shares. The decline in the fortunes of Cammell Laird, whose main yard was set up in 1824, marked a further fall in Britain's once-proud shipbuilding industry.

The British government said on Tuesday it would split a new order for Type 45 destroyers for the Royal Navy between BAE Systems and Vosper Thornycroft. But BAE, which had been trying to win the whole deal, was quick to say the delay before work began meant it would cut more than 1,000 jobs at shipyards in Scotland and northwest England. "We have developed a revised strategy which allocates work on the ships between the two shipbuilders for the whole class of Type 45 destroyers," a top U.K. government official said. Britain agreed a one billion pound ($1.4 billion) contract late last year for three of the destroyers and said then it envisaged building a fleet of up to 12 in all.

Struggling shipbuilder Cammell Laird Plc is to cut a further 330 U.K. jobs on top of over 600 job cuts set in motion earlier this year after it entered into receivership following a series of cancelled orders. Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), acting as receivers for the group, said on Thursday that 153 jobs would go at Cammell's Birkenhead plant in northwest England. It said 166 job cuts will also take place at the company's Tyneside plant in northeast England, while 11 workers will also be made redundant at the nearby Teesside yard.