King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands visits Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead as part of a trade mission to explore Dutch-British shipbuilding collaboration. Tony McDonough reports
Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead hosted a royal visitor on Tuesday.
At the invitation of the yard’s owner, Balaena, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands came to Wirral as part of a trade mission to explore Dutch-British shipbuilding collaboration. Innovation, manufacturing technology and skills were on the agenda.
Accompanied by Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sjoerd Sjoerdsma and Dutch government and embassy officials, the king visited the yard alongside Dutch and UK maritime companies.
He addressed guests on the yard’s south slipway, where he met representatives of the businesses, with Balaena Group chief executive Simon Gillett and Cammell Laird managing director Mike Hill.
He then toured the yard, seeing first-hand the engineering expertise behind its naval and commercial shipbuilding capabilities, demonstrated by past projects such as RRS Sir David Attenborough.
This tour showcased work underway across the yard, from vessels in the wet basin to the Isle of Man Steam Packet’s Manxman in the yard’s largest dry dock.
It ended at Birkenhead’s Engineering College where the King met apprentices training in welding, pipework and engineering design, alongside graduate naval architects.
Simon Gillett said he was proud to have had the opportunity to howcase not only the “proud heritage of British shipbuilding, but also its renewed strength, ambition and potential”.
He added: “The UK and the Netherlands have a longstanding maritime relationship, founded on shared heritage, expertise and innovation. We see enormous potential to deepen that partnership, unlock new opportunities and work together.”
Following the visit to Cammell Laird the King visited several other locations in the area and was later joined by Simon Gillett and Mike Hill aboard Dutch naval vessel HNLMS Johan de Witt, moored at Liverpool Cruise Terminal.
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Dutch Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma also said: “Our Dutch strength is that we serve the entire maritime value chain – with specialised shipbuilding, offshore expertise, sustainable solutions, and innovation.
“By working together and building more structural partnerships, there is so much that we can achieve and I am looking forward to strengthening our maritime cooperation further.”
In June LBN revealed that Balaena, a Cornwall-based maritime engineering and shipbuilding group, had acquired Cammell Laird’s parent company APCL Group. This also includes two other shipyard and engineering businesses, A&P Tyne and A&P Falmouth.