Boat builder plans Clyde hub

A SCOTTISH boat builder has plans to establish a marine engineering hub on the Clyde with the potential to create 1,000 jobs.
Malin Group, which entered the aquaculture market earlier this year, bringing a 16.2m workboat to the Aviemore trade show in May, has commissioned an economic impact assessment on a 47-acre site in West Dunbartonshire, the BBC reported.
The site, formerly the Carless oil facility, is land zoned for industrial use. It also has direct access to a deep-water channel via an 80m long deep-water quayside berth with heavy lift facilities.
Malin Group managing director John MacSween believes the hub will be a ‘magnet’ for marine engineering and technology organisations and ‘a centre of excellence’ for the sector.
‘The heritage of the Clyde is something of which we should all be rightly proud,’ he said.
‘We have been working in the shipping industry for over 100 years and have a passion for the river and its history, but there is a need to be looking to the future to ensure the long-term success of the Clyde as a maritime centre of excellence.’
Malin said there was a lot of interest in its workboat from visitors to Aquaculture UK in Aviemore. The vessel, built for a Shetland mussel farmer, was towed to the exhibition from the company’s yard in Renfrew.
Graham Tait, managing director of Malin Marine, which has a background in the oil and gas sector, told Fish Farmer in May ‘it was good to see the huge potential there is for our company in aquaculture’.
‘We are very proud that our workboats can be designed and built in Scotland. Launching ships on the Clyde may indeed become a resurgent activity we hope.’
The proposed development on the Clyde, which is in an advanced stage of planning with West Dunbartonshire Council, will see a £10 million remediation and regeneration of the contaminated land that is a legacy of the past oil refinery.
Bodies involved in a consultation on the project included Scottish Canals, West Dunbartonshire Council, Crown Estates, Marine Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and SEPA.
Picture: Malin\’s workboat made its debut in Aviemore in May