MOD rejected bid to make Navy tankers in the UK

There’s a story in the Daily Mail today that shows Defence Secretary Philip Hammond turned down an offer to have a Navy tanker built in the UK – and help Britain’s struggling shipbuilding industry. Instead the contract was sent to South Korea. The Mail says:

“Ministers snubbed a defence company’s pledge to build one of the Royal Navy’s new £125million tankers in Britain – instead handing the work to South Korea. A leaked letter has revealed Italian firm Fincantieri told Defence Secretary Philip Hammond that it would construct a 37,000-tonne vessel from scratch in a UK shipyard if it won the contract.

The Trieste-based engineering giant also guaranteed at least 35 per cent of work on all four ships would take place here, safeguarding jobs and skills and injecting money into the declining industry. But the Ministry of Defence instead chose Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering for the £452million deal, which was announced on Wednesday. This was despite the South Korean firm placing only 20 per cent of the work in this country.”

This morning we’ve received the leaked Fincantieri letter that proves Hammond had a chance to provide a boost to British manufacturing, but turned it down. You can read that letter below: