Given what is at stake, it would be great to see everyone get behind Ferguson Marine or at least recognise the importance of having this shipbuilding capacity now and for future generations, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell.

Hopefully, this new chapter will be a good one.

“While we acknowledge the challenges of the recent past, they do not define our future. We are returning to the core of what we do best: delivering world-class vessels on the Clyde.”

That was how Graeme Thomson, who became chief executive of Ferguson Marine on May 1 last year, put it this week when it was announced that the Scottish Government planned the direct award of contracts to build four vessels to the Port Glasgow yard.

Much of the coverage of Ferguson Marine in recent years has related to major time and cost overruns on the contract to build the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa ferries for Caledonian MacBrayne’s Arran services, which was awarded back in 2015.

The Glen Sannox has been in service since January 2025, having been delivered about six-and-a-half years later than originally planned. The Glen Rosa, for which a further delay was announced in December, is now expected to be delivered in the final quarter of this year.

When I interviewed her in June last year, the month after the previous delay in delivery of the Glen Rosa to the second quarter of 2026 was announced, Scottish Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “I, of course, was really disappointed with the delay to the Glen Rosa and the budget implications of that delay. And I was very clear in public at the time that I........

© Herald Scotland