It was great to hear the update from the owner of the major Scottish yard as a shipbuilding 'step forward' was celebrated, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell.

And there was very good news on the jobs front.

It was great to hear the update from the owner of a major Scottish fabrication yard on progress and plans this week.

Of particular cheer was a very significant rise in the workforce, in an area which has not had its challenges to seek in the wake of industrial decline accelerated by former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The fabrication yard at Methil - a town highlighted in The Proclaimers’ 1987 hit Letter from America as being among those hit so hard by industrial decline - was acquired in January last year by Navantia.

This Spanish state-owned group acquired the Methil operation and a fabrication yard at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis, following Harland & Wolff’s fall into administration. The acquisition also included the Harland & Wolff yards in Belfast and at Appledore in Devon.

Last summer, I reported exclusively on Navantia’s hopes of at least doubling the workforce at Methil to between 350 and 400 within the following two or three years.

And Navantia at that stage highlighted a possibility that the headcount at the Methil site could rise as high as 600, depending on the work that came into the yard.

In a subsequent column, I observed: “Too many of the stories around Scotland’s fabrication yards over the years and decades have been dismal: threats of closure which have often crystallised, job losses, hard times, and so on.

“There has been so much uncertainty for huge numbers of workers in this sector, at various locations, over the decades. Where there have been hopes of revival, sometimes these have been dashed. Much has changed over the decades for the fabrication yards, with........

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