Harland & Wolff Group Holdings PLC (AIM:HARL)'s subsidiary, Harland & Wolff (Belfast) Limited has been awarded a contract to dry dock two cruise ships from Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) subsidiaries P&O Cruises and Cunard.
The two ships - P&O Cruises' Aurora and Cunard's Queen Victoria - will stay in the Belfast shipyard for 33 days in total, where they will undergo standard drydocking operations, allowing Harland & Wolff to demonstrate its capabilities and expertise in this kind of projects to the wider cruise industry.
Queen Victoria will be the largest cruise ship to drydock at a UK shipyard, and the first Cunard vessel to drydock in Belfast, Harland & Wolff said in a statement.
It added that the contract win marks another milestone in the company's reactivation strategy across key markets - to operate in five markets and six sectors so that projects can be completed in a timely manner and jobs can remain in place for a long time. Vessel owners will benefit from improved productivity and lower project costs.
Under the newly released National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSbS), repair and maintenance projects, as well as life support services, are key activities that will enhance Harland & Wolff's productivity and enable it to win new projects, the company noted.
The NSbS indicates that over 150 domestic vessels will be built in the coming years, in addition to the fabrication works for the renewables sector following the latest ScotWind licensing round and future licensing rounds yet to be announced.
"When acquiring the assets of Harland and Wolff (Belfast) in December 2019 and in a pre-pandemic period, the cruise industry was one of our key target markets. Our facilities are ideally placed to capitalise on these types of large projects whilst we continue servicing our smaller but regular clients," said John Wood, chief executive at Harland & Wolff.
"We have now secured contracts in four out of our five markets; commercial, cruise & ferry, renewables and energy - we now hope to complete the final milestone of securing a defence contract in the near future."
David Varty, vice-president maritime at Carnival UK, added: "We are delighted to be able to build these two ships at Harland & Wolff, a UK shipyard with a long tradition and reputation, and we look forward to supporting the UK maritime industry."
Shares in Harland & Wolff Group Holdings were up 4.60% at 22.75p.