BiFab is to enter administration after a meeting of the Scottish fabricator’s board agreed to the move.
A statement said the move follows the Scottish government’s removal of “contract assurances” in relation to a deal for eight jackets for the 450MW Neart na Gaoithe project.
The company, owned by Canadian outfit JV Driver and which counts Holyrood as a minority shareholder, said it “worked tirelessly to bring jobs into Fife and Lewis with some success”.
“However, the absence of supply chain protections in Scotland and the wider UK have consistently undermined our ability to compete with Government owned and Government supported yards outside and inside the European Union,” added a statement.
“We would urge the Scottish and UK Governments to address these structural challenges as a matter of urgency in order to ensure that the benefits of offshore renewables are shared more widely with communities across the country.”
The Scottish government said it is ready to “work with any company” that is interested in taking on the company’s three yards.
“We will now work with the administrators and trade unions to secure a new future for the BiFab yards in Fife and the Western Isles, helping ensure they are able to diversify and compete in this competitive market,” said Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
Hyslop added she knows it is an “extremely worrying” time for BiFab workers but repeated a government claim there was no legal way of providing the backing required to execute the NNG deal.
“As a minority shareholder, we have been exhaustive in our consideration of the options available to us to support BiFab,” she said.
“In order to successfully secure and deliver new contracts, BiFab required working capital, the provision of appropriate assurance packages by the shareholders, and plans for investment at the sites. Despite commitments made at the time of acquisition, this is something the majority shareholder JV Driver was not willing to provide to secure future work.”
In a joint statement, unions Unite and GMB said the administration “exposes the myth” of a “decade of political hypocrisy and failure in Scotland and the rest of the UK” on renewables local content.
“The workers and communities dependent on these yards have fought so hard for a future and everyone was hoping that 2021 would finally be the turning point,” said the unions.
“Shamefully the Scottish Government has buried these hopes just in time for Christmas and they have worked together with UK Government in doing so.
“A decade on from the promise of a ‘Saudi Arabia of renewables’ and 28,000 full time jobs in offshore wind manufacturing, we’ve been left with industrial ruins in Fife and Lewis.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish government yesterday narrowly lost a vote on BiFab after a Labour motion calling for it to reverse its decision to withdraw support for the company was passed by 61 votes to 60.
The motion put by Labour MSP Alex Rowley called for the Scottish government to talk to workforce representatives and push for the UK government to urgently negotiate with EDF and Saipem to find a solution to keep work on the eight jackets in the yards.
“We cannot sit back and allow the work of Scottish offshore renewables to go to countries in Asia, where the price differentials are primarily driven by low-cost labour, state-led investment, and subsidies, while this Government hides behind European state aid rules,” he said in the debate.
“To do that is to sell Scotland out to the lowest bidder.”