SOUTHAMPTON'S A&P shipyard could be in line to win further prestigious refit contracts before Christmas.

The prospect comes as the workforce successfully completes a £2 million four-vessel contract for ship operator Safmarine.

During a visit to the Southampton yard, David Ring, A&P's chief executive, said: "We are hopeful of something before Christmas but nothing has been signed yet.

"A&P is currently looking to secure more work during the remainder of October and into November and is in discussion with a number of ship-owners and managers at this time.''

Today, the 50,017-ton container ship SA Winterberg is due to leave the A&P yard in the Western Docks - the last of the Safmarine vessels to be refitted under a nine-week contract.

Known as the Great Whites, the container ships are some of the best-known vessels of their type in the world because of the colour of their hulls and superstructure.

The four sister ships, which also include SA Sederberg, SA Waterberg and SA Heldeberg, currently trade between South Africa and northern Europe, and each one has been in dry dock for just under two weeks.

The contract, which secured more than 100 jobs at the yard for the duration of the refits, called for a mixture of general ship-repair activity, such as blasting and painting, pipework and hatch cover work, as well as some steel modifications.

A&P Southampton clinched the deal in the face of strong opposition from two German yards and one Dutch repairer on the basis of a competitive price and its track record of carrying out successful container ship refits in recent years.

The company undertook refits for Safmarine on its container ships Concord and Author in the past three years and also two refits for Maersk on Torben Maersk and Tobias Maersk last year.

A&P Southampton managing director Mike Smith said the contract for the four Safmarine vessels had been a significant coup for the yard.

"Safmarine and Maersk have long been high on our list of target customers, and this has been an extremely welcome opportunity for us to demonstrate our capability and get closer to this very important customer by delivering a good refit on each of the four ships,'' said Mr Smith.

Safmarine representative Rob Lawson said: "It was important to us to get it right during the refits.

"We have worked very closely with A&P Southampton on this programme, and it has been completed on time and within budget to our full satisfaction."

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