SOUTHAMPTON'S A&P shipyard has fought off fierce competition to win a £2 million contract which will see four huge container-ships arrive in the city one after another for refit.

The first of Safmarine's container-ships is expected to edge into the dry dock during the next 24 hours sparking a period of intense activity for the yard's workforce lasting until October.

More than 100 jobs have been secured at the yard with the arrival of the sisterships, which are some of the world's best known container vessels, nicknamed the Big Whites because of the colour of their hulls and super-structure. A&P has a growing reputation for high standards of work on containerships, a sector of the maritime industry the company has been specifically targetting to clinch lucrative refit orders.

Work on SA Sederberg, SA Waterberg, SA Heldeberg and SA Winterberg, which currently trade between South Africa and Northern Europe, will be a mixture of general ship repairs including blasting and painting, pipework and hatch cover maintenance as well as, subject to final confirmation, some steel modifications.

"The contract was won against two German yards and one Dutch repairer, on the basis of competitive price and our strong track record of carrying out successful containership refits in recent years,'' said Mike Smith, A&P's managing director in Southampton.

The company has, for example, completed two successful refits on the Safmarine vessels, Concord and Author in the past three years and also refits for Maersk, which now owns Safmarine, on Torben Maersk and Tobias Maersk in 1998.

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

"Every refit is a distinct job in its own right and every effort is made to make sure each customer is as happy as possible with the service from A&P.

"It is a wonderful compliment to the workforce here at the yard. We will deliver a top quality job, on time. Everyone in the yard knows how important it is to build up good relationships with these major container-ship operators and shipping companies.''

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