SOUTHAMPTON ship repair and conversion firm A&P has clinched a lucrative contract in the face of tough overseas competition.

The shipyard in the city's Western Docks is reluctant to give details about the work but it is expected the company will announce a major deal with giant container shipping line Safmarine in the next few days.

A&P fought off bids from other European companies to win the contract, which is an important boost for the skilled workforce at the yard.

"There is good news for Southampton in the pipeline but we cannot give any details at the moment as we are still negotiating with another customer over the positioning of one of their vessels,'' said a spokesman for A&P.

The yard is expected to carry out maintenance on the ships Helderburg, Sederberg, Waterberg and Winterberg , which are known as the Big Whites because of the vessels' livery.

Work will begin on the first vessel later this month with the other three container ships arriving and departing until the end of October to undergo refit.

In recent times A&P has carved itself a strong reputation for successful work on containerships. It is a sector of the marine industry that the shipyard had been specifically targeting for contracts. It was in May last year that A&P completed work on the 27,994-tonne Safmarine vessel, Author.

At the time the shipping line said it would "certainly consider'' bringing other ships to Southampton because of the high standard of work at the yard.

Safmarine brought Author to A&P Southampton following a refit on another of its vessels, Concord, in 1997.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.