Shipping in The Firth
The Firth of Clyde like the River Clyde has historically been an important centre of shipbuilding. There have been shipyards at Renfrew, Greenock, Port Glasgow and Troon and a major boatyard at Fairlie. Ferguson Shipbuilders yard, adjacent to Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, is one of the last privately owned shipyards left in Scotland. Greenock is the site of one of the world's largest dry dock and ship-repair facilities at Inchgreen. The dry dock there is 305m long and 44m wide and is operated by Northwestern Shiprepairers Limited using the name Scott Lithgow, although the company is unrelated to the famous Port Glasgow Scott Lithgow shipbuilding company.
The Firth of Clyde has one of the deepest sea entrance channels in northern Europe, which can accommodate the largest Capesize vessels afloat, and as such the Clyde is one of the UK's leading ports, handling some 7.5 million tonnes of cargo each year, as well as regular cruise liner traffic at Greenock's Ocean Terminal facility.
In addition to the existing Hunterston bulk ore terminal, Clydeport, North Ayrshire Council and Scottish Enterprise propose a £200m international deep-water container terminal, also at Hunterston, which would effectively act as a worldwide gateway port, and possibly become the major container port for the northern half of Europe. Initial environmental and economic impact studies are currently being undertaken.
The Royal Navy also has a significant presence on the Clyde, at HMNB Clyde on the Gare Loch and on Loch Long, while one of the three main ports providing marine services support vessels is at Greenock. This formerly came under the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service which still operates some vessels, but the services have been put out to commercial tender by the Warship Support Agency and are currently operated by Serco Denholm, who are preferred bidders for the next contract. The contract includes management of the ports at Devonport, Portsmouth and The Clyde (dual site operation at Faslane and Great Harbour, Greenock).
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