North East Shipbuilders
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1954 (as Austin & Pickersgill) |
| Headquarters | England |
Austin & Pickersgill was formed in Sunderland in 1954 by the merger of S.P. Austin & Son Ltd (founded by Samuel Peter Austin in c.1826) and William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd (founded c. 1838). After the merger Austin's Wear Dock yard was used for repair while shipbuilding was concentrated at Pickersgill's Southwick Yard. The latter was modernised with the introduction of large assembly shops and prefabrication processes. This reduced costs and increased the maximum size of a vessel that the yard could build from 10,000 to 40,000 tons deadweight.
In 1957 a consortium of three companies led by London & Overseas Freighters Ltd. (LOF) took over Austin & Pickersgill. In October 1968 Austin & Pickersgill took over Bartram & Sons Ltd, whose South Dock yard was also in Sunderland. In 1970 London and Overseas Freighters bought out the other members of the consortium to take 100% ownership of Austin & Pickersgill.
In 1977 Austin & Pickersgill was nationalised as a member company of British Shipbuilders. In 1986 the Company was merged with Sunderland Shipbuilders Ltd to form North East Shipbuilders Ltd. However both the Southwick and the Doxford Pallion Shipbuilding Yards closed in 1988 following negotiations with the European Commission to reduce shipbuilding capacity in the UK.
A&P maximised the competitiveness of its prefabrication process by producing ships to standard designs rather than individual specifications. From 1962 onwards the company offered standard bulk carriers in a range of sizes designated according to tonnage.
A&P's most numerous product was another of its standard designs, the SD14 shelter deck cargo ship. During the Second World War, shipyards in the United States had delivered more than 2,700 Liberty ship shelter deck cargo ships. By the 1960s many Liberty ships were reaching the end of their service lives, so in 1965 A&P started to develop a low-cost shelter-deck cargo vessel to replace them.
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Wikipedia