An
estimated 1,500 shipbuilding jobs will be safeguarded and another 450 could be
created if a DTI aid package helps Cammell Laird win a contract to build two
cruise liners.
The
DTI had previously offered $300 million in guaranteed loans to underwrite a contract
with US company Luxus and has now increased this by another $100 million.
The
improved offer was submitted in response to a financial aid package put forward
by the French Government to try and secure the contract for France.
A
spokesman for Cammell Laird told Personnel Today that if Luxus chose Cammell
Laird to build the cruise liners, 500 jobs at its Liverpool yard and 1,000 at
its Teeside and Tyneside yards would be safeguarded.
He said that 450 workers laid-off by the company before
Christmas could also be employed.
By
Ben Willmott
