Nationalised shipyard faces 12 rivals for new small ferry deal

However, the yard may struggle to compete with bids from overseas shipyards which have lower labour costs and other overheads.

“Some large shipyards in Turkey, for instance, might have 20 projects on the go at once, so they so they can split those running costs between 20 different orders,” he said.

“That option isn’t available to Ferguson’s unless it can secure more work.

“If you are serious about keeping commercial shipbuilding alive in Scotland you may have to accept there’s a premium to pay for doing so.”

Ferguson’s employs about 300 staff, including about 50 apprentices.

The current Ferguson’s chief executive John Petticrew previously said the yard would compete “aggressively” for the small ferries order, and hoped its bid would be in “the ballpark”.

But he also warned that overseas shipyards enjoy high levels of government support that put UK yards at a competitive disadvantage.

Last year, the Scottish government turned down a request from his predecessor for £25m for investment in new equipment to improve productivity, but a slimmed down request for £14.2m has now been approved.

The yard has no further orders beyond Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, though it hopes to secure more sub-contracting work from BAE Systems on the Type 26 frigates being built at Govan.

Despite Brexit, public procurement in Scotland is carried out under rules that are almost identical to those that existed before the UK left the European Union.

A new UK Procurement Act comes into force in October, but will not apply to reserved matters, so the rules in Scotland for this type of contract are unchanged.