Glasgow’s Ferguson Marine Engineering shipyard is to be nationalised to ensure delivery of two LNG-fuelled ropax ferries seen as vital to Scotland’s national interest.

A new public board of directors lead by Scotland’s economy secretary Derek MacKay is set to meet today to plan how to save the country’s last commercial shipyard.

The Port Glasgow yard has been forced into administration by heavy cost overruns building two ferries for Caledonian MacBrayne which serves Scotland’s remote west coast island communities.

Closure of the site would have put 350 jobs at risk in the heartland of the Scottish nationalist government. Clydeside was at one time one of the world’s leading shipbuilding centres.

Ferguson is midway through building the LNG duel-fuel ferries for Caledonian Maritime Assets (CMA), the state-owned body that owns and manages ferries and ports.

The £97m ($118m) fixed-price contract to build the ships has run into delays due to specification changes the yard’s former owner Jim McColl claims were made too late to be accommodated in the original price.

McColl, who rescued the yard in 2014, said the changes demanded by CMA would add more than £60m to the cost. A government review of the contract broadly concluded the added cost should be absorbed by the yard.

The first vessel of the pair, Glen Sannox was launched in late 2017 by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The Scottish government has already loaned the yard £45m to keep it going, but will require further financial support if it is to complete the vessels, the first of which was due to delivery in 2018.

Labour unions welcomed the yard’s rescue, while the opposition Scottish Conservatives called the decision a “national embarrassment”.

The rescue contrasts with the fate of another small private UK shipyard, Harland & Wolff in Northern Ireland which also went into administration earlier this month.

The central UK government has refused to rescue that yard, although talks with potential buyers are understood to be continuing.