HARLAND & Wolff, the Belfast shipyard, has broken even according to results for the first six months of this year. This, compares to an overall loss of £2.1 million for the same period in 1995.

The company which employs 1,900 permanent staff, had operational profits of £800,000, compared to a £3.7 million loss for the first six months of last year.

However, there was no dividend for the company's shareholders past and current employees - because Harland & Wolff had a loss on the sale of a subsidiary company, Trassey Shipping.

The subsidiary had just one ship a Cape size bulk tanker and the company was sold along with the vessel. However, a spokesman for the shipyard said yesterday that even if Trassey had continued trading until the end of the year there would still have been a similar loss because it was a very difficult market for such ships.

Harland & Wolff has moved from building such tankers to concentrate on building vessels for offshore oil and gas operations. These are known as floating production storage and off loading vessels (fpso's) and the company is currently building one, which when completed, will be the biggest of its type in the world.

The firm believes that its medium term future is good because there are significant market opportunities for offshore installations.

The results were announced in an internal document and the chief executive, Mr Per Nielsen, said they were largely in line with expectations and were an encouraging sign.

"It demonstrates that our strategy of positioning the group to take advantage of opportunities in the offshore oil and gas industry is correct."