SWAN Hunter shipyard owner Jaap Kroese said last night that shipbreaking licences that could prevent the yard being mothballed had been delayed.

The future of Swan's Wallsend, North Tyneside, site depends on securing the licences. Jaap Kroese revealed yesterday that bidding for the remaining work on a Ministry of Defence aircraft carrier project was unlikely to take place until 2009.

He said redundancies were likely in March and that the yard may have to be put on a "care and maintenance cycle" if more work was not found.

He was expecting shipbreaking licences from the Environment Agency to be approved before Christmas, but has yet to hear anything.

Swan's Port Clarence operation was mothballed in May with the loss of 200 jobs.

Last month, the future of Swans looked bleak after it failed to land a major share of the £4bn aircraft carrier contracts.

Rival shipbuilders VT and Babcock joined BAe Systems as "prime contractors", sharing 60 per cent of the work. Swans can bid for a share of the remaining 40 per cent.

There are about 600 people still working at the yard, many as sub-contractors, but the number is likely to fall when work runs out in March.