THE owner of troubled shipbuilder Swan Hunter said yesterday there was "no need to panic" despite losing out on a £200m contract with Allseas.

Jaap Kroese said work on the Swiss-owned Audacia pipe-laying vessel would not be coming to the Tyne, dashing hopes of creating more than 1,000 jobs at its Wallsend yard.

"I don't think it is coming here. It is arriving in Europe next week and we have not heard anything whatsoever. We would have known by now if we were going to get the contract," said Mr Kroese.

"We never thought that we were definitely going to get it - we were optimistic, but we never knew for certain."

Swan's future has looked uncertain for a number of months, with fears the yard would be mothballed if new contracts didn't surface once work on two Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels dried up.

The Allseas contract would have provided 18 months worth of work and create more than 1,000 jobs.

Swan's mothballed its Port Clarence yard in May, with the loss of about 200 jobs, and the workforce at Wallsend has been decreasing month-on-month. Currently about 500 people work on site, many of them contractors.

Mr Kroese said he hopes to receive the licences to set up a ship breaking operation at Wallsend in partnership with Dutch company NV Ecodock before Christmas.

"We have got work to do that will take us to the end of next year so there is no need to panic," he said.

"We have lost out many times - we are good losers and good winners."