BiFab powers ahead with renewable plan

Published Date: 30 October 2008
By Erikka askeland

THE LAST heavy fabrication yard in Scotland is planning to open a new manufacturing facility in Germany in order to make further headway producing offshore wind turbine structures.
Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) also has plans for a "major" expansion at its fabrication yards at Burntisland and Methil.The company, which fabricates platform decks and other support structures for the offshore oil and gas industry, aims to bolster its presence in the UK and European renewables market, including offshore windfarms as well as wave and tidal energy technologies.The group recently completed a £5 million contract to provide substructures to Talisman Energy's and Scottish & Southern Energy's flagship Beatrice Wind Farm in the North Sea. John Robertson, the managing director of BiFab, is currently in negotiations with two or three potential joint venture partners in Germany. Robertson said the renewables sector was "an opportunity for continual growth over the next five to ten years."We are in final discussions regarding major expansion plans at our facilities in Scotland and now the setting up of new overseas manufacturing facilities in Germany."The company was established in 2001 following a management buyout from Aberdeen-based engineering firm Consafe.The company employs 250 people and recently resolved a large scale industrial dispute. The expansion is also rare good news for Royal Bank of Scotland, which has backed the group's plans for expansion with a new revolving line of credit. RBS has banked BiFab since 2003. Peter Hodgkinson of RBS commercial banking in Fife said: "We are pleased to support the firm."