Unions welcome announcement but slam Government inaction
Leading strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset lifecycle management company InfraStrata plc, is delighted to announce it has acquired the assets of the Scottish-based offshore energy fabrication company, Burntisland Fabrication (BiFab) Limited. The sites will trade under the Harland & Wolff name.
This highly strategic acquisition of assets and leases spans across two sites in prime Scottish locations with particular regard to renewable, oil & gas and defence projects: Methil on the east coast of Scotland and Arnish on the west coast of Scotland. The BurntIsland site will not form part of the transaction.
Both sites will trade under the Harland & Wolff brand and will represent the final fabrication piece of its UK footprint, positioning the company to fully deliver on its existing strategy quicker than it would have done with only its two existing sites: Harland & Wolff (Belfast) and Harland & Wolff (Appledore).
Methil, the larger of the two sites will be heavily focussed on fabrication for the oil and gas, commercial and renewables markets, whilst Arnish lends itself to multiple opportunities across all Harland & Wolff’s five markets: defence, oil & gas, renewables, commercial and cruise and ferry.
Through this strategic ambition across various geographical locations of the United Kingdom, InfraStrata emphasises its local and cross government support; aligned even closer to the UK Government’s “levelling-up” agenda and the “Green Industrial Revolution”.
The two Scottish sites will work symbiotically alongside Harland & Wolff (Belfast) and Harland & Wolff (Appledore).
John Wood, CEO of InfraStrata, commented: “With this acquisition, we now have a footprint in Scotland, which is the hotbed for major wind farm projects as well as for shipbuilding programmes. We have now positioned ourselves strategically across the UK with four sites capable of servicing our five core markets.
“This acquisition gives us the flexibility to optimise our operations across the Group and offer our clients the ability to fabricate faster and de-risk their exposure by offering multiple sites.
“As we move into larger contracts, it is crucial that we demonstrate the capacity to bid for and deliver on these projects. The acquisition of Bifab’s assets delivers that capability to us and will open up a larger demographic of tender opportunities.
“Finally, I wish to warmly welcome the personnel whom we have taken on at Methil and Arnish and I am confident that we will turn these facilities into highly successful businesses that generate jobs and investment into their local economies in due course.”
Harland & Wolff is a wholly-owned subsidiary of InfraStrata plc (AIM: INFA), a London Stock Exchange-listed firm focused on strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset life-cycle management.
Harland and Wolff (Belfast) is one of Europe’s largest heavy engineering facilities, with deep water access, deep water quayside berths and vast fabrication halls, with the addition of Harland & Wolff (Appledore) the company will be able to capitalise on opportunities at both ends of the market where it has strategic and unique assets that will be much in demand.
In addition to Harland & Wolff, it owns the Islandmagee gas storage project, which is expected to provide 25% of the UK’s natural gas storage capacity and to benefit the Northern Irish economy as a whole when completed. It is anticipated that the gas storage project will bring significant fabrication and construction work to the shipyard during its construction phase.
GMB Scotland and Unite Scotland have welcomed the announcement that two of the three BiFab fabrication yards have been bought out of administration by InfraStrata.
BiFab, which had three fabrication yards in Fife and the Isle of Lewis, went into administration in December last year following the Scottish Government withdrawing previous financial guarantees to support the manufacture of eight turbine jackets for the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind project at the yards.
InfraStrata as part of a £850,000 deal has bought the sites at Methil in Fife and Arnish on Lewis. It is understood that InfraStrata, which owns the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, will bring the Scottish sites under the Harland and Wolff name as it attempts to bid for offshore wind projects and shipbuilding contracts.
Unite and GMB have demanded concrete actions by the Scottish and UK Governments to strategically support the offshore wind sector. The trade unions criticised the announcement by the Prime Minister in October 2020 to commit 60 per cent of the turbines to be manufactured in the UK as ‘empty rhetoric’ without a review of the Contracts for Difference (CfD), which should include local content and enforcement clauses.
The trade unions also cited the various powers relating to planning, renewables energy, procurement, the Crown Estate and Marine Scotland which the Scottish Government should be using to exercise greater leverage in the contractual process.
In a joint statement, Unite Scotland Secretary Pat Rafferty and GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said: “The announcement by InfraStrata that two of the BiFab yards will be bought out of administration is welcome news. It is also testimony to our members and their communities who have fought hard to keep these yards alive.
“We look forward to working with the company to ensure it is primed to win contracts for the offshore wind sector, and to having a positive working relationship underpinned by the Fair Work principles. We have always believed that the BiFab yards, and indeed yards and ports all over Scotland, are uniquely placed to capture the benefits of the offshore wind sector.
“However, the story so far has been one of government failure – thousands of jobs and billions of pounds have been outsourced around the world when Scottish communities should have been benefitting from these contracts. Now the Scottish and UK Governments have been given a reprieve and they need to step-up and support the new ownership.
“We urgently need an overhaul of the Contracts for Difference process to ensure local supply clauses are in-built at the outset of major contracts as part of a proper industrial and investment plan for the sector, otherwise the green jobs revolution will remain a fantasy.”