15/01/12
Firms unite to bid for renewables projects

TWO of Scotland's leading independent fabrication firms have joined forces to bid for major manufacturing projects in the offshore renewables sector.

IFAB, the Invergordon-based subsidiary of Highlands group PSG, has sealed a deal with Steel Engineering of Renfrew to create the Scottish Fabrication Alliance for Renewables.

The venture is already bidding for contracts that either firm would struggle to fulfil on its own.

Backers hope it will kick-start further collaboration across the sector, allowing Scottish firms to reap more of the financial boon from the country's push into wave and wind power.

Steve Clark, managing director of PSG, said the Scottish Fabrication Alliance would welcome other members: "We feel that companies such as ours operating in a collaborative way offers far more opportunities."

Work in the North-East will be centred at the former RBG industrial complex in the Cromarty Firth, which PSG acquired in November in a multi-million-pound deal.

Steel Engineering will handle construction at its Glasgow headquarters, where a £3 million facility will open in March, taking the payroll from 150 to 280.

Steel Engineering managing director Peter Breslin said: "We and IFAB will share the costs and the pain, but also the proceeds from working together to supply the requirements of these major developments."

The alliance is the first of its kind in the Scottish sector, and echoes others in Humberside, Merseyside and Teesside.

Niall Stewart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said the new alliance was "exactly the kind of partnership" the sector needs more of if the country's businesses are to capture the biggest possible share of the renewable windfall in coming years.

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