Huge boost for engineering on the Clyde
Scotland’s largest marine fabrication facility has been officially opened at Westway Park in Renfrew.
The Malin Group formally opened the G2 shed, which brings its total undercover production area at the business park to more than 200,000 square feet.
G2 has 500 tonne and 100 tonne gantry cranes which can reach to 23 metres.
Since Malin started using the facility last month, it has used the shed to build the first in a series of six primary lifting structures for the Hinkley Point C Power Station in Somerset.
Ben Sharples, director of Malin Newbuild, said:“I am delighted to officially extend our fabrication facility, through the opening of G2.
“The G2 Shed at Westway Park complements our existing facilities, raising our space to 200,000 square metres and officially makes us the largest fabrication facility in Scotland.
“Drawing on over 100 years of engineering expertise, we are ideally placed to design, build and transport large structures and we have not been shy in putting the new facility to work and demonstrating this with the Hinkley Point contract.
“Attracting projects of this scale back to the Clyde will hopefully kickstart new growth industries which will build and develop talent and skills in Scotland while also attracting new talent from overseas.
“We all have an exciting part to play in the future regeneration of marine engineering on the Clyde.
“When originally built for Babcock and Wilcox 50 years ago, G2 was described as one of the finest fabrication facilities on the west coast of the United Kingdom.
“It’s a privilege to be able to occupy and put this facility to good use for Malin’s customers, as we look ahead to the next exciting chapter.”
The new shed will be used to carry out the fabrication works for the Hinkey project over the coming months, as well as the final assembly of the Archimedes Waveswing, an innovative tidal energy device, for AWS Ocean Systems.