5ife firm targets sales of more than £100m

Burntisland Fabricators reap benefits of focus on alternative energy

Burntisland Fabrications is predicting its sales will rise to more than £100 million this year as it continues to focus on alternative energy projects.

The Fife fabricator has supplied subwater jackets to the Beatrice offshore windfarm which has created opportunities for other windfarm projects.

The company’s accounts for the year ending December 31 2016 show that turnover increased from £59.3m to £61.3m.

Operating profits rose from £2.7m to £3.8m over the same period.

Director John Robertson said the 2016 figures reflected the oil and gas industry’s international downturn.

During the year the directors put the company’s facilities at Methil and Arnish into “temporary care and maintenance” for approximately six months and work only took place at BiFab’s headquarters in Burntisland.

However, Mr Robertson said the company had a strong order book going forward and during the first quarter of 2017 employment levels rose to around 750 with all three BiFab facilities being fully operational.

In an upbeat report in the accounts, he said: “As BiFab moves forward into 2017, we are fortunate to have contracts for the value of £120m which equates to 30,000 tonnes of steel to be fabricated over a period of 16 months, which is all for the alternative energy sector.

“This is a major achievement for all employees at BiFab and hopefully the scale of award to BiFab on the Beatrice Project will be a platform to work from and therefore strengthen our position and create other opportunities for future large-scale infrastructure offshore windfarm projects.

“The projected sales for 2017 will increase to over £100m which is a strong position for BiFab in the current economic environment.”

Mr Robertson added that the company’s current focus on alternative energy projects will allow more time for the oil and gas sector to regain confidence as the price per barrel hopefully stabilises.

The company is tendering and competing for a number of international contracts as it looks to develop a niche market opportunity for the supply of offshore deep-water jacket structures.

Expansion plans are being discussed to increase the output to more than 100 jacket substructures per year which will require the construction of new facilities at Methil.

Mr Robertson added: “Capital expenditure and funding discussions remain ongoing for this project and work will only commence subject to industry demand and a clear pipeline of projects beyond 2020.

“This would be a tremendous boost to the development of Fife Energy Park and the manufacturing industry in Scotland.”

We are fortunate to have contracts for the value of £120m which equates to 30,000 tonnes of steel to be fabricated over a period of 16 months John roBFrtson Bi5AB EirFCtor

BiFab carried out work for the Beatrice offshore windfarm.