The Malin Group has today (Wednesday 26th May) formally celebrated the opening of its new G2 shed at Westway Park in Renfrew.
The new shed increases Malin Group’s total under cover production area at Westway to over 20,000 square metres, representing one of the largest fabrication facilities on the West coast of Scotland. G2 itself provides additional craneage in the form of both 500 tonnes and 100 tonne gantry cranes with an under hook height of 23m.
Officially opening the new facility today, the Group has wasted no time getting to work since picking up the keys last month. Already, Malin Newbuild have used the shed to build the first in a series of six primary lifting structures for Hinkley Point C Power Station in Somerset, England – and in doing so, have welcomed large-jacketed fabrications back to the Clyde for the first time in ten years.
Enabled by the capacity brought about by the new sheds, Malin Newbuild formed a progressive partnership with Malin Abram and Caley Ocean Systems to build and transport the series of six large offshore structures for Balfour Beatty who will deliver the key offshore element of the Hinkley Point project from their site at Avonmouth.
The Clyde-built structures will support the construction of three tunnels under the seabed to supply the two reactors at Hinkley Point C with cooling water and then safely discharge it back into the Bristol Channel. Each DNV certified structure will be used to lift a concrete slab weighing more than 3500 tonnes to seabed in support of BB’s seawater tunnelling campaign.
Each new lifting structure weighs around 200 tonnes a piece – with all six due to be delivered by August of this year.
Malin Group Staff gathered virtually and in person on the 26th May to celebrate the opening of the new facility and formally put their name above the door.
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, bringing a unique yet highly relevant fabrication capability back to the Clyde.”
“Drawing together engineering expertise across the Malin Group, we are ideally placed to design, build and transport large structures on a build to print or turnkey basis. The, on time, to spec delivery of 1,200 tonnes of high integrity offshore structures for Balfour Beatty reaffirms our capability to service the market and opens the door to contracts of a comparable scale and complexity.”
“Attracting projects of this type back to the Clyde will kick start 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. The expansion of our fabrication capability represents a well-placed feeder for future Malin Group expansion plans, with the upcoming opening of the Scottish Marine Technology Park, a hub of marine engineering and innovation.”
Caley Ocean Systems Managing Director, John Munro said “Caley are pleased to be working collaboratively with our key partner, Malin, to deliver this major project for our client. As a long-standing Glasgow-based company we are especially proud to see the project developing in the new G2 facilities on the Clyde.”
The new workshop will be used to carry out the fabrication works involved for the Hinkley project over the coming months, as well as the final assembly of the Archimedes Waveswing an innovative tidal energy device, for AWS Ocean Systems.