Arnish yard hopeful of securing new orders
10 January 2019
The new owners of the Arnish yard in Lewis says it is “making progress” in a drive to secure crucial orders for heavy manufacturing facility.
The bulk of the workforce was made redundant over a year ago.
The BiFab yard shut soon after the last structure produced on site was shipped away in February.
The lack of work has also hit sister yards at Burntisland and Methil in Fife.
The firm was saved from administration by the Scottish Government and acquired a stake in the company when it was later was bought over by Canadian company DF Barnes.
BiFab is tendering for a number of major projects for the renewables sector.
The Arnish yard appears to be in a strong position to win a contract from the Moray East offshore windfarm being built 25 miles off the north east coast of Caithness.
BiFab is competing to construct approximately 100 steel piles.
If successful, that work is set to come to Lewis due to rolling mill equipment installed on site.
BiFab also hopes to win a separate work package for around 55 steel jacket foundations for Moray East which it plans to assign to its Fife yards.
Moray East said it will pay “high attention to maximise local (UK) content for the different types of services and suppliers, as far as reasonably possible.”
DF Barnes said it was “continuing to work very hard” to win orders.
A spokesman said: “We are making significant progress on plans to secure work in Arnish.”
Union GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith said: “Hopefully some much needed good news is just around the corner because the communities of Lewis and Fife need it – and so does the Scottish economy.
“The employer is working hard to secure new contracts, that’s not in doubt, but we need to see the green shoots of recovery for BiFab in early 2019.”
The Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have made a long-
He said conditions “remain challenging” for the yards and new contracts are required to secure work.