IHC Engineering Business has Ambitious Growth Plans

21 March 2011

With the commissioning of a major Jay-Lay Tower in South Korea due to be completed next month, a Reel-Lay System in build and a third pipelay system just awarded, its clear to see that IHC Engineering Business (EB), a Northumberland based specialist engineering company, is aiming bigger than ever.

With ambitious growth plans, the Dutch owned EB designs, builds and supplies elegant engineering solutions for the offshore industry, including pipelay systems, subsea trenching equipment and specialist handling systems. Towards the end of last year EB was awarded their third deepwater pipelay system, this time a 300 tonne capacity deepwater flexible-lay system for major offshore contractor McDermott International Inc.

EB Sales and Marketing Director, Toby Bailey, explains the scale of engineering EB now undertakes and how the company has ambitions to invest in further engineering resource to support its vibrant growth plans.

“Last year was very successful as it included the delivery of our largest project to date, a rigid pipe laying system for Italian contractor Saipem.”

“At present, we have a team of EB engineers on site in South Korea commissioning and testing the industry leading J-Lay Tower in advance of its first commercial operations in summer this year. This is a major milestone for EB and demonstrates our ability to deliver such large-scale engineering projects.”

“We were awarded such a project because of our tailor-made solution, which meant we were flexible in our design approach, allowing the pipelay tower to be adapted to client and vessel requirements. This kind of complex engineering project, which has taken three years from initial design phase through to manufacture and commissioning, has involved a step change in EB’s engineering and project execution capabilities. We are now positioned as one of a small number of companies around the world capable of delivering vessel systems of this size and complexity.”

“Following the recent award, we now have three deepwater pipelay systems at various stages of production, and in order to meet our delivery requirements, as well as continued growth, it is fundamental that we continue to invest in professional engineers. Looking to the future, we see a significant demand for these kinds of offshore systems and I am confident that such pioneering projects will attract engineers looking for an exciting career at the forefront of offshore engineering and manufacturing in the North East.”