MAN Ferrostaal starts in August

18 June 2007

SCHEDULED for completion in August, Grinaker-LTA M&E will take over running the R155 million MAN Ferrostaal facility once it is finished.

It will include a fabrication yard area of 220 000sq m, a 90 000 sq m compacted laydown and assembly area at quayside, a compacted fabrication area of 55 000sq m, and a compaction outside storage area of 40 000sq m.

It will also include high-bay fabrication workshops, with two 25 ton and two 15 ton gantry cranes with a 14 metre underhook, a blasting and priming workshop, a pipe-spool fabrication workshop, custom control and bonded warehouses, materials warehouses, electrical and instrumentation workshops, and medical and first aid facilities.

“We believe that we will be able to provide the necessary fabrication and repair services to support the market growth for West Africa, which is currently being serviced by yards in Southern Europe, Korea and the Middle East. The Saldanha facility will provide an opportunity to service that industry out of South Africa. It will be a first-class offshore fabrication facility that will benefit from South Africa’s infrastructure and support services,” says Eddie du Rand managing director of Grinaker LTA Construction.

Grinaker-LTA M&E’s entry into the upstream oil and gas fabrication market five years ago in Nigeria gives an invaluable introduction for the Saldanha Bay yard. Current and completed projects include such major oil players as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and Shell, as well as engineering companies and original equipment manufacturers including Technip, FMC and Veto Gray.

Although Grinaker-LTA M&E’s fabrication ability to date has focused on piles, sub-sea structures, manifolds, jackets, bridges and decks up to 1 500 tons, the Saldanha Bay yard will include topside modules up to 5 000 tons and pressure vessels. The project will also involve tension leg platforms (TLPs) and smaller semi-submersible hulls.