Fighting Back Against Lack of Oil & Gas

Hayward Miller, conscious of the recent pressures within the oil & gas industry, have become members of EEEGR (East of England Energy Group). Through this organisation, HML met with a new client, a Lowestoft-based steel fabrication company, heavily involved in the oil & gas sector.

The east coast in particular, from Suffolk to Scotland, has previously relied greatly on the oil & gas market. However, this market has been going into decline over the past few years, partly due to the plummeting price of oil. Therefore, companies working in this sector have struggled recently to find new business, forcing many to go into insolvency (28 UK firms in 2015). A thousand people working in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft supply chains alone have lost their jobs since the beginning of the downturn. HML has realised the opportunity it has to help companies in this area break out into new markets and expand their customer bases.

Our Client was founded in 1999, as a family-run business on the Suffolk Coast, with immediate links to the North Sea. It remains a family-owned business today, but has expanded to a new purpose-built facility with more staff and a dedicated clean shop. They own their own land, as well as all of its plant and equipment. Our client specialises in the fabrication of structural steel as well as piping and can also supply certified structural steel materials.

As a highly reputable company, accredited at the highest level for offshore structural work (BSEN 1090), as well as being EDF approved and FPAL (First Point Assessment) and Achilles-audited. They not only weld, paint and test metals, but also supply general and specialist labour to the onshore and offshore industry. This includes multi-coded welders, maintenance crews, aluminium welders, project managers, rope access teams, riggers, fitters and the much sought-after dedicated welding engineers. AFS has an ongoing contract with oil & gas giant Shell, among many others.

Hayward Miller recently took a visit to the facility on a particularly windy coastal day, to meet the team there and to tour the fabrication shop.

Hayward Miller hope to assist more companies facing similar constraints, in order to help rebuild the engineering industry on the East Coast and throughout the rest of the UK