Korean fabricator SeAH Steel is to add a new pile production line for offshore wind power jacket foundations, enabling it to expand its production capacity and the size of foundations it can manufacture.
SeAH Steel has agreed to acquire buildings and a factory site at in Gwangyang, South Korea from the SeenTec Corporation, a Korean assembler of steel structures related to environmental plant and industrial boilers, for 12.5bn Korean Won (£8.231m), which it will use for establishing the pin pile production line.
It said the move would enable it to serve its increasing number of wind farm project orders and increase the reliability of supply.
The company currently produces pin piles at Suncheon Plant, Korea, which mainly manufactures large diameter heavy wall pipes. SeAH Steel said the new site would create operational and logistical synergies due to its proximity to both Suncheon and to port.
The new facility will have a 52,628 square-meter production base with an annual production capacity of 72,000 metric tons.
SeAH Steel’s existing backlog of orders reaches to 110,000 tonnes, including the 450M Neart na Gaoithe project off Scotland, the 496MW St. Brieuc project off France, and the 589MW Changfang and Xidao project off Taiwan.
A spokesperson for the company said it had “actively responded to the market changes and various customers’ needs, and always tried to build up the solid base for continuous growth,” adding that new facility would “be another major step to be the top player in the global offshore foundation market.”