• Site-constructed storage tanks - whatever the scale

    One of the leading operators in this specialist field, Motherwell Bridge’s Storage Tank business has the benefit of over 100 years’ experience delivering a remarkable variety of specialist solutions across the globe.

  • Multi-skilled, quick response heat exchanger workforce

    Specialists in shell and tube heat exchanger repair, Motherwell Bridge’s skilled employees can work in the harshest environment to provide you with what you need, when you need it.

  • Clayton Walker gasholder design and construction

    Motherwell Bridge has been an acknowledged expert and market leader in the design and construction of gasholders and gas recovery systems for over 170 years.

MB strengthens position in emerging markets with gasholder contracts

March 2012

Lanarkshire-based engineering contractor Motherwell Bridge has made a strong start to 2012 with their Clayton Walker Gasholder division securing a series of gasholder contracts totalling £3.7 million in the emerging markets of Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and India.

Motherwell Bridge has won contracts to provide a range of engineering, seals and technical assistance for seven major gasholder projects on steel plants across the four countries.

In India, Motherwell Bridge has strengthened its presence by winning three lucrative contracts from Bhushan Steel Ltd, TATA Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

As part of the deal with Bhushan Steel in the Orissa region on India’s east coast, Motherwell Bridge will supply seals for two new 100,000m³ and 50,000m³ blast furnace and coke oven gas gasholders.

TATA Steel is revamping one of its LD Wiggins type 80,000m³ dry seal gasholders at Jamshedpur and Motherwell Bridge will provide a replacement seal for the facility.

The third Indian deal will see Motherwell Bridge provide two replacement seals for the revamp of RINL’s existing LD Wiggins type dry seal gasholder at the Visakhapatnam steel plant.

Motherwell Bridge is also celebrating another contract in Brazil, where it will provide technical assistance for the rebuilding of the piston on USIMINAS’s 30,000m³ MAN-type gasholder at the Ipatinga Steel Works in Minas Gerais.

In Turkey, Motherwell Bridge is supplying two seals and technical assistance for revamp of a 40,000m³ LD Wiggins type dry seal gasholder for ERDEMIR at the Eregli steel plant. The seals have already been manufactured and transported to Turkey and are due to be installed in summer 2012.

Lastly, the Motherwell Bridge team will be providing a seal kit as part of the refurbishment of a 30,000m³ coke oven gas gasholder for ArcelorMittal Las Truchas at the Lázaro Cárdenas steel plant in the Michoacán region of Mexico.

Russell Ward, chief executive of Motherwell Bridge welcomed the new contracts and said they would provide the platform for the company to reinforce its presence in these countries and extend its reach into new markets all over the world.

He said: “While Motherwell Bridge has had a presence in India for over 100 years, it is heartening to see us win work in markets such as this which are performing so strongly and have escaped the effects of the global economic downturn relatively unscathed.

“Likewise, Brazil has been one of the world’s real economic success stories of recent years and we see it as continuing to be a very important market for Motherwell Bridge in the future.

“We have spotted the trend whereby these large steel companies are increasingly looking to refurbish their existing gasholders rather than make significant investments in new equipment and this means we are ideally placed to provide these services.

“Securing contracts like these demonstrate we have the skills and capabilities which can be exported all over the world into new markets.”

Formed in 1898, Motherwell Bridge Ltd today unites a number of multi-skilled divisions focusing predominantly on the engineering, design and construction of storage tanks, gasholders and heat exchangers.

The head office remains in Motherwell with other company bases in England as well as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to cover business in the Middle East. It handles projects worldwide in over 80 countries.

Motherwell Bridge is one of the world’s foremost storage tank providers with an emphasis on fixed and floating roof tanks. The company’s portfolio includes the world’s two largest storage tanks – first in the 1970s and most recently in the 1990s on Zirku Island (UAE), with each capable of holding 1.25 million barrels of crude oil. Motherwell Bridge makes full use of its unparalleled expertise in this area to help minimise product loss in addition to the supply of specialist tank seals.

Working across four main industry sectors – oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, and power and process – the in-house design team provides proficient engineering design to complement the full service for new-builds and repairs, both large and small. Remedial capability ranges from double deck roof repairs to tank-jacking 100m-diameter tanks allowing foundation and floor replacement work.