The world’s largest anchor chain inspection company is expanding its Angus operation.
ChainCo currently has a 2.2 acre keyside site at the Port of Montrose and has now signed a new 10-year lease agreement for an additional 45,000 sq ft warehouse.
The company supplies, stores, inspects and certifies chain that secures oil rigs in the North Sea to their anchor.
Since moving to Montrose seven years ago, ChainCo, a subsidiary of Aberdeen-based Intermoor, has grown to be the largest company at the Port.
Alan Duncan, managing director of InterMoor, said: “We did everything in Aberdeen until seven years ago but it was getting harder and harder to work with the port.
“Coming to Montrose was the best move we ever made. It has helped InterMoor grow and helped the Port as a whole grow.
“We store chain and other equipment for about 90% of the Aberdeen oil companies and their boats come to Montrose to drop off and collect the chain.”
Last year ChainCo inspected more than 300,000 feet of chain at Montrose.
The process involves carrying out a visual inspection, then water blasting the chain before it undergoes a magnetic particle inspection to identify any cracks.
“Every link of chain needs inspected every five years,” Mr Duncan said.
“We also inspected around 100,000 feet of chain offshore and another 100,000 feet in Norway.
“The Montrose team will fly to these locations. We recently did a job in New Zealand – the team go all over the world.”
InterMoor has sales in excess of £30 million a year, which Mr Duncan said he hoped to grow another 10 to 15% this year.
Montrose Port Authority recently announced a huge increase in the total tonnage of vessels.The port handled a total of 3,169,158 gross tonnes of vessel during 2018 – a 37% increase on 2017’s total of 2,309,206 gross tonnes.
rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk