Renfrewshire diving firm JFD nets £35m contract

Subsea operations firm JFD, which is headquartered in Renfrewshire, has won a contract worth about £35 million with a Chinese salvage company.

Inchinnan-based JFD is due to deliver the diving systems in 2019. Picture: Contributed

Under the agreement signed with Shanghai Salvage, Inchinnan-based JFD will design and build two diving systems, each capable of carrying 12 people down to depths of 500 metres.

The systems, which are due to be delivered in 2019 with work carried out in Scotland, Singapore and Shanghai, include a diving bell, hyperbaric lifeboat and life support equipment. The systems can be deployed individually on vessels or installed together onboard a dive support vessel.

Government-owned Shanghai Salvage is one of the biggest professional salvage companies in China.

JFD, a division of marine services group James Fisher & Sons, has previously supplied the company with a 300 metre rated diving system which in 2014 achieved the Chinese record for the deepest dive of its kind.

Nick Henry, chief executive of James Fisher, said: “The decision to award the contract to JFD is testament to our proven capability. Shanghai Salvage has recognised the key benefits associated with JFD systems and we are delighted to support them once again as their diving operations advance into deeper waters.”

James Fisher also said in a trading update yesterday for the quarter ending 30 September that revenue for the period was strongly ahead of the comparable period last year – a mixture of internally generated growth, the positive impact of two acquisitions and the weakness of sterling.

Although revenues in its offshore oil unit fell 6 per cent, it benefited from reduced costs.

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