A leading Bradford-based steel group has added another string to its bow to enable it to cash in on potential growth in the offshore energy market.

The Barrett Steel Group, based at Dudley Hill , has launched Barrett Offshore Tubes to provide a dedicated and focused service to the offshore market for oil, gas and renewable energy sources.

The move follows a review of internal systems at the company’s tubes division and a recent report from the Crown Office calling for a significant reduction in the cost of producing electricity from renewable sources, as well as market demand.

Barrett’s existing service centre in Scunthorpe has been earmarked for development as part of the strategy for the new offshore operation. The centre already houses one of Barrett Steel’s tube laser profiting machines and will be used for the storage and distribution of various grades of hot-formed and seamless material to cater for the needs of offshore fabricators.

Robert Kirby, commercial manager of Barrett Offshore Tubes, said: “The Crown Estate’s report advocates a significant reduction in the cost of producing electricity from £140/MWh to £100/MWh by 2020 through a number of measures, including managing a pipeline of projects; supporting new methods of working; standardising solutions; supply chain efficiency; optimisation of logistics; and industrialising the supply chain to provide opportunities to reduce capital and operating costs.

“The extent to which these cost reductions are realised by the supply chain and, ultimately, the customer depend on how quickly supply chain partners respond and react.

“In establishing Barrett Offshore Tubes, we have been proactive in establishing a division that has the flexibility to deal with projects at their prototyping stage and also provide an optimum service during volume production.

“In addition we are able to work with all of our partners to achieve customers’ goals.”

Barrett Steel will offer its customers a wide stock range and access to additional materials through its supply chain network, as well as wide-ranging processing and cutting facilities.

Barrett’s tube division serves a range of industries such as vehicle manufacturing, agriculture, construction, quarrying and materials handling, architectural and offshore containers with laser-cutting and profiling equipment.

Barrett Offshore Tubes will provide additional state-of-the-art plasma cutting machines at the Scunthorpe service centre.