The company Bredgaard Steel ApS, which deals with forging work and service both offshore and on land, has in a short time hit a need that is gradually giving rise to more and more Fehmarn-related tasks.
Bredgaard Steel is a consortium consisting of the Bredgaard Boats ApS shipyard in Rødbyhavn and the forging company Steel ApS in Nakskov.
The first Fehmarn assignment came about as a bit of a coincidence.
– One day an FBC boat, which had got something wrong, came into the harbour when we were about to put a boat in the water, and we offered to take the boat up and look at it. That’s how the first contact with the Femern project was made, says Michael Jakobsen, managing director of Bredgaard Boats.
New assignments quickly began to arrive.
– We started getting a lot of sand shovels and stone shovels, which we had to weld because they wore out the hardox steel in 14 days, says Michael Jakobsen.
The contractor made greater demands
As the tasks increased, however, the contractor also began to make greater demands for flexibility in relation to being able to solve tasks at the weekend, professional expertise, certification in welding work and offshore approved people.
– So they said that you either have to step up, or we have to find others who can help, says Michael Jakobsen.
Bredgaard Boats Aps, therefore, contacted Steffen Hovmand, managing director of Steel ApS in Nakskov, because where Bredgaard Boats did not have enough manpower to be able to solve several tasks, Steel had the manpower with the professional expertise to be able to carry out the task.
– We sat down and looked each other in the eye and agreed that the right way to do it was to find Bredgaard Steel. Bredgaard Boats had the right location, and we had the resources and skills to solve the tasks, says Steffen Hovmand.
– However, we did not expect it to be as extensive as it has been, he adds.
Has designed a special plough
Steel ApS also offers to draw, calculate and design technical constructions, and the consortia have opened their eyes to this.
– We have helped develop a plough for FBC, which is used to plough up the seabed because the seabed was so hard that they could not dig into it, says Steffen Hovmand.
Bredgaard Steel also carries out for FBC the repair of offshore equipment and excavators and shovels on land, just as the company has rigged several barges for the consortium.
Now also servicing concrete works
And once you get into the Fehmarn project, the tasks spread quickly like rings in the water.
Thus, Bredgaard Steel has now also been tasked with providing service and maintaining the concrete plants on the construction site for SBM, which is a subcontractor to FLC.
– We must be responsible for all maintenance of bearings and packing boxes and replacement of worn plates in the mixer and so on. It is very broad, says Steffen Hovmand.
In addition, Bredgaard Steel also torques the moulds for the tunnel elements supplied by Hytor A/S.
The competent work is rumoured
It is otherwise not because Bredgaard Steel spends resources on marketing.
– We received an email one day that SBM had inquired about someone who could service the concrete works and had been recommended to contact us, so that once you are down there and you deliver a good job, they talk to each other, says Steffen Hovmand.
– We also see this in the port, where we have started to service many of the ships. When a new shipping company comes in, they ask the other captain who they should call if they have a problem they need to solve, says Steffen Hovmand.
He does not hesitate to call the collaboration in Bredgaard Steel a success.
– It has been a really good experience for us to join forces, but it also requires managerial trust in each other’s companies and a good chemistry, concludes Steffen Hovmand.
