In a meeting with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her recent visit to Shanghai, China Ocean Engineering Shanghai Co (COES) indicated its strategic intent to establish a project base in Scotland.

The state-owned company has been providing services to the marine construction and offshore industry for more than 60 years.

It specialises in offshore construction and decommissioning, ocean-going towage, salvage and wreck removal, plus offshore renewable activity; it has selected Dundee as the location for its Scottish project office, and it anticipates the creation of jobs, linked to contract success.

The First Minister said: “I welcome the announcement that COES intends to establish a base in Scotland. Throughout my visit to China, I have been travelling with the message that Scotland is a fantastic place to invest and do business. I look forward to hearing more details of COES’s plans in due course.”

COES has a fleet of over 40 specialised vessels and a good track record of completing complex projects; it is hoped that the company’s capabilities will interest prospective clients in the UK, Norwegian and Dutch offshore sectors. COES has recently invested in two new ‘state of the art’ construction engineering ships.