Sheffield Forgemasters secures China manufacturing accreditation

Sheffield Forgemasters has secured specialist accreditation to manufacture pressure vessels for installation into China, opening another potential multi-million pound revenue stream.

Sheffield Forgemasters has been granted A1 accreditation by the China Special Equipment Inspection and Research Institute, providing a manufacturing licence for special equipment after a year-long application procedure.

Without the A1 certification, the pressure vessel market in China, which is fundamental to the country’s burgeoning petrochemical industries, remains closed to foreign manufacturers, but Sheffield Forgemasters has secured a four-year tenure on its licence enabling it to broker new contracts.

David Bunney, senior sales manager for forgings, said: “Securing this accreditation offers significant opportunities for Sheffield Forgemasters to build on more than 30 years trading with China.

“We have many years of experience of manufacturing complete pressure vessels and pressure vessel components for global markets and we see the China market as being particularly strong. In addition to our own manufacturing expertise we are providing project leadership so that other UK based companies will also be able to supply components or products for the wider project scope.

“This is the highest level of pressure vessel accreditation and without it, we simply couldn’t supply into China. We have invested heavily in new equipment to be able to capitalise on the A1 certification and had to undergo a stringent systems and processes audit to qualify.”

Sheffield Forgemasters has also recently passed a very testing final audit towards American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NPT (Nuclear Partials) status to become one of the few UK companies able to fabricate safety critical cast components within nuclear power stations, signaling the green light to take on a whole new strand of civil nuclear manufacture, and complementing its status as an ASME certified Nuclear Materials Organisation.