A MARINE firm behind a shipbuilding renaissance hopes to create scores of jobs after securing an offshore wind farm deal.

Macdonald Offshore and Marine says it could recruit as many as 40 workers on the back of an agreement with Offshore Structures Britain (OSB).

Officials added the Middlesbrough-based firm is also bidding for a lucrative contract to support a waste-to-energy project.

Bosses say the business’ wind farm deal will see it supply OSB with 30 five-metre wide internal platforms for transition pieces, which sit upon monopiles and include platforms, boat landing areas and cable housing, and will be used on the Hornsea One offshore wind farm.

They added the work, described as a six-figure arrangement, has secured several new jobs and secured a further 20.

However, director Steve Macdonald, said the company, which this year brought shipbuilding back to the River Tees following the launch of scallop trawler Summer Rose, believes it can go much further.

He said: “This is fantastic news because it secures our place as part of what is fast becoming a centre of excellence for windfarm manufacture here on Teesside and the wider North-East.

“This initial deal has already secured our long-term future but we’re now quoting for several more packages for significantly larger contracts, opening up potential orders worth millions.

“We’re potentially looking at several years of work that could create 40 more local jobs.”

Based 75 miles off the North Sea coast, wind farm operator Orsted says Hornsea One will use 174 turbines to power in excess of one million homes when it is built and operational.

Steve Osbaldeston, a fellow director at Macdonald Offshore and Marine, said the development could provide fantastic spin-off benefits.

He added: “We’re hopeful further contracts for major Hornsea projects will also come to the Tees, so there’s phenomenal potential for our engineering sector.

“It opens up a whole new avenue for our supply chain, can secure and create local jobs, create apprenticeships and invest in the future of the business.”

Based in the former Tag Energy Solutions factory on the River Tees at Haverton Hill, near Billingham, OSB has an agreement to make more than 50 transition pieces for Hornsea One, having been founded as a joint venture between Danish steel contractor Bladt and German steel firm EEW Special Pipe Constructions.

Bladt last month revealed it had secured further on transition piece work.

However, officials told The Northern Echo they will be made in Denmark and not on Teesside.