Berkshire-based UK exporter Guralp Systems has won another contract to provide earthquake monitoring equipment to Turkey to help expand its earthquake detection network, with support from UK export credit agency ECGD.

 

Guralp, which manufactures and maintains a wide range of seismic devices, won the US$1.4mn contract to build, install and commission the real-time earthquake monitoring system.

 

UK trade minister Douglas Alexander says: “This equipment could play an important part in helping to save lives in Turkey, which has been devastated by earthquakes in recent years. This deal provides a welcome boost to the UK’s seismic technology sector, and will also help to safeguard jobs in Reading.”

 

ECGD guaranteed a US$1.3mn bank loan provided by Lloyds TSB to help Istanbul’s Bogazici University to partly finance the contract awarded to the UK manufacturer.

 

The contract will also help Bogazici University’s seismology division, the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, enhance its existing academic and research programmes for real-time earthquake monitoring.
Nathan Pearce, senior systems engineer at the Berkshire-based company, says: “Guralp Systems Ltd has been exporting seismic equipment to Turkey, which is a very important market to us, for 10 years. ECGD support was instrumental in helping us win this new contract.”