The move into the new premises, treble the size of its old home nearby, is to to handle a rise in sales and orders of its products sparked by a recent surge of offshore activity in South-east Asia.

British-based Sonardyne has been operating in Singapore, its regional headquarters for Asia, for about 17 years, and will move from its old office which is located opposite the new building.

The new building will act as office, warehouse for new products and also as a workshop to meet the repair and servicing needs of its customers.

It covers over 9,000 sq ft and is more than treble the size of the previous office. The new facilities include a specially manufactured acoustic test tank, and a modern service and repair area which enables the rapid turnaround of customers' equipment.

A training room has also been constructed, where monthly courses will be held to educate customers in the use of their advanced products.

Mr John Ramsden, senior vice president of Sonardyne Asia, said: 'Sonardyne is well-known within the industry for providing the highest levels of support. Investing in this new dedicated building enables us to offer our customers throughout the Asian markets even better service.

'In addition to supporting our core business within the oil and gas industry, our new facility will also allow us to support Sonardyne's diversification into new markets,' he said.

'These include the tsunami warning system we have installed in the Bay of Bengal and diver detection sonars that are attracting interest in the region.'

Sonardyne's underwater positioning, subsea communications and acoustic navigation systems products cater to the offshore oil exploration, defence, subsea telecommunications, oceanographic and salvage industries.