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Re-engineered M&R Energy & Industrial poised to take advantage of growing sectors

21st August 2014

By: Tracy Hancock

Creamer Media Contributing Editor

  

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Engineering and construction services company Murray & Roberts (M&R) believes the re-engineering of its Energy & Industrial platform will allow the operating platform to achieve further growth in its specialist engineering, commissioning and asset support capabilities.

Therefore, the platform has been transformed into a “strong, well-resourced, specialist engineering business poised to take advantage of growing sectors,” noted the group in a media statement.

Energy & Industrial aimed to grow in the oil and gas, mining, energy and industrial markets, where, M&R said, it would be able to leverage its current capabilities and evaluate the potential to establish a meaningful presence in the global industrial water market.

Speaking at a media briefing on the Energy & Industrial operating platform on Thursday, M&R executive director Frank Saieva pointed out that, outside South Africa, the M&R brand – “the yellow dot” – was what was known in Africa, noting that “our approach is more and more [geared toward] selling our solutions into the African market”.

He said the name changes of some of the platform companies would allow Energy & Industrial to further leverage expertise and experience across the platform and provide its clients with a single and recognisable brand identity with which to engage.

In line with this, Wade Walker, headed by MD Mile Sofijanic, was renamed M&R Electrical & Control Systems, while Genrec, which mainly operates in South Africa where it had a strong market brand, and M&R Water were not renamed.

“The Energy & Industrial platform is positioned as an engineering-led contractor,” added Saieva “and it is important that the businesses accurately present their capabilities to the market,” where various business prospects had been identified for the Energy & Industrial platform companies.

M&R Power & Energy, formerly M&R Projects, MD Steve Harrison said at the briefing that there had to be life for the subsidiary after its work concluded at State-owned power utility Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power stations, in Limpopo and Mpumalanga respectively.

He relayed that, having been involved in round three of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), prospects for the subsidiary were still based in the Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) REIPPPP, specifically with regard to concentrated solar power, biomass and cogeneration.

Further, the Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme – also a DoE initiative – and brownfield repair, operations and maintenance (O&M) were highlighted. “Based on our experience and the skills we have developed on the power programme, and our in-house skills, we are well positioned to do work on baseload [independent power producer projects], specifically on coal,” Harrison commented, adding that gas would follow when the Gas Utilisation Master Plan had been finalised.

In brownfield repair, O&M services, a lot of which is driven by M&R Power & Energy’s joint venture with provider of project delivery and consulting services Worley Parsons – MW Power Services – “we have high expectations and plan to do shutdown work next year with [sugar producer] Illovo Sugar. We are looking to do more shutdown work [for mills]”.

M&R noted that it would like to replicate the work done by Power & Energy outside of South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa.

In terms of Petrochemicals & Oil and Gas, Harris stated that in South Africa M&R had invested in a facility in Secunda, just outside Charlie 5, and its vendor registration with Sasol is in order, with M&R currently bidding for work with the petrochemicals giant for stay-in-business; engineering, procurement and construction (EPC); and maintenance projects. Further afield, in East Africa, liquefied natural gas developments would be targeted.

Meanwhile, M&R Resources & Industrial, formerly known as Concor Engineering, will continue to chase iron-ore and coal projects in Africa.

“I think you have to have had your head buried under the sand if you aren’t aware of the iron-ore and coal expansion in Africa. Yes, it has slowed down over the last couple of years, but we seen a change in that. A lot of studies have come back on track and countries have sorted out their issues with regard to taxes and local content.”

Other prospects involved early contractor engagement with a focus on junior mines, full turnkey EPC solutions for Africa and brownfield repair and maintenance. “This [brownfield repair and maintenance] is an area where a lot of mines that are not expanding are trying to stay in business.”

Meanwhile, steel fabrication and erection contractor Genrec Engineering MD Michele Borello pointed out that a focus for Genrec in future would continue to be “engineering around engineering structures”, adding that the way forward for the company would be renewables, particularly wind energy and solar, which were going to be big consumers of fabricated steel and engineering.

M&R Water operations executive Harry Singleton stated that prospects for the company lay in mine water treatment in South Africa, Ghana and Zambia.

Further business opportunities were in industrial effluent treatment, where the company was not yet present; municipal water and wastewater re-use; water supply for power generation infrastructure; and sea water desalination in mining and the municipal sector in conjunction with the company’s key partner, integrated water management and environmental solutions provider Hyflux.

M&R Energy & Industrial contributed revenues of R5-billion and operating profit of R137-million to the group during the 2013 financial year.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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