THYSSENKRUPP, WILHELMSHAVEN, GERMANY ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions South Africa can draw on the technology and expertise provided by the global TKIS organisation’s specialist divisions
Having seen business potential in the refining and manufacture of liquid fuels and chemicals, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (TKIS) business development and sales GM Vishal Harichund tells Engineering News that TKIS South Africa (TKISSA) can draw on the technology and expertise provided by the global TKIS organisation’s specialist divisions, in Germany, Australia, Russia, India and Thailand, to support the execution of projects in the South African market in this target sector.
TKISSA’s Process Technologies business unit (formerly Uhde) supplies engineering solutions to clients from various industry segments in the Southern African market environment. The profiles of these projects are process plant optimisation-focused and typically include process plant debottlenecking, equipment upgrades and replacements, and capital project delivery services.
Partnering for Value
TKISSA was awarded the basic engineering design for the Clean Fuels II project for South Africa’s largest synfuels provider, executing with an international team of colleagues from South Africa, Australia, India and Germany on the ground in Secunda. An additional example is the successful completion of a front-end engineering design of a new residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) complex at Daura refinery in Baghdad, Iraq. The project was executed in three TKIS offices, in Melbourne and Brisbane, in Australia, and the Thailand office, in Bangkok. This project presents an additional opportunity for TKIS to further consolidate its strengths and capabilities in the refining sector around the world.
Locally, TKISSA is aiming to provide the same full spectrum of oil refinery services representative of its global competencies and it initially plans to penetrate the local market with a suite of plant operator and shutdown support services.
“We also provide engineering services and EPCM [engineering, procurement and construction management] support and locally have capability and capacity to support small- to medium-sized projects under $75-million. Larger capital projects can also be executed, in partnership with their global offices,” he explains.
While TKISSA sources its technologies and specialist know-how from the global organisation, it also presents locally a broad range of experience as a result of working with other operators in the industry, meeting the different demands of various project scopes across a wide spectrum of third-party-licensed technologies, Harichund adds.
He tells Engineering News that TKISSA has provided detailed EPCM services and capital project and shutdown works at South Africa’s largest synfuels producer for more than 20 years and is looking to aggressively broaden its customer base within allied industries.
Industry Challenges
In October last year, TKIS embarked on its first refinery roadshow, visiting refineries in South Africa, which highlighted the stay-in-business challenges that the industry faces.
One of these challenges was the need to reduce emissions during the refinery process. An additional challenge that TKIS identified was the need to reduce the overall cost of ownership, which affects the affordability of capital required for emissions reduction and other projects. These factors, combined with South Africa’s ageing refining and manufacturing infrastructure, pose challenges which TKISSA sees as opportunities.
TKISSA has helped mitigate these challenges by bringing global expertise to its customers in a basket of locally delivered services. The company’s collaborative partnerships with other providers in the services supply chain, and its high-value business centres in India, for example, can facilitate cost competitiveness in the refinery industry across the spectrum of plant optimisation support services, including shutdown support, mechanical supervision, energy and environmental management and capital project delivery services.
“We believe that the market has potential for our investment in the coastal region and that there are many challenges that we as an organisation can bring value-adding solutions to. We have, therefore, identified the need to develop our presence in these regions to be closer to clients, and have targeted the next couple of months to increase our market presence,” concludes Harichund.