Hyundai to be Strongest Again

Company wins string of orders overseas including Habshan-5 project in Abu Dhabi worth $1.7 bln

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. won part of the Habshan-5 project in the United Arab Emirates on July 16 worth $1.7 billion involving the construction of a gas plant from Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd., the company said.
The project concerns the integration of gas fields by building NGL storages, waste treatment and power generation facilities under the No. 2 project district among the five project packages. The project is located some 150 km from Abu Dhabi in the Habshan region and the construction period of the project is 44 months.s
President Kim Joong-kyum said Hyundai Construction has its own unique corporate culture based on its late founder Chung Ju-yung, characterized by a strong push and spirit, created through the company's tough experiences in completing difficult construction projects all over the world including such tough environments as deserts, the wilds of Alaska and deep forests.
He said it is the tough spirit of the employees that led the company to recapture its old glory as the leading construction company in Korea in recent months. During 2000-2001, the company began to lose its edge with worsening financial conditions and eventually yielded the top position to one of its rivals in 2004.
The Construction Association of Korea said Hyundai is likely to recapture its top builder position after the evaluation of the construction firms' ability, capacity, technology and finances to take place in July.
As the late founder used to say, crisis opens up opportunities and being the number one in the industry is important because it gives pride and new motivation to employees to bring innovation and reform to the company in order to be more competitive in many areas of its operations.
The CEO, who took over the top management position of the company in March, said he will continue to push challenge and reform, as the company has a long way to go to be the world's top construction firm, not satisfied with being No. 1 only at home. "It is the time to change the paradigm in the construction market as 'green technology' has become the key word now, switching from social overhead capital projects, which made up many of the construction projects until now," Kim said.
"In the age of green technology, builders should now undertake projects in such areas as nuclear power plants, water desalination, wind, tidal, solar and bio and other new energy sectors, in addition to traffic and city engineering by acquiring technologies in those areas," he added.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. (HDEC) has signed a contract with Jurong Town Corp. in Singapore worth $800 million to build the first stage work for an underground oil storage facility with the capacity to hold 9.5 million barrels of oil among the undersea boulders some 130 meters deep off Jurong Island along with docking facilities for oil tankers. The construction period is 56 months.
The undersea oil storage construction project brings the total projects won in Singapore by HDEC to eight, valued at $2.18 billion, and the company stands to win a string of other construction projects in Singapore as it is preparing to bid for MRT projects and the Marina View 43-storey hotel construction project.
HDEC secured a total of $1.94 billion worth of project orders overseas so far this year in the first quarter, putting itself in a good position to achieve its $6.5 billion goal for overseas projects for this year.
In the meantime, Hyundai E&C recorded 1.979 trillion won in sales in Q1, up 38.8 percent YoY, an operating profit of 77.5 billion won, down 31.9 percent YoY, and net profit of 117.9 billion won, up 18.4 percent YoY, with overseas project orders secured valued at 3.118 trillion won, bringing the backlog of overseas project orders to 44.277 trillion won as of March 31.
Overseas project orders took up half of the total orders last year with Middle East countries expanding plant construction projects. Overseas project orders still coming in strong in Q1 overtook domestic construction orders at 1.918 trillion won compared to 1.279 trillion won for domestic project orders.
Aramco awarded HDEC the contract to take charge of a project worth $2.6 billion building a gas processing facility in the Khursaniyah region in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia capable of treating 1.8 billion square feet of natural gas daily.
The company said it was able to secure the project due to its successful experience in building the 2&3 and 4&5 stages of the South Pars gas plant project in Iran, and a gas treatment facility project in the Kurais region in Saudi Arabia ordered by Aramco in September 2006, displaying its abundant technology and construction know-how, especially for building large petrochemical projects. nw

President Kim Joong-kyum of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co.