Sunday, July 27, 2008

US engineering giant expands S’pore operations


Fluor Corporation intends to use the Robinson Road office as a regional management hub performing work for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

It has chosen to expand its existing operations in Singapore from engineering, construction and procurement services to operations that include project management and plant engineering.

It aims to be a one-stop solution for its clients in the energy and chemicals industry, as well as the industrial and infrastructure sectors.

The firm was heavily involved in some major construction projects here in the mid-1990s, including DuPont’s zytel factory, a chemical processing plant for Hoechst Celanese and Warner-Lambert’s pharmaceuticals facility.

It is now working on a solar wafer manufacturing facility for Renewable Energy Corporation.

Fluor Singapore employs 100 people, and plans to double or triple this in the coming months. The workforce will consist mostly of Singaporeans and permanent residents.

Its project work is mainly aided by tying up local procurement operations with Fluor’s global sourcing network and supplier alliances. Fluor Singapore will also be linked to global operation centres and the global execution centre in Manila.

‘Fluor has been in Singapore since 1965, although we were a small presence with only 10 employees back then,’ said its vice-president of South-east Asian operations, Mr Larry Bolander.

‘We chose to commit more resources to Singapore because most of our clients in the region are here. It’s also a great base to use if you want to travel to the rest of the region.’

Fluor posted revenues of US$16.7 billion (S$22.7 billion) last year.


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