Leighton International's Magazine, Perspective, Issue 6 2010

06
OVERVIEW
MAINTAINING A STRONG
MARKET PRESENCE
HEADING LEIGHTON MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE AND BRUNEI; GENERAL MANAGER
TONY HARVEY REVIEWS PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND CURRENT TARGETS SET AGAINST
A CHALLENGING SOUTH EAST ASIAN MARKET.
This is our 33 rd year
of business in Malaysia
having commenced
our involvement in
1977 with the Labuan
Flour Mill Project in
Sabah, East Malaysia.
The key to our success has been to
maintain our competitive edge ahead of
maturing local contracting companies
and this will continue to be the challenge.
In this regard, we have to retain and
develop our ability to re-engineer
conventional designs, introduce the
latest methods of construction, and
apply project delivery mechanisms that
generate cost, schedule and delivery
efficiencies.
In terms of technical ability, there
is very little that we cannot do in our
market sectors. We have a team of
personnel with the ability to respond to
technically challenging and financially
complex deals. Therein lies our strength,
our people. Ultimately, we need to
capitalise on our flexibility, versatility
and expertise to remain relevant in a
market that is becoming increasingly
competitive.
WORKING IN
COLLABORATION
Currently, we are undertaking the
largest rail works project undertaken in
Malaysia that involves 760 kilometers
of track length from Ipoh to Padang
Besar, which will enable train travel at
speeds of 160 kilometers per hour from
Kuala Lumpur to the Thai border. Having
completed the 400 kilometers track
length Phase 1 works from Rawang
to Ipoh, Leighton is the premier track
works contractor in Malaysia. Because
of the specialised skill and fleet of
equipment within our rail business, there
is a great opportunity to collaborate
with the other subsidiaries in the
Leighton Group to pursue new business
in markets outside of our current
geographical areas.
Such collaboration across the
Leighton International business
operations is already evident in our
offshore business, the most recent
successful delivery being the Labuan
Water Supply Offshore Pipeline project
in September this year. This was a
technically challenging initiative delivered
on time and budget due to an excellent
team of people utilising the Group’s
state of the art marine assets.
Our project team on a contaminated
facility site remediation project, which
involves retrieving and safely disposing
of radioactive materials from an
existing storage facility, is making
excellent progress. This project was
secured due to our ability to work
in close collaboration with our client
in developing precise methods that
comply with onerous requirements of
the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and
developing an equitable price evaluation
plan with shared risks to deal with the
unknown conditions inherent in a project
of this nature. Our strength as always
is in developing innovative solutions
to complex problems and the ability to
take on non traditional contract delivery
methods.
FUTURE GOALS
Looking ahead we are pursuing
two excellent opportunities in
Malaysia related to multi-purpose dam
construction and coal mining, both
of which involve Leighton taking on a
project development role. This is made
possible given our excellent relationship
with Emrail and their shareholding within
Leighton Malaysia. Other immediate
opportunities within Malaysia include
expansion of the LBT jetty facility,
construction of a new material handling
jetty facility for VALE and expansion of
an existing major highway. Longer term
opportunities in Malaysia relate to the
government’s drive to expand the LRT
and freight cargo rail network.
With the recognisable upturn in
Singapore where the construction
sector is expected to experience annual
turnover in excess of US$20 billion per
annum for the coming five years, and
with available margins also expected to
improve, we have re-entered this market
with confidence and high expectations.
Currently, we are working on several
initiatives with the major initiatives
being the 320Mld TUAS Desalination
Plant and various tunnel construction
packages for the Down Town Line 3 LRT
Network. Our operation in Singapore is
spotlighted in this issue of Perspective
(see page 8).
The Malaysian operations, including
Singapore and Brunei, have made
significant contribution to the Group over
the years and 2010 was another great
year. We look forward to an even better
year in 2011.
“We have to retain and develop our ability to re-engineer conventional
designs, introduce the latest methods of construction, and apply project
delivery mechanisms that generate cost, schedule and delivery efficiencies.”