Rockwell Automation reports it has significantly diversified its products and services over nearly three decades and witnessed huge organic growth in the past four years while taking up major projects from top brands in Saudi Arabia.

With an early focus on oil and gas and petrochemicals, the company has evolved and diversified its services and products to embrace such sectors as water and wastewater, transportation, power generation, consumer products, mining and metals, excelling in developing mega industrial projects with local and global customers, a company spokesman said.

Among its recent projects were Saudi Aramco’s upgrade of the Yanbu crude oil terminal in 2010 and the upgrade of the compressor control system at Ras Tanura this year. It also worked on the Ma’aden aluminum smelter in 2012 as well as Sabic-Yanpet’s new ethylene production unit and the Procter and Gamble detergent facility, both this year.

Other recent projects it was involved with included SWCC’s Khobar, Shuqaiq and Shoaiba plants (2010), Shoaiba Power Plant (2012) and Chevron’s new Jubail plant (2011).

Rockwell Automation’s director of sales for the kingdom is Yahya  Darwish.

In Saudi Arabia Rockwell Automation supplies ControlLogix and CompactLogix platforms, HMI and I/O networking and communication devices, Legacy platforms, variable frequency drives and soft starters and a wide range of low voltage components.

“Creating a robust and effective plant network is what makes a greater impact on productivity of the production lines by eliminating down time and increasing availability and effectiveness of the machines,” says the spokesman.

“Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable… Saudi Arabia being at the heart of the oil and gas industry globally and with major investment in the petrochemical industry, where Rockwell Automation is a technology leader, it was a natural outcome to have an early major Rockwell investment in Saudi.”

Since 1984 Rockwell has contributed to industrial development in Saudi Arabia through organic offices in Riyadh and Dammam offering the Saudi industrial market the latest technologies in the industrial automation business.”

The spokesman said Rockwell had grown organically 400 per cent in the past four years alone and would continue to grow organically and increase its market share in the coming years.

Next March it will hold the largest Rockwell global event called Rockwell Automation University Classic in the Eastern Region where it will unfold new technologies and contribute to technology transfer and awareness. It is part of a strategic plan that focuses on technology transfer  through training and nationalisation of key positions in the organisation.