Bahrain Review

Siemens centre looks ahead

Kellner: “good quality work can trump competition”

A Siemens facility at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP), set up in 2011 to make and repair spare parts for the metallurgical industry, is ready to move on into a next stage of expansion and diversification

“We’re open to doing new kinds of business and developing new products,” said Michael Kellner, CEO of Siemens Bahrain and head of Metals Technologies Middle East. Kellner said the Middle East Centre for Metallurgical Services at BIIP would be interested in engaging in long-term work agreements – at least a two-year time frame – and in investing with customers for business development.

The centre’s focus is on long-product rolling mills, rolling mill guides and electric arc furnace (EAF) steel plants. Its servicing and manufacturing expertise includes complete solutions for wire rod mills and high-speed bar mills, maintaining equipment and refurbishing wear and spare parts. Expertise also covers work rolls, bearing chocks, adjustment devices, gear boxes and spindles, among other things.

The Siemens facility at the BIIP

In 2012/2013 it worked on jobs from manufacturers including Sulb (Bahrain), Hadeed, Nasco and Asco (all from Saudi Arabia), USIC (Kuwait), Emirates Steel (UAE) and Qatar Steel (Qatar), all of who were also customers in the previous year.

“Customers are coming back, the same big names. For big firms quality is a major issue and that’s why we’re getting repeat business,” said Kellner. 

Some of the products and services delivered to Gulf manufacturers: for Bahrain’s Sulb, the centre supplied guides and undertook machining of core equipment for the casting facility; Hadeed received panels for one of their EAFs; Nasco was supplied water-cooled panels, various spare parts and had EAF repair work done; Asco received 12 new panels for their two EAFs; Qatar Steel in Dubai and Qatar had three water-cooled panels delivered along with various wear- and spare parts for smooth operations and received a 450-tonne steel construction made in Bahrain.

Ninety-five per cent of the orders the Siemens facility receives comes from the Gulf region.

A large structure fabricated at the Siemens’ Middle East Centre for Metallurgical Services

The facility works on parts ranging in sizes as small as a few millimetres to very large pieces such as the 110-tonne arc furnace it fabricated solely in Bahrain for a steel plant in Ukraine in Q1 2012.

Its marketing pitch is that it would be cheaper to have new or repaired parts in stock than to face a plant closure because of a lack of that material. A good part translates into shorter downtimes at a plant, it stresses.

In 2013 the facility acquired various additional heavy machines like a vertical lathe and a vertical boring mill handling each up to 15 tonnes of parts.

 

EXPANSION PLANS

Siemens expansion plans depend on market developments, Kellner explains.  “At the moment the steel market is very tough with surplus capacity. Some rolling mills are working at 50 per cent capacity, so spare parts will last longer, which makes for fewer business opportunities for the service centre.” However, he adds, good quality work can trump the competition.

Employees pose during a break at the centre

“When you’re a new plant you have to start with small contracts, then you get the bigger ones. We’ve delivered high quality and there are no complaints.

“We have to get additional customers, higher volumes and more sophisticated jobs. We have a good team here with staff from Bahrain working alongside European technicians.”

Siemens has been active in Bahrain since 1950 and been involved in major infrastructure projects such as the Bahrain Airport, the Formula One racing course, the 950 MW Al Ezzel power plant and the installation at King Hamad Hospital of FlexLab 3.6, a fully integrated laboratory automation system connected to state-of-the-art Siemens analysers.