KUALA LUMPUR: Marine transportation provider EA Technique (M) Bhd has mapped out plans to take its business a notch higher by extending its current shipyard facilities, growing its port services by providing harbour tugboats, anchoring further in the downstream transportation of refined products and chemicals, and raising funds through private placement.
Managing director Datuk Abdul Hak Md Amin said these strategies were vital in growing EA Technique, as well as strengthening its position in the market, especially ahead of full commencement of the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang, Johor.
“EA Technique is currently drafting expansion plans to grow the company further. We aim at growing our non-marine transportation segment which involves shipbuilding and ship repairing.
“These activities are operated by our wholly owned subsidiary, Johor Shipyard and Engineering Sdn Bhd, and we are actively engaging the landlords to purchase another 8ha of land adjacent to the current plant that spread across 8.09ha,” he told Bernama.
The current capacity of Johor Shipyard is building one 10,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) tanker or six units of 60 tonnes bollard pull harbour tugboats (Bollard pull is a conventional measure of the pulling power of a tugboat or watercraft).
The homegrown EA Technique is positioned in the top three among companies in the small size (15,000 dwt) tanker segment, the leader in the tugboat for port and offshore operation, and one of the successful floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) and FSPO players in the country.
On the preparation to supply vessels to Rapid Pengerang, Abdul Hak said the company is looking into adding chemical vessels into EA Technique’s fleet even though it is taking a “wait-and-see” approach towards Rapid operations before making further decision.
“We are going to enter into that (chemical) market... we do have chemical tankers now but we are looking for more business opportunities in that area. We are going to tender for their projects but for now, we would wait for Petronas or other national petroleum and natural gas companies to come out with order requirement. – Bernama
