Saturday 24 September 2011

Malaysia Marine bids for jobs worth RM6b

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Bhd (MHB), an indirect subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), has submitted bids worth between RM5 and RM6 million, says chairman Datuk Nasarudin Md Idris.

"The bids are for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning and construction projects in

the oil and gas industry, mostly in Malaysia," he told reporters after the company's annual general meeting here yesterday.

MHB was listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia in October last year.

"They are now at various stages of being finalised. We have to replenish our order book and we are looking for more projects," he added.

Nasarudin said the company's order book currently stood at about RM3.1 billion, which would last until 2013.

It is derived from upstream projects ranging from the central processing platform to the floating production system for both domestic and international markets.

On the fabrication yard project in Brunei, Nasarudin said "it was still in the preliminary stage."

He said Petronas was in discussions for the setting up of petrochemical facilities in Brunei.

"The project is still in its infancy and we have yet to discuss with Petronas," he added.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said earlier that MHB would develop a fabrication yard in Brunei, but declined to mention how extensive the investment would be.

Nasarudin also said MHB's projection for capital expenditure depended on its yard optimisation programme and some RM2.7 billion has been allocated for the purpose.

"A total of RM700 million has been utilised and the remaining RM2 billion is for over the period until 2014," he added.

He added that upon completion of MHB's acquisition of Sime Darby Engineering's Pasir Gudang yard in Johor, the company's yard space would increase from 148.8ha to 195.2ha, while the capacity would rise to about 130 tonnes per year from about 70 tonnes per year currently.

"With the acquisition, we will be able to pitch for more projects to increase our margin and profitability," he added.

Nasarudin expects good performance for the current financial year.

"We hope it will be better. This year, we have nine months only because of the change in financial year to December 31 2011 instead of March 31 2012. We have a few months more to go," he said.

MHB turned in a pre-tax profit of RM424 million on a turnover of RM4.43 billion for its financial year ended March 31 2011. - Bernama