Huge potential in region’s transport infrastructure
KUALA LUMPUR: Engineering and project management consultant HSS Engineers Bhd (HSS Engineers) sees huge potential in the transport infrastructure sector in the region, as well as the local water industry.
Chief executive officer Datuk Nitchiananthan Balasubramaniam said spending for road, rail, sea and airport infrastructure in six countries – Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, was expected to almost double to US$81 billion in 2025 compared with US$47 billion in 2015.
“Southeast Asia’s infrastructure growth will be driven by increased population and urbanisation, accelerated mobility and demand for transportation and increase trade competitiveness,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting yesterday.
Locally, he said the company saw the water industry as the future growth driver with more projects expected to be rolled out by Pengurusan Aset Air Bhd.
He said tenders for water projects constituted about 30 to 40 per cent of the company’s RM500 million tender book.
Order book, on the other hand, stood at RM962.5 million, with 68 per cent coming from the railway sector, 14 per cent from highway, 13 per cent from water industry, four per cent infrastructure project and one per cent others.
This comes as the group remains optimistic for 2018, backed by its current strong order book of RM962.5 million and anticipates stronger growth to group’s topline as well as bottomline with the recent completion of the SMHB acquisition exercise. With the SMHB acquisition completed on March 28, 2018, the enlarged group’s current order book stands at RM962.5 million.
This comprises works for various projects including Independent Consulting Engineer for both Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) Lines 2 and 3, Reference Design Consultant 05 for Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail, Detailed Design, Construction Drawing and Supervision Consultancy Services for the first phase of the East Coast Rail Link, and Engineering Design and Construction Supervision Services for Langat 2 Water Supply Scheme.
Currently, HSS Engineers’ current tender book stands at approximately RM500 million, which spans across various sectors such as railway, highway, infrastructure, as well as the water industry.
“We have continued to achieve significant milestones in 2018 that will propel HSS Engineers’s prospects, namely having completed the acquisition of SMHB which will allows us to upscale and upskill our team, and positioned us to take up greater role in Malaysia’s infrastructure boom, namely the water sector.
“Additionally, we have also recently secured our largest contract to date of RM289.9 million, as the Independent Consulting Engineer for KVMRT Line 3, which has boosted our order book close to RM1 billion.
“We are now tendering for approximately RM500 million worth of jobs, both in Malaysia as well as the South East Asian region, and aim to continue this growth momentum to reach our full potential,” HSS Engineers executive vice chairman Tan Sri Ir. Kuna Sittampalam said.
The enlarged group boasts of extensive experience in the highway, railway and water sectors, and has more than 1,000strong workforce of which more than 50 per cent are engineers. This enables the group to have adequate capacity to not only take up more projects, but also compete with major foreign players.
HSS Engineers’ Annual General Meeting yesterday saw shareholders approving all tabled resolutions.