Benalec, Dutch firm team up for soil solutions venture

PETALING JAYA: Benalec Holdings Bhd and CeTeau Malaysia Sdn Bhd will form a joint-venture company to provide worldclass soil improvement solutions using specialised geosynthetics engineering techniques.

CeTeau, which is based in the Netherlands, specialises in soft soil improvement using prefabricated vertical drain (PVD).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Benalec said it will hold a 51% equity stake of the JV company called Benalec CeTeau Asia Sdn Bhd, while CeTeau holds the remaining 49%.

Under the JV, Benalec said it will provide an integrated marine construction solutions in the areas of land reclamation and coastal protection along with CeTeau’s specialist capabilities in the areas of advanced ground improvement technologies and specialised geosynthetic environmental techniques.

Benalec said the JV company would also provide the supply and installation of PVD. The method is primarily applied to shorten the settlement period of soft, compressible clay/soil, which will in turn reduce the construction period of a project and reduce post-construction settlement.

Benalec said the first PVD machine is currently en-route from the Netherlands and will be delivered to Benalec’s Tanjung Piai Maritime Industrial Park project site by end of this month, in order to commence installation of an estimated 200 million linear meters of PVD.

Moving forward, Chin said the JV aims to offer its services to other large land reclamation projects that are ongoing around peninsular Malaysia, particularly in Johor, Penang, Malacca and Kuantan.