Hock Seng Lee bids for RM2.5bil worth of contracts

KUCHING: Construction firm Hock Seng Lee Bhd, which secured RM1.94bil worth of contracts last year, has bid for new projects worth around RM2.5bil.

Corporate affairs director Sonja Gan said although the current order book would keep HSL busy for several years, the company was still bidding for jobs which draw on its key expertise of marine and civil engineering.

“Tenders are continuing to be generated from the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) region, notably small to medium sized infrastructure contracts, for example roads and civil works in the Score growth town of Samalaju,” she told StarBiz.

Samalaju in Bintulu Division has seen rapid development in the past one decade, and is now home to billion ringgit investments in energy-intensive industries, such as aluminium and ferrosilcon and manganese smelters.

According to Gan, the company’s current order book stands at record high of about RM2.5bil, of which some RM2.1bil is outstanding as of Dec 31 last year.

In 2016, HSL secured two major contracts - Pan Borneo Highway project work package and Kuching centralised wastewater management project (package 2), of which its 70% and 75% stakes respectively in the joint venture projects are worth RM1.12bil and RM563mil.

The contract period for the highway package is 51 months.

It involves works ranging from drainage to road as well as bridges to interchanges from Bintangor junction to Julau junction and Sibu airport to Sg Kua bridge in Sarawak’s central region. “The project is progressing.

“We have established an operation centre in Sibu and have added additional engineers to our team.

“Mobilisation of plant and machinery and site clearing activities are underway,” said Gan.

With the project works advancing,she said the company would anticipate more substantial progress claims this year.

On the Kuching centralised wastewater project, Gan said physical works had yet to get off the ground as the project was still in the preliminary analysis and investigative stage.

The package 2’s scope of works cover construction and commissioning of wastewater treatment plant, main, secondary and tertiary lines, property connections, provision of plant and equipment, related building works as well as mechanical and electrical works The contract period is 72 months. Under package 1(2008-2015), HSL and its consortium partner completed the three key components - a wastewater treatment plant, a sewer network (overall length of 64.5km consisting of trunk,secondary and tertiary sewers) and property connections.

Some 3,000 residential and commercial properties have so far being connected.

The project is based on the Singapore model to collect grey and black water from residential, commercial and other properties and pipe it underground to the treatment plant where it is processed into clean water before being discharged back to the environment.

Gan said the tunnel boring technique deployed in the project was complex and technically demanding.