Archives

By Ravi Ladduwahetty

A Sri Lankan heavy engineering firm - V Com Engineering (Pvt) Ltd will shortly sign a contract for the fabrication of reefer containers and container parts for the Port of Salalah in Oman, Chairman/ Managing Director Jagath Navaratna told the Daily News.

The Australian qualified Marine Engineer Navaratna bought over the V Com Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, an originally American owned firm sold on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for US$ 25,000.

The company commenced operations in 1995 and the Port of Salalah operations in 2000 where there is a 10,000 square feet factory for the fabrication and manufacture of heavy engineering products, including the biggest lathe machine in Salalah which provides services to all the major heavy industries in Salalah including maintenance facilities for Riso Cement, the biggest factory in Oman.

This includes the manufacture of cement silos and steel conveyors.

Currently, his company is working as a sub-contractor on a US$ 600 million pipeline project at Amrith, he said.

Other aspects of the firm's engineering expertise has been in steel fabrication, power generation and manufacturing cement silos.

Among the business is servicing the poultry industry where V Com is supplying poultry feeding systems to farms which have millions of birds.

V Com also services vehicles, cargo trailers and accommodation cabins of the Salalah military base which has 30,000 British and American troops. Various steel components and machinery parts are also fabricated at the venue.

The Salalah hotel industry is also serviced by Navaratna's company where boilers are also serviced by them, in addition to the fabrication of stainless steel kitchen equipment.

There is tremendous scope for Sri Lanka's heavy engineering business overseas. The Salalah experience has been very enriching. Sri Lankan contractors could work in any part of the world if other countries could recognise our talent and encourage us, Navaratna said.

He said that competitiveness was the hallmark of Sri Lanka's engineering firms and should have a good chance of going global.

There was huge potential for the heavy engineering industry in Salalah and his firm employs 45 Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis. Any other additional requirements are met by the locals there.

"When I went to Salalah with an open mind I never imagined that there was such huge potential there but I took a chance," he said.

It is a mixture of both mechanical and electrical engineering that has got V Com involved in Bangladesh where it does thermal power projects which have steel fabrications and also in fabrications in fabric dying plants. The company employs 27 Sri Lankans.

In a macabre tryst of destiny, the company has ventured overseas due to the reason that opportunities for local contractors were not there during the last regime. He attributes the peace process and the prospects for business through the re-engineering of the economy that opportunities for locals will exist along with the present Government's policy of hiring local enterprises.

"We are back in Sri Lanka and are concentrating on business here. Previously, the Government never thought of Sri Lankan companies, but they built up foreign companies which were predominantly Korean Chinese and Indians who started undercutting locals and repatriating the monies there," he said.

He advocated that the Government should have a policy of at least giving 30 percent to locals in big time contracts which are otherwise given to foreigners. The company is also involved in Sri Lanka's power sector where Agrico brought the imported power generators and where there were 13 emergency power plants commissioned by his company where 25- 30 tanks were supplied and connected to generators.

It was extremely tough meeting with the delivery schedules, which the company did with precision. The company has supplied 300 fuel tanks in a record 45 days.

Asked about expansion plans, he said plans were underway for the company to get a Colombo Stock Exchange listing. The company is also building a Rs. 200 million office complex in Colombo.

V Com was originally an American owned company facing liquidation and its shares come to the Hong Kong share market. Navaratna was employed there as a ship surveyor for a firm named Unito, which bought the chemicals operations of the original V Com. The engineering aspects of the V Com operation was purchased by Navaratna for US$ 25,000.

He feels that the name of the company is of tremendous advantage in the Middle East as it is well known there.

Navaratna an old Trinitian, did his special apprenticeship in marine engineering at Walkers soon after leaving college. He read for a Degree in Marine Engineering at the South Shield University in UK, graduating with Second Class Honours.

He migrated to Australia where he read for a Master's Degree from the University of New Castle, where he obtained a first class.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager