By Choi Kyong-ae
Samsung Engineering said Tuesday it was aiming to make a deal to build a petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan based on a conceptual study it will conduct for the country's state project.
"We have agreed with Uzbek Neftegaz, Uzbekistan's state-owned oil company, to conduct a conceptual study for a benzene-toluene-xylene plant. It is a kind of rough sketch of the facility, not yet a deal to build," said a company official.
Samsung Engineering will make every effort to earn the contract to build the BTX plant on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) base grounded on its partnership with Uzbekistan, he said.
But the official didn't say anything about the value of the rough planning for the BTX plant.
Samsung Engineering, an affiliate of Samsung Group, plans to expand into member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, based on the possible EPC project in Uzbekistan, the official said.
"As we successfully built a polymer plant for Uzbek Neftegaz in a $700 million EPC deal in July, the state company placed an order for the conceptual study for the BTX plant," he said.
In Azerbaijan in 2013, Samsung Engineering built a $500 million fertilizer plant for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic.
Korean engineering companies largely win EPC projects but the high value-added front and end engineering and design (FEED) projects are mostly taken by global majors such as Flour from the U.S., Technip from France, Saipem from Italy.
That's mainly due to the technology gap which still runs deep between Korean builders and their counterparts in Europe and the U.S.
Hit by snowballed manufacturing costs and declines in orders in past years, Samsung Engineering shifted to a net loss of 1.32 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in the January-September period from a net profit of 64 billion won a year earlier, according to regulatory filing.
It also swung to an operating loss of 1.476 trillion won from an operating profit of 139.9 billion won during the same period, said the filing.
Samsung Engineering said Tuesday it was aiming to make a deal to build a petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan based on a conceptual study it will conduct for the country's state project.
"We have agreed with Uzbek Neftegaz, Uzbekistan's state-owned oil company, to conduct a conceptual study for a benzene-toluene-xylene plant. It is a kind of rough sketch of the facility, not yet a deal to build," said a company official.
Samsung Engineering will make every effort to earn the contract to build the BTX plant on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) base grounded on its partnership with Uzbekistan, he said.
But the official didn't say anything about the value of the rough planning for the BTX plant.
Samsung Engineering, an affiliate of Samsung Group, plans to expand into member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, based on the possible EPC project in Uzbekistan, the official said.
"As we successfully built a polymer plant for Uzbek Neftegaz in a $700 million EPC deal in July, the state company placed an order for the conceptual study for the BTX plant," he said.
In Azerbaijan in 2013, Samsung Engineering built a $500 million fertilizer plant for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic.
Korean engineering companies largely win EPC projects but the high value-added front and end engineering and design (FEED) projects are mostly taken by global majors such as Flour from the U.S., Technip from France, Saipem from Italy.
That's mainly due to the technology gap which still runs deep between Korean builders and their counterparts in Europe and the U.S.
Hit by snowballed manufacturing costs and declines in orders in past years, Samsung Engineering shifted to a net loss of 1.32 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in the January-September period from a net profit of 64 billion won a year earlier, according to regulatory filing.
It also swung to an operating loss of 1.476 trillion won from an operating profit of 139.9 billion won during the same period, said the filing.
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