Al-Rabiah opens SR 120 m power transformer factory

Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah yesterday inaugurated a number of plants, factories and training institutes, including the Saudi Power Transformer Company’s SR 120 million factory, at Dammam’s 2nd Industrial City.
The minister said the Saudi government was providing full support to the industrial sector through various incentives. “This is the reason why we have attracted some of the world's leading industrial companies in recent years,” he said. “All of them are setting up factories here and investing here; all this is a result of the solid support from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and his government.”
Al-Rabiah said the Kingdom has the most conducive investment climate in the region.
SPTC is a joint venture between Indian multinational company Crompton Greaves (CG) and Saudi Transformer Company (STC) since 2010. The collaboration is dedicated to design, engineering and manufacture of power transformers and mobile sub-stations and offers full service capabilities for products installed in Saudi Arabia.
The company’s flagship power transformer factory, which was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of leading Saudi businessmen, diplomats from Belgium and India’s businessman Gautam Thapar.
Thapar heads the $ 4 billion Avantha Group which is one of India’s leading business conglomerates. Its successful entities include BILT, Crompton Greaves, The Global Green Company, Avantha Power & Infrastructure, Solaris ChemTech Industries, Biltech Building Elements, Salient Business Solutions and Avantha Technologies.
His presence at the SPTC factory's inauguration signaled the confidence of foreign investors in the Saudi economy. Thapar called for greater business cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia. "Saudi Arabia has great potential," he said.
The Dammam factory is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, and has a capacity of 5,000MVA. The factory will roll out its first fully manufactured transformer in another two months. The joint venture has already received a five-year framework contract for sub-station services.
The first orders are for one mobile sub-station and six 25MVA power transformers. The products will be delivered to Saudi Electricity Company (SEC).
As one of the world’s leading electrical manufacturers and engineering corporations, CG has been partnering with companies worldwide to enhance its portfolio and offer its clients the best of global technologies and end-to-end solutions.
“Saudi Arabia is the largest market in the Middle East and CG is the first company to establish a power transformer plant and commence mobile substation activities in Saudi Arabia,” said Thapar. “CG has transferred its well-proven technology in power transformer design and manufacturing to the new facility.”
Mohamed Alsamari, CEO of SPTC, said: “I thank our partners CG and STC for the launch of this venture. The factory has been built in a record time of 12 months. We have built a state-of-the-art facility and employed the finest technician and engineers in the field along with the best available technology. We are ready to support Saudi customers in their quest for high quality and efficient power transformers.”
Laurent Demortier, CEO and managing director of CG, described Saudi Arabia as a strategic market for CG. “Saudi Electricity and the other leading utilities and industry customers are innovative companies and the growth challenges that they face require deep technical interactions with leading suppliers,” he said.
“We do believe that the localization of our activity in Saudi will bring a high level of responsiveness and understanding of the specific needs of our Saudi customers and will pave the way for a strong long-term relationship,” said Demortier.