Yokogawa continues to strengthen its global Industrial Automation (IA) business as it spearheads its strategy to become a world leader by the end of the decade.
A key component of Yokogawa’s global success is the dramatic increase in business in the highly competitive IA market of the Middle East.
Yokogawa Middle East (YME) is strengthening its service and sales systems to meet the demands of the fast growing markets of the Gulf and the wider Middle East.
In February 2006, YME became one of the regional headquarters of global Yokogawa in alignment with its European, American and South East Asian counterparts, enhancing and increasing the scale and range of IA solutions provided on a local basis throughout the Middle East.
According to a spokesman for Yokogawa, growth in IA business in the Middle East has increased by 400 per cent over the last five years since 2001.
Moreover, Yokogawa has increased its staff across the region by a formidable 250 per cent not only for its Middle East headquarters in Bahrain but for Yokogawa operational offices in Jubail, Al Khobar and Yanbu for Saudi Arabia; and Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha and Tehran.
For the Middle East headquarters, Yokogawa has been taking advantage of Bahrain’s strategic location not only for its ease of access to the region but as a global centre of excellence in the provision of technology and service support. Since Yokogawa moved its Middle East representative office from Kuwait to Bahrain in May 1990, the operation has gone from strength to strength and now one of the key world-wide facilities.
To meet increasing business demand and to provide technical resources to the region, however.
Yokogawa has also invested in establishing new companies in other countries
In April 2006, Yokogawa Engineering Middle East FZE started operations in Jebel Ali Free Zone. From this location Yokogawa is executing seven projects; three in the UAE, and one in Oman, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.
Yokogawa Saudi Arabia will soon start operations. The planned location is the prestigious Science Park at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran with the establishment of further branch offices in Jubail, Yanbu and Jeddah. The total area of the offices and workshops in Saudi Arabia will exceed 15,000 square metres.
Yokogawa is spearheading a proactive Saudisation policy both contributing to the Saudi economy and providing prompter high-quality local services to customers in the largest market for YME. These policy objectives include the employment of Saudi nationals, technology transfer and the procurement of local materials.
In terms of the prompter high-quality local services in Saudi Arabia, Yokogawa provides deployment on a 24 hours service basis; system engineering, integration, start-up, commissioning, construction work including hot cold cut-over of the system; and customer training.
The oil, gas, petrochemical, and power markets in the Middle East are growing fast with increasing investments in these markets, leveraging from the revenues resulting from higher oil prices.
Despite strong international competition, YME has succeeded in gaining the confidence of its customers thanks to the high reliability of Yokogawa products and the professionalism of its employees.
The Yokogawa workforce comprises engineers specialised in various instrumentation fields. Most projects are locally managed and executed by its staff, including engineering, commissioning, startup and training.
The activities of YME cover Sales and Engineering Services embracing Project Management, Supply, Site Services, Training and Maintenance of Integrated Process Automation Systems, Process Control Instruments and Test and Measuring Instruments.
Yokogawa is one of the major manufacturers and suppliers of Process Control Instrumentation and Test and Measuring Instruments since 1915.
Its global network of 18 manufacturing facilities, 82 affiliate companies, and over 650 sales and engineering offices spans 28 countries.
Yokogawa aims to increase its efficiency through three initiatives, namely, customer-centric solutions, leading edge technology and One global Yokogawa.
