Yokogawa is investing millions of dollars in Saudi Arabia to effectively support the country’s booming mega oil, gas and petrochemical projects.

In a strategic move, Yokogawa recently set up two companies in Saudi Arabia: Yokogawa Saudi Arabia Limited and Yokogawa Services Saudi Arabia Limited.
Yokogawa Saudi Arabia is engaged in engineering and manufacturing of process control solutions as well as research and development while Yokogawa Services Saudi Arabia provides after-sales services and training services of Yokogawa systems and products, construction and installation services related to instrumentation and life-cycle maintenance services.
Representing a multi-million-dollar investment, Yokogawa Saudi Arabia opened last December in Khobar. It is located on a 10,000 sq m plot at the Science Park of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran. Future expansion of facilities calls for 18,000 sq m with the built-up area going from 4,000 sq m to 7,000 sq m.
Yokogawa Services Saudi Arabia is a joint venture of Yokogawa and Gas Arabian Services, a long-time partner of Yokogawa in the kingdom. The company, which began operations recently, is located in the Support Industries Area in Jubail with 50 employees and occupies a total area of 5,000 sq m and a built-up area of 2,000 sq m which is to be expanded to 3,000 sq m.
More than 200 professionals will be employed by both companies, allowing Yokogawa to effectively support Saudi Arabia’s booming mega oil, gas and petrochemical projects and to contribute to the Kingdom’s development.
Yokogawa, which has been in the kingdom for two decades, is spearheading a proactive Saudiisation policy and both contributing to the Saudi economy and providing high-quality local services for the company’s largest market in the Middle East.
Policy objectives include the employment and development of Saudi nationals, a technology transfer and procurement of local materials.
Moreover, Yokogawa provides high-quality local services, including on-call services on a 24/7 basis, system engineering, integration, start-up, commissioning, construction work, modernisation of process control systems and customer training.
Akira Ogawa, as president and CEO of Yokogawa Middle East (YME), heads the two companies.
Yokogawa’s existing branch office in Yanbu is set for expansion while its network will be extended to Jeddah and Riyadh.
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.
Yokogawa established its Middle East headquarters at Bahrain in 1990 to facilitate easy access to its growing network of sales, engineering and service facilities throughout the region.
YME has continued to strengthen its service and sales activities to meet increasing demand from the fast-growing markets of the GCC and the wider Middle East. Significantly, YME became one of the regional headquarters and a key worldwide facility for global Yokogawa in early 2006 reflecting the growing importance of the Middle East.

FOUR-FOLD GROWTH
YME is now aligned with its European, American and South East Asian counterparts as a global facility in order to enhance and increase the scale and range of industrial automation (IA) solutions provided on a local basis throughout the Middle East.
Yokogawa’s growth in IA business has increased more than four-fold over the last five years in the Middle East.
YME’s regional headquarters has a multi-cultural professional workforce specialised in various functions. Currently, it employs over 476 staff in sales, engineering and technical support deployment in strategic locations throughout the region.
Yokogawa has taken 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. Moreover, Yokogawa is increasing its presence across the region from its Middle East headquarters in Bahrain and operational offices in Saudi Arabia, UAE (Abu Dhabi, and Jebel Ali in Dubai), Oman (Muscat), Qatar (Doha) and Iran (Tehran).
In April 2006, Yokogawa Engineering Middle East started operations in Jebel Ali Free Zone in April last year. From this location Yokogawa is executing seven projects: three in the UAE, and one each in Oman, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.
Yokogawa’s workforce comprises engineers specialised in various instrumentation fields. Most projects are locally managed and executed by its staff, including engineering, commissioning, start-up 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.
A major manufacturer and supplier of process control instrumentation and test and measuring instruments, Yokogawa’s parent, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, was founded in Japan in 1915. Today, Yokogawa employs more than 19,000 people in a global network of 18 manufacturing facilities, 83 affiliate companies, and over 650 sales and engineering offices in 28 countries.
With more than $3.83 billion in sales, Yokogawa is committed to applying state-of-the-art technology in its three main divisions of industrial automation, test and measurement and information systems, including aviation and industry support. Its commitment to innovation is reflected in its exceptionally high ration of investment in research and development, which enables the sustained development of pioneering new technologies, products and services.