Established in 1960 and headquartered in Jubail Industrial City, Al-Suwaidi is one of the leading industrial services contractors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Penetration of new markets (including upstream) whilst continuing to fully support and grow its existing market segments, is a key to the continuing success of the organisation, says Waleed Al Hazmi, CEO of Al-Suwaidi.

In order to meet the market demands and challenges, the company has been investing in various new types of equipment that will boost its capability. This includes new technology that will contribute towards cost-effectiveness and a migration towards achieving less labour-intensive methods, both in the interest of the company and its clients. In addition to this, the company is continually exploring strategic alliances to derive operational synergies.

The company’s core business activities include a wide spectrum of industrial services including, industrial plant maintenance; turnaround and shutdown; advanced & basic cleaning; repairs (E&I); general maintenance and services; mechanical replacement, revamping & upgrading; bundle pulling; scaffolding services (a new scaffolding system that reduces the erection time and promotes safety); painting, coating and blasting; insulation and refractory, and new services that were added to its business portfolio in recent years, namely, catalyst handling; hydrojetting (manual and automated); chemical cleaning and hydrocarbon decontamination; waste transportation (hazardous and non-hazardous); bolt torqueing and tensioning; dewatering, Al Hazmi explains. In addition, various new equipment were added to its fleet to enhance its capability, and these include automated tank cleaning robot, truck and aerial-mounted bundle pullers, super suckers, etc.

In addition to its field and site based services, the company has a full-fledged fabrication facility, in Jubail Industrial City, equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and machinery to manufacture various types of modular skids.

Al-Suwaidi also has a separate division that offers Staff and Labor Accommodation Services, and Catering Services across the kingdom. Accommodation Services are provided through owned and leased camps, and Catering Services are rendered from owned kitchen or client kitchens’.

Al Hazmi says, ever since Al-Suwaidi was established in the year 1960, it has been one of the major contractors of Sabic, Saudi Aramco and its JV companies, executing various small, medium and mega projects (short form and long form contracts) in the downstream segment. "Al-Suwaidi values its longstanding business relationship and remains committed to cater to their requirements," he asserts.

Referring to the company’s major ongoing projects, Al-Hazmi says, Al-Suwaidi is providing a broad range of industrial services through long term contracts at several of Aramco’s Refineries & Gas Plants throughout the kingdom.

The company continues to provide similar services for Sabic, including a master agreement for chemical cleaning and hydrocarbon decontamination services.

Last year, Al-Suwaidi entered into a new long term contract for tank cleaning and repair services at Yasref and signed a blanket agreement for general maintenance works at Luberef. It was also engaged in major shutdowns at a number of Aramco plants.

It was also involved in a maintenance supplementary manpower contract at Samref, and painting and surface finishing services at Ma’aden. In 2017, Al-Suwaidi inked a 10-year maintenance service contract with PetroRabigh.

To a question on Saudi Vision 2030 and Sabic Local Content program, Al Hazmi says, the program is designed to drive increased investment, economic diversification, job creation, and workforce development within the kingdom. To achieve Al-Suwaidi’s local content targets, it has undertaken various initiatives, namely, attracting Saudi talents, imparting trainings to existing Saudi staff/new recruits in various trades towards honing/developing their skills, increasing dependency on indigenously manufactured products, etc. "Al-Suwaidi, as a local corporate, is fully committed to the government in realising its Vision 2030," he asserts.

Following the launch of Vision 2030, Al-Suwaidi has implemented various strategic initiatives to support it. The major strategic initiatives that have been implemented were changing its business model and restructuring the organisation against the backdrop of the prevailing market scenarios.

Today, Al-Suwaidi has Saudi nationals not only in various technical, non-technical and supervisory/managerial roles, but also at top-level management to spearhead the organisation. Attracting Saudi talents will be an unceasing objective at Al-Suwaidi, he says. Al-Suwaidi’s objective is not merely fulfillment of the Saudisation requirements, but primarily to localise as many positions as possible as part of its social responsibility.

Various training courses are being conducted at Al-Suwaidi’s Training Center for Saudi staff to drive their career development. These include English speaking, inter-personal skills, trade-related such as pipefitting, welding, hydrojetting, scaffolding, chemical cleaning and hydrocarbon decontamination, catalyst handling, bolt torqueing and tensioning, insulation, etc.

Talking about business, he says, ever since the oil prices have tumbled, business, in general, has been impacted adversely, and Al-Suwaidi is no exception. Against the backdrop of the prevailing market challenges and those lying ahead, Al-Suwaidi has implemented various strategic initiatives such as organisational restructuring/rightsizing, changes in the business model and capability development.

"In the prevailing market conditions, business sustainability is a challenge. Al-Suwaidi sees every challenge as an opportunity and will remain committed to its valued clients in meeting their requirements without any comprise on quality and safety," he concludes.