CTCI at 40, Attaining Engineering Sustainability

Michael Yang, CTCI Group Vice Chairman & CEO of Group Engineering Business

CTCI is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. As Taiwan's engineering industry develops and grows, it has become number one on the island and a top 100 international engineering company. CTCI's contribution can be seen in projects in Taiwan and around the world. This is the extraordinary engineering achievement that we are proud of. To sustain CTCI's 40-year engineering achievement, we will continue to introduce new technologies and new ideas. We will also continue to build up iEPC for intelligent turnkey solutions, create green engineering, cultivate safety culture, and develop cross-industry international talents. With the most reliable and quality engineering service, we will continue our steady growth and create new opportunities in these changing times.

Innovative Service, Innovative Value

Since its establishment in 1979, with 40 years of thorough effort, CTCI extended the scope of service from hydrocarbon to infrastructure, power & energy and environment, successfully setting foot in intelligent solutions and group resource cycling business (GRCB). CTCI also successfully extended EPC turnkey service upstream to front end engineering design (FEED). In addition, major breakthroughs were made in modularization. This allows us to offer a more complete set of engineering service to our customers and open up other job opportunities.

Just last year, CTCI's ethylene glycol project in the US was successfully introduced into EPC turnkey service via FEED. This is currently the world's largest modular land project, and also a major breakthrough in applying equipment modularization to plants. This is another milestone for CTCI in terms of FEED and modularization. It is worth mentioning that the FEED of the project comes from a FEED Competition Agreement, the winner of which will obtain both the FEED and subsequent turnkey project. Not wanting to waste effort and money, all of the companies were doing their best in the competition. With the advantageous combination of two "Taipei + America" companies, CTCI's innovative and competitive design successfully defeated other competitors. This allowed us to establish our presence in the US market and build a good reputation. CTCI was later invited by the same company to bid for and complete its FEED project in Singapore, and later develop many other job opportunities. There will be more and more competition agreements in the future. Continuous improving technologies and overall expertise is the only way to stand out and claim a spot in the highly competitive international market.

Considering the coming wave of Industry 4.0 and smart technology, CTCI is actively introducing AI into turnkey projects. It has converted EPC into iEPC, and come up with the iEPC intelligent turnkey construction system. Through "iEPC 8 + 1 Digital Initiatives" (intelligent turnkey development goals and digitized engineering), an innovative, digitized, and intelligent engineering platform for CTCI is created. Each independent system such as design, procurement, construction, and commissioning becomes connected with each other. Previous quality design and automated inspection are systematized. Moreover, changes at each engineering stage are instantly updated to optimize performance. The first stage, iEPC version 1.0, is expected to be completed in 2020. In addition, we have also introduced new technologies such as Digital Twin into turnkey projects. Customers can examine the fine engineering details through the virtual plant at the project's planning stage. This will reduce subsequent operation and maintenance costs, and provide customers with a better engineering service experience. With the introduction and development of new technologies, CTCI can effectively improve engineering performance, assist in industry upgrades, reduce energy consumption, and strengthen global partnership in sustainable development.

Green Engineering, Green Guardian

Besides striving for innovation in the field of engineering, CTCI is also paying attention to global sustainable development. With the introduction of green engineering and recycling technology, we hope to apply efficient and economically viable methods in different areas: material and equipment selection at each engineering stage, entire life cycle including operation and maintenance after plant handover. We will care for the planet while promoting economic development, taking into account industry development, operating strategies, as well as environmental protection. An example is a response to the global shortage of water resources. CTCI's BTO project for Kaohsiung's Fengshan River and Linhai regenerated water, when completed, will provide more than 100,000 tons of regenerated water per day to the Kaohsiung Linhai Industrial Park. Kaohsiung will become the first city in Taiwan to have a steady supply of regenerated water. The Taoyuan City Biomass Energy Center is the first comprehensive waste treatment plant in Taiwan to introduce advanced international technologies in the last 20 years. Upon its completion, the center will have better power generation efficiency than Taiwan's 24 existing Energy-from-Waste plants, as well as better air emission quality compared to international standards. The positive dual effects of proper waste treatment and Energy-from-Waste will be obtained.

In terms of power generation, with steady development in the global economy and increasing power demand, thermal power is still mainstream technology. However, substantial carbon dioxide emissions also contribute to global warming and the greenhouse effect. CTCI's Linkou and Talin power plants also implemented renewal projects. The introduction of new supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam generator sets, along with advanced combined cycle power generation at Dah-Tarn and Tonghsiao power plants, can greatly improve power generation efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. This will enable Taiwan to enter the era of thermal power generation with high efficiency and low carbon emissions. Seeing the potential in renewable energy, CTCI has been active in establishing a presence in the field of offshore wind power and has formed partnerships with a Germany-based company to jointly develop the market. Offshore wind power facilities being above water, the construction of an underwater infrastructure has a high degree of difficulty in engineering. We have planned ahead to acquire knowledge on the construction of transition pieces for offshore wind power foundations. Our most reliable engineering technologies will allow Taiwan to shine through green energy.

Cultivate Safety, Plant Trust

As its operations continue to expand, CTCI's "Most Reliable" engineering service quality not only won the customers' approval and praise but became the best promotion for the company. Our excellent engineering results come from progress and quality control, as well as awareness and insistence on safety. Along with a continued improvement in environment, health, and safety management, customers have come to trust CTCI with their work.

Only in February of this year, CTCI's Oman Liwa EPC 1 project accumulated more than 40 million safe work hours with no disabilities or injuries to set a new group record. These are concrete results of the safety culture that we have cultivated. There are no shortcuts in the implementation of environment, health, and safety management. To create a safe and healthy workplace environment, we start from the source and cultivate a safety culture in the office, construction site, project execution, and all other levels. At the same time, we are collaborating with business partners and suppliers to turn the CTCI brand into the highest safety guarantee. To standardize safety and health management for more than 40 CTCI companies in Taiwan and abroad, we started to fully promote group "Alliance Lead" since 2017. The planning of health, safety and environment (HSE) management policies and implementation were unified. This allowed each company in the group to have standards consistent with international practices in terms of HSE management capabilities and results. CTCI strives to improve its health and safety management. Besides recognition from companies in Taiwan and abroad, its 2018 occupational safety and health management system even received a full score from DJSI assessment. CTCI also became the first Taiwanese company to receive the ISO 45001:2018 international certification for occupational safety and health. These policies and efforts are proof of CTCI's intention and determination to fully implement a safety culture.

Global Layout, Cross-Industry Development

CTCI has more than 40 subsidiaries/affiliated companies in the world, with business operations across Asia, the Middle East, the Americas. More than half of the group's revenue comes from overseas. We intend to speed up our overseas business expansion, solidify EPC turnkey engineering capabilities, without losing sight of international development and local market demand. In Mainland China, we have merged CTCI Beijing and Shanghai along with their resources to develop oil refining and petrochemicals while expanding into infrastructure, power & energy, and environment. We have also upgraded our capabilities in undertaking high-tech and high-level clean room turnkey engineering. Related companies in Southeast Asia have solidified their implementation capabilities through the undertaking of small regional turnkey projects in addition to organizational and the group's international turnkey projects. Among them, the 30-year-old CTCI Thailand has been actively bidding for turnkey projects worth 1 billion Thai Baht. It already possesses the capabilities to undertake medium and large EPC turnkey projects. To take advantage of business opportunities from US shale gas, CTCI's US companies have been working with local partners and utilized resources from Taipei. Undertaking small and medium-sized EPC turnkey projects have been a successful model with a strong potential for development. It plays an important role in CTCI's configuration in the US and the world. Besides the US, the Middle East is still a key arena for oil refining and petrochemicals worldwide. CTCI has had numerous achievements in the Middle East. CTCI Arabia is actively participating in the bidding of large oil refineries in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. Our business operations may very well expand into six Middle Eastern countries.

CTCI has completed several difficult projects around the world over the years. It is because we are “The Most Reliable Global Engineering Services Provider,” and our colleagues are the most important asset for CTCI. In particular, the internationalization of the group has been progressing rapidly in recent years. In addition to actively developing cross-nation and cross-border management capabilities of our colleagues, cultivating talented individuals for key project posts is even more important. At present, talent review of key posts at all levels has been completed, and the development of qualified project talents will be accelerated in the next couple of years. Through the leadership of senior colleagues, young engineers with the potential and willingness to commit will have the chance for rapid self-growth. Talent development of the group will then keep pace with its internationalization process.

In the future, CTCI will continue to innovate its engineering service and provide customers with the "Most Reliable" engineering service using the latest technologies. The realization of its vision for serving society with engineering will be yet another major step and achievement in the coming era of technology.