Global Business Guide Indonesia

Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering Thaha Engineering
JOINT VENTURES | INVESTMENT
Thaha Engineering | Mr M.H. Thaha
[Interviewe]

As a company carrying out the entire process of designing, building, maintaining and operating industrial plants, we are involved for the long-term with each of our clients.

Mr M.H. Thaha, President Director

Thaha Engineering is currently a leading engineering, procurement and construction company in Indonesia. What more can you tell us about your company and its main strategies going forward?

I founded Thaha Engineering having been a professional engineer with expertise in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. From my time as an employee for other companies, I had amassed extensive project experience, including in working on a hydroelectric power plant in Riau. As of 1999, I had begun working independently in assisting industrial clients, which eventually led to the decision of establishing Thaha Engineering. At present, we are an engineering firm strongly suited to designing manufacturing facilities, especially sugar factories, coal handling terminals, power and water treatment plants, mining construction along with palm oil factories. Thaha Engineering has approximately 80 engineering experts spread across various disciplines. This, with the addition of management personnel, field supervisors, technicians, and other functions, means that we are currently close to having a 300-strong workforce, though the exact number fluctuates depending on projects in the works. We encourage our engineering team to expand upon their technical capacitites by providing them with our own workshop located in Lippo Cikarang Industrial Estate, Bekasi.

Our strategy for the future refers to Indonesia’s push for infrastructure development as well as supporting the country’s efforts in achieving sugar self-sufficiency. Shortcomings in these domains have been further weakened by the current condition of having almost 70% of the equipment and machinery imported. In spite of positive notes such as Indonesia’s abundance of skilled engineers and resources, steps must be taken to ensure self-reliance. Therefore, Indonesia being satisfied with importing from other countries should be avoided and our own know-how and technological capacity should be increased.

In the latter respect, Thaha Engineering is currently partnering with various overseas firms, such as from India and Thailand which has a good record regarding engineering quality and performance. China is also one of our countries of interest as its technological capabilities have seen continued development over the years. With Indian companies, we are in a cooperation related to power plant and sugar mill projects here in Indonesia, while our engagement with Chinese firms pertains to power plant and smelter projects. Thaha Engineering expects to insert 30-35% local content into those projects as opposed to the 10% industry average.

What can you tell us about future projects for Thaha Engineering within its core business as well as in terms of expansion plans?

We are currently in the negotiation phase for a large-scale smelter project in Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi, related to the nickel mining industry. In Myanmar, we have a proposed plan for the construction of a 2 x 175 TPH boiler as part of a power plant construction project. For construction projects in Indonesia, we are building a sugar mill in 2015-2016 in Lamongan, East Java and Dumai, Riau as well as 8 small power plants such as 40 MW and 125 MW stations for the private sector as confirmed plans for 2015 to 2016.

What are Thaha Engineering’s future plans in terms of diversifying into different business areas?

At the moment, we are preparing to establish Thaha Holding Company (THC) whereby overseeing four present companies and starting three new companies.

Our current companies include Thaha Engineering Group (TEG) which will continue to be the main subsidiary firm followed with Thaha Multi Resources (TMS) to support TEG’s construction projects providing building material supplies and trucks.

The third subsidiary is Thaha Total Transportation serving as a reliable logistics and transportation partner for land and sea construction projects. We have also branched out into the hotel and tourism industry thus founding Quinnuur Radiant International (QRT) which is focused on the investment, construction, and operation of hotels as well as resorts. Understanding the need for hotel operators and management, we also established Quinnuur Hotel & Management whereby additionally providing consultation and advisory services for our customers.

We are in the midst of initiating a new company, Quinnuur Royal Cruises (QRC), as means of providing customers with a first-hand look at the landscape of Indonesia's east coast on our premium cruise ships. We have plans to launch Quinnuur Food & Beverage (QFB) in the near future targeted for sugar and salt cube production for small and commercial-scale production, given the rising demand in the industry.

The combined target sales for Thaha Holding Company along with its subsidiaries in 2015-2016 is set at $2.25 billion USD.

Indonesia is set for regional integration with other ASEAN countries through the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community in 2016. How is Thaha Engineering prepared for this and where do you see opportunities for your firm?

Internally, Thaha Engineering has programmes to enhance the quality of our human resources – especially our engineers – to increase our competitiveness in the lead up to the AEC, while also reaching out to international firms from China, India and Germany to form cooperation efforts such as joint production of instrumentation equipment. We are also optimistic about our future growth given that the engineering, procurement and construction sector has very few players in Indonesia. As a company carrying out the entire process of designing, building, maintaining and operating industrial plants, we are involved for the long-term with each of our clients; a service in itself difficult to be on par with.

Foreign companies have taken interest in Indonesia in recent years as investments continue to pour into the country. In this regard, how is Thaha Engineering positioned in terms of working with potential international partners?

We welcome foreign investors as our partner in developing Indonesia as it possesses massive market potential with a population of 250 million people, many skilled engineers, and a wealth of human and natural resources on top of industrial capabilities in many sectors. Thaha Engineering has longstanding expertise in engineering and we therefore offer our assistance to investors in that capacity. Through this framework, we also seek to achieve cost efficiency and local content development through which technology transfer occurs and 50% of the equipment is able to be produced in Indonesia.

Thaha Engineering also has sister companies with whom investors can discover other synergy possibilities. These include a trading company for construction materials, a property company in charge of owning, developing, managing and operating hotels and resorts in addition to a transportation company with a focus on fulfilling logistical demands such as the obtainment of concrete bars, machineries, and so on.

What is your message and final thought that you would like to share with our readers?

Do not hesitate to come to Indonesia to visit our company and we will treat you like family. Let us explore the opportunities in this country through a cooperation built on full assurance from an engineering company with comprehensive familiarity of the local market.