Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Prasarana says Posco ‘best candidate’

By Sharen Kaur
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on May 2, 2012



Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd is proposing to the government that the RM950 million systems contract for the Ampang light rail transit (LRT) line extension project be awarded to Posco, a South Korean steelmaker.

Business Times (BT) reported recently that a consortium comprising Balfour Beatty Rail Sdn Bhd (BBRail), Ingress Corp Bhd and the UK’s Invensys was tipped to win the contract this month.

“The government is still deciding who to award the contract to. The bidders are lobbying hard for the job. We at Prasarana think Posco and its consortium partners are the best candidates,” said Prasarana key officials.

In December last year, BT reported that Prasarana had recommended Posco to the government for the job because the company offered to use the French based Thales’ Communication-
Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling system.

Thales is a leader in the CBTC market. It invented the CBTC technology, a train control system based on telecommunications, in the 1980s. Its technology was used for the KL monorail
project and the existing Kelana Jaya LRT line.

Posco had bid for the systems contract for the Ampang LRT line extension project in a consortium comprising Japan’s Sojitz, Thales and South Korean Daewo International.

“Posco has the track record, financial strength and expertise,” said the Prasarana official.

Posco, which is more than 40 per cent controlled by the National Korean Pension Fund and about five per cent by investor Warren Buffet, is South Korea’s largest contractor based on order book value, beating Samsung and Hyundai.

The group, which posted more than US$35 billion (RM1.05 billion) in revenue last year, is also the world’s third largest steelmaker.

“The LRT project would require a lot of steel and there will be guaranteed supply from Posco. These are the reasons why Prasarana is confident of Posco and believes it will be able to execute the systems work without any constraints,” the official added.

Tenders for the systems contract closed on June 16 2011 where eight companies had made the bids. The other six bidders were George Kent-China Railway-Thales, Colas-CMC Engineering-Thales, Samsung-LG-Thales, SNC Lavalin-WW Engineering-Bombardier, Siemens-Scomi Engineering and Ansaldo-Emrail-Leighton.


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