| DVZ, 18. August 2007 |  |
R&L Realigns Project Section
Project Logistician establishes a regional structure with new locations
Rohde & Liesenfeld (R&L) realigned its worldwide Project Section this July. The Headquarter was transferred from Hamburg to Houston and is now headed by Tom Möller (formerly Panalpina). In addition to this, new regional Competence Centres were created and agencies were added in Korea, Thailand and Japan. In this way R&L meets the challenges of increasingly bigger and more complex tasks.
On 8thAugust, the new Competence Centre in Moscow started off and will be followed by Shanghai on 1st September. R&L already operates a project office in India, which might be extended soon. “Together with the agencies in Japan, Thailand and Korea we are now represented in all important growing regions”, explains Tom Möller, CEO Global Projects, the new approach to promote business through regional Competence Centres. Within the new structure, Houston, for instance, is responsible for North and South America, whereas here especially the oil and gas industry is being served. The former worldwide Headquarter in Hamburg is now responsible for Europe and Africa. “We especially handle projects in plant construction and cranes”, recounts Peter Anetsberger, head of the German Division with immediate effect. Furthermore the German Division handles a lot of business with Near East.
Big is beautiful. With the new structure, the Hamburg-based company has taken account of the changing requirements in worldwide project logistics. On the one hand booming countries like Russia and China invest large amounts in new production facilities or in oil and gas production and are therefore important target countries. “On the other hand, it is a fact that nowadays mostly global co-operations are awarded theses major projects”, explains Möller. The impact: Project Logisticians have to organize and coordinate supplies from all different countries. “The days when Siemens, for instance, exclusively produced in Germany are long gone” simplifies the R&L Manager this complex matter.
An additional point is that especially in Russia and China many project job-sites are located in the inland and no longer exclusively around the sprawling cities. “In these cases we have to take care of the ocean- and inland transportation”, says Möller. Therefore Rohde & Liesenfeld is now permanently with own staff on-site and works with experienced local partners. In China for example the local partner is APC. Together with such partners, R&L also trains the employees on the spot.
Close cooperation. To avoid imponderability already at the beginning of a project, the company’s own engineers cooperate very close with the producers, as “Projects are no longer limited in size, but infrastructure however is. “, says Möller. Thus it has to be clarified as early as possible if a certain facility or component part can even be transported.
Rohde & Liesenfeld views itself to be well prepared for the next years, which promise a continuing stormy growth. The reason for this perspective according to Möller: “As long as the oil-price stays above 50 USD per barrel, investments also stay high.” And who would doubt that facing a current price of 70 USD.
The Background
R&L Projects on the market
In Project-Management only, R&L occupies about 30 employees worldwide, almost one-third more than last year. Several Hundreds are involved in operational handling, throughout the R&L network of affiliations. The business is divided into three sections: Projects, Overseas (general transportation business) and Solutions (supply chain management). R&L finds itself on an intensively growing market. Experts assume that the project logistics, based on the investment drive from the extractive industry, will grow by 10 to 15 percent per annum. Since R&L is especially active in the oil and gas business, the management expects the company to grow to a similar amount. Another growth sector is also posed by the business with renewable energy sources.
