Enhancing our capabilities and positioning for growth in the Asia Pacific region

In 2019, James Christie joined Ashtead Technology as Regional Director for the Asia Pacific region. In our latest blog post, James shares his thoughts on his time with the company so far, how the business has evolved over the past few years and plans for continued growth.

Overview

“2021 was a year of uncertainty and reward for Ashtead Technology’s Asia Pacific region business. Despite the challenging market conditions, compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, we continued to strengthen our market presence and grow our capabilities to support our customers’ offshore energy projects.

“Much of this success can be attributed to the recent investments we have made over the past few years, both organically and through M&A, which have enabled us to enhance our offering, grow our track record and position us for the future.

Ongoing strategic investment

“Along with the recruitment of key operational personnel to grow and strengthen our team, we doubled the size of our Singapore facility as part of our international growth strategy. By acquiring neighbouring space on the same site, we have expanded our property footprint to accommodate a wider range of electronic and mechanical equipment and increase our test facilities to better support customers based in the region and internationally.

“The integration of recent complementary acquisitions has also been central to our growing success in the Asia Pacific region. Through Ashtead Technology’s acquisitions of Welaptega and Underwater Cutting Solutions, we have further strengthened our capability enabling us to offer our customers a broader and more complete service package for their Survey & Robotics, Mechanical Solutions and Asset Integrity challenges in the region.

Bolstering our track record & new growth opportunities

“Through leveraging our enhanced capabilities, we have enjoyed a particularly busy year, securing a broad range of IMR work scopes across the region. These have ranged from asset integrity remote operations projects in Malaysia and Australia, to the provision of coating removal and subsea cutting solutions in Malaysia and India respectively.

“Since the start of the year, our asset integrity teams have delivered eleven remote operations projects across seven global locations. Remote operations allows us to continue to bring specialised digital technologies to our global customer base and carry out more inspections without the cost and difficulties of mobilising personnel to remote locations, ultimately improving the integrity of safety-critical assets, whilst reducing risk and carbon emissions.

Offshore renewables focus

“The energy transition represents a huge opportunity for our business. The offshore wind market in Asia is expected to experience massive expansion over the next decade, particularly in the more advanced economies of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, as Governments face increasing pressure to focus on climate change, renewable energy sources, and hit their net-zero emissions targets. Based on our recent successes in supporting offshore renewables projects in Asia, Europe and the USA we are well placed to benefit from the growth of this key market in Asia.

Looking ahead

“Our focus is on delivering and exceeding our customers’ expectations so we continue to expand our capabilities and grow our track record in the region. We are committed to ongoing investment in our facilities, equipment and people to meet the anticipated increase in demand for our specialist services in the Asia Pacific region.

“At the core of our brand, is our deep-rooted capability amassed through the acquisition of some of the most technical and reputable brands in our specialist fields. We will continue to harness this expertise to ensure we provide our customers’ projects with the optimum solutions, delivered safely, reliably and cost-effectively.”