Japan-based Yokogawa Electric Corporation said it has entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), ranked among the world’s largest petrochemical manufacturers.
The agreement includes selection of Yokogawa as a preferred supplier of control systems, said a statement from the company.
A global industrial giant, Sabic is composed of four strategic business units: petrochemicals, specialties, agri-nutrients, and metals.
Under this agreement, Yokogawa will promote localisation in Saudi Arabia, and its integrated control systems and safety instrumented systems will be preferentially selected for plants operated by Sabic in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, it added.
Additionally, Yokogawa will promote manufacturing excellence by collaborating with Sabic on innovative digitalisation technologies, as well as energy optimisation programmes.
To date, Yokogawa has delivered integrated control systems in some Sabic plants such as a large ethylene plant (1,000kt/year) in Jubail, it said.
Yokogawa had established its Saudi subsidiary in 2006 and the very next year it opened its service unit. Under the Saudi government’s Nitaqat Program, Yokogawa is in the top Platinum Saudization tier.
In a major boost to kingdom's women empowerment, the company has set up an all-female engineering team and has also lauched a programme to support projects for female engineers in the Gulf countries, said the statement.
Since April 2007, Yokogawa has been providing a one-year Graduate Engineer Training Program and shorter internship programmes that are specially tailored to the needs of the Saudi job market, targeting recent graduates and students of Saudi universities and colleges for both male and female, it stated.
So far more than 550 Saudi trainees have benefited from these programmes, it added.
