As anyone who has visited the Burj Khalifa will tell you, being the best in the world is of vital importance to the owners of the building. What’s arguably more impressive than the towering height of the building is the thought and care that has gone into its design, construction and interior layout. Every inch of the building’s structure has been carefully considered and planned to fit in with the rest of the building, creating a harmonious whole.
It is unarguably one of the finest buildings ever constructed, anywhere in the world.
A large part of this excellence can be put down to the primary contractor of the building, Samsung C&T. As one of the foremost contractors of super-tall buildings, with extensive experience in high-rise capitals places like Hong Kong and Singapore, it was an obvious choice to be tapped up for the Burj Khalifa.
However, when Big Project ME caught up with Ahmad Abdulrazaq, the executive vice-chairman of Samsung C&T’s High-Rise division, it soon became apparent that this is not a company content on living on past laurels.
Having continued to cement its reputation in the region in the five years since the successful delivery of the Burj Khalifa, Abdulrazaq says that the South Korean contractor is now focused on translating its experience and know-how into the regional construction industry and encourage the adoption of its best practices.
“We’re a global company and we work everywhere. We get exposed to all types of consultants, designers, contractors and technologies. Not only that, but we’re also doing the work ourselves, so we know what works and what doesn’t.
“For example, with the Burj Khalifa, if you think about how fast that project was built – we started in 2005, and by 2010 we were finished and the building was occupied. For a building of that height, that’s really good. For this kind of project, we brought in a lot of technologies,” he relates during an interview on the side-lines of a conference in Dubai.
“Whether it was the way we built the project – we separated vertical construction from horizontal construction – before we came here, no one did that. Now, everyone is doing it. Using concrete with high flow and high strength, pumping it up 600 metres? Everyone looked at it and said, ‘if Samsung can do it…’ We brought in new technology (for this). The kind of lifting method that we used on the project, the way we managed the many construction techniques that we brought into the project, these are the kinds of things that we introduced. Now if you look at the market, it’s got a lot of benefits out of it and many contractors are now utilising them.”
To some this may come across as being somewhat arrogant, but on the contrary, Abdulrazaq exudes nothing but be a sense of wanting to improve both the industry and his company’s operations.
“In the civil sectors, we bring a lot of new ideas and machinery, a lot of construction methodology that is different (to what is practiced here). The idea is to engage some of the best people worldwide to come along with us. We have a lot of offices around the world, essentially Intellectual Property Offices where we can bring a high quality product at a low cost for the client, without compromising on the quality,” he asserts.
“There are a lot of things that we can bring here, but also, some of the difficulties that we have in this market, with this harsh environment and the situations that we have to deal with, it’s also a recipe that we can bring to other places, so actually we’re transforming technology worldwide!”
As part of this drive to introduce best practices in the Middle East, Abdulrazaq is an advocate for allowing contractors access to a project a lot earlier than they are for most projects in the region. Citing operations in Singapore as an example, he highlights the benefits of such the early involvement approach.
“Many of the projects that are being proposed (in the Middle East) are definitely very challenging, and we definitely intend to follow these projects. These are the kinds of projects that we like. Ones that are challenging, projects that we feel we can bring new ideas and technologies to.
“But for many of these projects, a lot of the time, the way they’re being procured, since they’re public projects, a lot of times it’s an open bid. I feel that one of the things that can help expedite some of these projects is to do some of these projects as design build, which allows the contractor to use the best practices and the best technologies to realise the project in the most efficient manner.
“A company like Samsung C&T, considering our capacity, human resources and technical expertise, I think that if we were to engage early on with these projects, then we would bring a lot of value that goes beyond general contracting. We could become an integrator for these very large projects and we can put these projects on a fast-track and bring a lot of added value that goes beyond construction, considering Samsung’s affiliates.”
“There are many different technologies, including electronics, different mechanical devices and operations, there are a lot of things we can do to really contribute at an early stage.”
With the GCC continuing to invest heavily in major construction projects, Ahmad Abdulrazaq adds that his division of Samsung C&T will continue to evolve and grow so as to better serve the demands of a market that will place more and more responsibilities on primary contractors.
“The division, when it came to overseas operations, was construction only. (But), right now, we’re taking on more projects and diversifying our business model. For example, in Korea, if it’s a Samsung owned project (that we’re working on), then it’s a turnkey, design and build, integrated project delivery. We are the owner, the developer and the contractor. We’re doing everything,” he explains.
“In another business model, we’re doing construction management. It’s not the core of our business, but if we have a client that trusts us and wants to work with us and has some limitations, then they ask us to do it. If it’s a long term partner, then we’re willing to consider it.
“For some projects, in Singapore for example, we’re responsible for design and construction. There are some projects where we are the principal contractor, we’re doing the project as ‘CM at Risk’, more or less. So that means that we’re responsible for design and delivery of the project, for a certain fee,” Abdulrazaq adds.
“We’ve expanded our business model to more or less cover the full spectrum of what we have to do. The PM/CM business is a very important model (for us) because this is how we build our ‘soft competitiveness’ in terms of engineering and management.”
“At the end of the day, in order to be able to cover the full spectrum, you have to be able to cover the front and the back-end of construction,” he points out, highlighting just why Samsung C&T has grown into such a formidable global player on the contracting stage.