Consortium as a Competitive Advantage

Policy of the Russian Federation aimed at building of its industrial capacity over the last 10 years has encouraged development of a great many new investment projects in various segments of industry.

An EPC(M) method is increasingly used for implementation of investment projects. It allows laying most of responsibility for compliance with scheduled dates and final cost input on a single contractor. Moreover, in the course of an EPC(M) contract execution, adherence to deadlines and costs as well as risk management become the primary tasks of all project parties (Client, General Contractor, design and engineering companies, suppliers and manufacturers of equipment, repair and service companies and so on).

Serious risks of schedule breakdown and increase in value are characteristic of two project stages: procurement and construction. They are associated with poorly organized delivery of high-tech equipment as well as with unskilled installation of equipment on a construction site. As a rule, supplied equipment is unique and custom-produced in single quantities. Any damage of a cargo is unacceptable, and even minor delay in its transportation and assembly leads to failure of putting the entire facility into service.

To produce equipment with exceptional weights and dimensions, it is of utter importance to take into consideration the following factors at an engineering design stage: future plan of delivery, transshipment and installation, taking into account distances, weather conditions, road and transport infrastructure and distinguishing features of optimal transport means, providing for availability of special structural and bearing elements for a safe carriage to occur. Specific nature of producing high-tech equipment for modern factories is that separate items can be manufactured at territorially distant plants. This results not only in need of control over shipping at each of the plants, but also over transportation, intermodal exchange, consolidation and intermediate storage, with further tackling of export and import customs clearance issues in compliance with planned terms of delivery of the entire equipment set to a construction site.

Very often, execution of large-scale projects includes not only transshipment and haulage of overweight and outsized equipment, but its erection and assembly on a construction site as well. All this calls for involvement of advanced state-of-the-art carrying and crane gear, skilled and competent maintenance personnel, as well as multiple and complex engineering evaluations. Consequently, objective background for a separate kind of industry specialization – “project logistics” and assembly – has appeared in the world transport market.

Companies, associations or groups of companies claiming their own interest in the project logistics market are constantly growing in number. Global experience shows that associations (groups) of companies emerge for dealing with such tasks not only on national or continental account, but often have a global international cooperation nature, given transportation routes and facility construction countries.

According to the statistics, only major players that have long and successfully been collaborating in shipment, transshipment, freight forwarding and installation of equipment are capable of competent and correct determination of all expenses and labor costs as well as risk assessment, being fully responsible for high-quality execution of the entire range of works and liabilities within the agreed timescale and budgets established by their Clients.

For example, there are a certain number of companies or consolidations in the Russian market that have a positive reputation and a gathered experience, with a private fleet of specialized vehicles and a staff of qualified specialists and skilled managers.

Consortium established by BEDFORD GROUP and SOP&G GROUP companies which has a good record in the transport market serves as a model of such fruitful joining efforts. Founded in early 90s of the last century, both these companies took their own paths of development at first and entered the project logistics market almost at the same time. Each of them had its own area of expertise.

BEDFORD GROUP rendered general freight forwarder (operator) services in carriage, transshipment, customs clearance and feasibility study in Russia and abroad. SOP&G GROUP actively developed engineering vectors in the field of abnormal transportation, lifting operations and assembly of out-of-gauge and heavy-weight pieces of equipment, forming and increasing engineering personnel and extending the fleet of special-purpose vehicles.

Cooperation of these two independent companies started in 2005, when they formed a consortium, and is still active today. Together they provide their Clients with a broad range of various services and works interconnected by project logistics issues.

Consortium of BEDFORD GROUP and SOP&G GROUP is oriented at protection of clients’ interests, competent and professional approach to matters, mutual responsibility for high-quality implementation of projects and business integrity. Concluding an agreement with the consortium leader, a Client gets a sole responsible contractor for the complete set of works and services based on long-term successful practices, skilled personnel and own crane and transport machinery.

Examples of completed projects:

1. Kuibyshev Refinery (Russia). Rosneft Oil Company. Logistics, lifting and installation into permanent position of the reactors weighing 600 tons each.
2. Novokuibyshev Refinery (Russia). Rosneft Oil Company. Delivery to the erection site, lifting and installation into permanent position of the reactors weighing 800 tons each.
3. Kazan stadium for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Erection of heavy structures weighing up to 500 tons.
4. Petrochemical complex in Mendeleevsk, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Logistics and erection of overweight structures.
5. Petrochemical complex in Tobolsk (Russia), Tyumen Oblast. Sibur. Lifting and installation into permanent position of the column equipment. Each unit weighed up to 800 tons.
6. The Bolshoi Theater (Moscow, Russia). The crane was on the Bolshoi Theater stage, performing erection of heavy steel structures – stage flooring.
7. Moscow Metro (Russia). Transportation and assembly of tunnel boring machine complexes, each weighing 180 tons.
8. Filanovsky oil and gas field, North Caspian (Russia). Lukoil. Delivery of processing equipment weighing up to 180 tons from manufacturing sites in UAE, Italy, France, Great Britain, USA.
9. Yali HPP (Vietnam). Delivery of outsized steel structures from Ukrainian factories.
10. International gas pipeline North Stream. Delivery of large-diameter pipes and construction machinery.
11. Tuapse Refinery (Russia). Rosneft Oil Company. Delivery of heavy reactors with components from manufacturing sites in Germany, Italy.
12. Restoration of Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, Krasnoyarsk Krai (Russia). Delivery of oversize and heavy hydroelectric equipment from Saint-Petersburg (Russia).
13. Uong Bi TPP (Vietnam). Delivery of oversize and heavy equipment from manufacturing sites in Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and USA.
14. Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria). ROSATOM Group. Delivery and erection of the 170-ton rotor, 371-ton turbine generator stator, and components.
15. Leningrad II NPP, Saint-Petersburg (Russia). Delivery and erection of the 440-ton turbine generator stator.