Local Engineering Firm keen on participating in Build, Build, Build
Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. (AG&P), a homegrown engineering firm, is eagerly participating in the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program. It looks to offer its over 100 years of expertise in the oil and power generation sector.
Alexander Gamboa, AG&P Vice-President for Business Development, said that the company is currently in various stages of discussion with groups who are engaged with the government’s infrastructure programs.
“Our primary market would be energy infrastructure, which is power generation, oil and gas, petrochemicals, and the like. That would still be our main market,” said Gamboa in a phone interview with a local newspaper earlier this month.
“We expect an increase in power capacity, availability of fuels. That’s the side that AG&P is an expert in, and we want to make sure we’re going to be number one on that aspect.”
Gamboa mentions that aside from energy sector projects, they are also interested to engage in projects in the transportation section.
He explains that AG&P is particularly interested in creating structure for bridges, as he notes that they have the largest structure fabrication capacity in the Philippines, and one of the largest in Southeast Asia.
“We’re interested also to participate in airports,” he added.
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AG&P describes itself as a global industrial infrastructure company. Founded in 1900, this Filipino company specializes in providing gas logistics solutions and construction services to several clients abroad.
Their willingness to participate in the government’s infrastructure program is rooted in their efforts of refocusing back to the Philippines, due to the country’s strong economic growth.
“We’re very bullish on the Philippine market…We’ve seen that for the last six years, the country has been growing at 6-7% every year… We see the government now pushing for improved infrastructure which is really very important at this point in time, in view of all the traffic that we see,” explains Gamboa.
AG&P have yet to participate in public sector projects. However, they have been recently tapped to fabricate and construct a new petrochemical power plant on a 250-hectare property in Southern Luzon.
“This petrochemical plant in particular will require an additional 5,000 people because of the magnitude of this project, and much of the required skills are mechanical and electrical engineers,” said Gamboa.
The company currently operates on a total of 150 hectares of fabrication and assemble space, and is undergoing an expansion program with its ₱1.5-billion investment in 2015.
Currently, AG&P can fabricate 60,000 metric tons of steel and steel structures annually, along with 600,000 bio inches of pipes, and 125,000 metric tons of total steel and pipe assembly.
