Scomi teams up with Skoda in global LRT, MRT projects

Scomi Engineering Bhd has collaborated with Czech transport engineering company, Skoda Transportation, to participate in the global light rapid transit (LRT) and mass rapid transit (MRT) projects.

Scomi Engineering Chief Executive Officer, Kanesan Veluppillai, said the collaboration will enable Scomi to participate in a wider range of transport projects, including the LRT and MRT.

He said this at a media briefing after announcing the partnership here today.

The technical collaboration with Skoda was inked in conjunction with Scomi Engineering’s participation in Rail Business Asia 2015 here.

Kanesan said the partnership will see both parties emerge with new product offerings to complement their existing suites of transport solutions, products and services for worldwide distribution.

He said Scomi was also targetting higher local contents in the products.

"We anticipate 60 per cent of local contents which will include manufacture of key components in Malaysia," he said, referring to activities at Scomi’s plant in Rawang, Selangor.

"Locally, we will start bidding for LRT3 and MRT2 on federal projects and the coming Penang’s LRT, while regionally, we will start tendering for four projects related to LRT, MRT and metro projects in India, three similar projects in Indonesia and one in Bangkok," he said.

With the localisation of contents, he said, Scomi would be able to contain volatility in foreign currency movements.

Meanwhile, Skoda’s Transportation Sales Director, Jaromír Hajek, said the company, which had strong presence in Europe, had started penetrating China market and hoped the partnership with Scomi would enable it to tap ASEAN and other regional markets.