Smart Thinking. Safe Hands: Rotary

“We aspire to be an excellent global engineering, procurement, and construction company.”

Rotary is one of the region’s leading oil and gas infrastructure services companies with extensive international experience offering fully integrated engineering design, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to the oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. 

Headquartered in Singapore, Rotary has established a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region and continues to make its mark as a global player. Established in 1972, Rotary has forged a reputation built on its hallmark traits of providing quality services, within budget, safely and on-time delivery. Today, Rotary boasts a total strength of over 6,000 employees which include a highly and multi-skilled workforce that forms the mainstay of its core EPC services.

Singapore remains a key market for Rotary while it actively seeks business opportunities overseas. Rotary has subsidiaries and associate companies in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Myanmar, and Slovenia. 

The Company History

Baby Steps

In 1972, Rotary Electrical was founded as a partnership with Chia Kim Piow as the Managing Director with a total strength of sixty employees. Its main activity was electrical installation sub-contracting, catering to oil refineries and petrochemical plants located in Singapore.

By 1973, the partnership was admitted to the panels of resident contractors of Mobil Oil (Singapore), Singapore Refining Company and Esso (Singapore) for instrumentation and electrical maintenance works in recognition for its ability to meet the standards imposed by the major oil refineries.

Rotary Electrical was converted into a private limited company in 1975 which led to the expansion of the company and its workforce. With increasing business activities, Rotary Engineering was incorporated in 1980 as a private limited company to cater to the fast-growing company. Its activities also began to expand into other engineering disciplines.

In an amalgamation exercise carried out in 1983, Rotary Electrical was acquired by Rotary Engineering. With this acquisition, Rotary’s core business activities expanded into storage tanks, civil and structure/building, mechanical equipment installation, and piping including procurement while Rotary Electrical continued to focus on electrical and instrumentation engineering and installation.

Evolving into an EPC Turnkey Contractor

In 1985, Rotary set itself off on a path to becoming a major turnkey for bulk storage terminal and other facilities. The company began to seek independence from main contractors and seek to secure contracts directly from owners. This prompted the company to invest approximately $1.0 million in computerized designing systems. Subsequently, the company secured its first direct contract with Van Ommeren Tank Terminal (VOTTS), a multinational product storage facility operator. This followed up with a series of other turnkey projects with VOTTS including Pit 6 in 1988, Pit 7 in 1989, and Pit 18 in 1990.

With its ability to meet the multinational product storage facility operators’ standards and specifications, the company was able to secure more turnkey projects from the likes of Oiltanking and Tankstore as well as take on the construction works for projects by Mobil Oil (Singapore), Glaxo, and Petronas.

Stepping into Asia, Going Regional

In the interest of further expanding its operations, Rotary went public in 1993 forming Rotary Engineering Limited and was listed on the main board of the stock exchange of Singapore. After which, Rotary extended its operations to cover overseas markets in India and Thailand.

In 1995, Rotary was among the first local construction company to have achieved ISO 9001 certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation. Its electrical, mechanical, and civil divisions were incorporated as subsidiaries. And by 1996, Rotary reported its first $100 million turnovers since its inception encouraging further regional expansion efforts to Indonesia and India.

With the trust and support of her clients, Rotary was awarded its first $100 million single contracts from Oiltanking for its Chem 1 & 2 and Phase VI expansion in 2000.

Rotary once again entered a period of growth and expansion between 2000 to 2005. In 2001, it had extended its services to include integrated maintenance with its integrated maintenance center set up and fully operational on Jurong Island. Representative offices were set up in China. And by 2003, the wholly-owned foreign enterprise, Rotary Engineering Shanghai Co. Ltd was established.

Growth, Expansion, and Take Off

The company achieved its next milestone in 2006 when it secured its largest contract to date worth $535 million for the EPC of Universal Terminal in Jurong Island. That same year, the company won the award for being the most transparent company at the SIAS Investors Choice Awards 2006 and would continue to do so until 2011.

In 2006, as part of Rotary’s efforts to extend its reach to the Middle East, the formation of two joint venture companies; Rotary Arabia Co. Ltd and Petrol Steel Co. Ltd was established in Saudi Arabia. With its fast increasing global outreach, Rotary saw the need to boost its human capital. The innovative Global Work Force scheme was launched with the opening of an Overseas Training and Test Centre in collaboration with Dalian Jiaotong University in China.

In 2009, Rotary signed its largest EPC contract worth US$750 million for SATORP JERP package 6. For the company’s achievements, Chia Kim Piow was awarded the CEO of the year in 2009 at the Singapore Corporate Awards and Businessman of the year in 2011 at the Singapore Business Awards.

2013 saw the completion of the SATORP JERP Package 6 project in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Since establishing presence back in 2006, Rotary's portfolio in the Middle East has continued to expand: work is currently well underway for a US$250 million Fujairah Oil Terminal project in the United Arab Emirates. The company has also continued to strengthen its presence in Singapore, clinching and executing a number of EPC projects - an 800,000 cubic meter storage facility at Pulau Busing, a shared lubricant storage facility and lubricant oil blending plant at Tuas South, Singapore.

Rotary continues to look forward to delivering with excellence in the years to come.

Why Rotary

Rotary’s projects take place around the world so it has to be able to mobilize the right people where they are needed with the greatest speed and highest efficiency level.  It’s Global Work Force (GWF) & Global Maintenance & Turnaround Team (GMTT) schemes allow us to do just that. Through GWF & GMTT, Rotary has grown its own team of engineers and craftsmen who are readily deployed anywhere in the world and attuned to the Rotary Brand of Service Delivery.  Its Overseas Test & Training Centres in India and Bangladesh serve to strengthen its workers’ language and technical skill sets.  To date, ROTARY has trained over 1,000 employees to levels of high skills proficiency and it’s clients who are benefiting from this growing workforce of technical experts.

It Builds Smart Teams

When it comes to harnessing technology in processes, Rotary use the best there is because it believes in working smart. One such technology is the SmartPlant suite of products for EDMS, 3D modeling, and other design works. Rotary can bring designs to life in 3D right from the drawing board, so you can visualize exactly what the finished site will look like. Its integrated procurement system, SmartPlant Materials, is used to track and manage materials from requisition to receipt to installation on site. Integrated into the software is a barcode system that allows us to better track materials at the site. It also harnesses SAP solutions to effectively manage all project processes – it can remain responsive to changes in project scope, costs, risks, and schedules.

Working Smart Is Business

Rotary understand that in your industry, time is money. This is where Rotary’s decades of experience in designing and constructing bulk liquid storage facilities differentiate us. Rotary’s expertise builds from pre-planning, construction work instruction (CWI), layout optimization & tank configuration, practical & effective solutions to your operational needs, execution and deployment of customized construction techniques for local regulatory and climatic conditions, helping you to save time.

It’s all down To Smart Planning

Rotary understands the key to a successful project: Conformance to Regulatory Requirements and Industrial Standards. As a key industry player, it strives to achieve perfection in the aspect of Zero Incidents and Quality Management by compliance and commitment to the highest standards of regulatory practices and to consistently provide relevant training to employees.

EPC Turnkey

Engineering

Rotary believes that firm foundation is the key. And because it is often in the Engineering design phase that lays the foundation of the scope of services, Engineering as a discipline is of utmost importance in the organization. With that in mind, Rotary had trained up an elite team of engineers who are capable of all its Engineering services to include Process/Chemical, Civil & Structural, Mechanical & Equipment, Piping, Tankage, Electrical, Instrumentation, Automation, and Commissioning.

With the support of its design centers in Thailand and India, it’s Engineering Team across Rotary BUs work together to complete every project successfully to uphold that of the Rotary quality mark.

Rotary strongly believes in the early implementation of Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental (QHSE) principles, of which it is by this culture that plays a key role in the success of its Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects. HSSE principles are adopted as early as during the FEED all the way until the commissioning of the project via a seamless transition in each of its project phases.

Procurement & Logistic

Rotary’s depth of presence in the industry over the years has meant that it has built up a vast network of trusted suppliers with reliable products. As a result, you benefit from the cost savings it enjoys through bulk procurement. And because its expeditors keep a very tight watch on schedules, you can be assured that materials will arrive on time. With Rotary by your side, gone are the days when late delivery of supplies delays completion of your projects. It is often the clients who set their own budgets, brief us on the brand and quality of materials preferred. Rotary ensure it sticks to specifications and keeps things within parameters – because it can.

Construction

Utilizing teams of experienced construction specialists, Rotary offers a complete range of construction capabilities in the Group’s four core business units, which comprises Tankage, Electrical & Instrumentation, Mechanical and Integrated Maintenance. Its knowledge base of skills accumulated over more than four decades, it is not only skillful in Tankage construction and its related disciplines but also capable of attaining a high level of proficiency in terms of precision and tolerances for oil and gas projects with the stricter specification.

Together with the international exposure and network of construction resources, top-notch Project Management team will work to deliver the projects safely, on time and on budget.

Greet the Chief

Roger Chia Kim Piow, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director: Roger Chia Kim Piow is the Founder and Chairman of the Rotary Group of Companies. With more than 40 years of experience in plant and facility design and construction, he is instrumental in developing the Group from a sub-contractor to a multinational turnkey engineering design and construction group. Under his stewardship, the Group has gained recognition as one of the region’s leading players in the oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. His impeccable leadership led Rotary Engineering to be prized Enterprise of the Year at the Singapore Business Award 2008.

He was awarded Chief Executive Officer of the Year (Companies with $300 million to $1 billion in market capitalization) at the Singapore Corporate Awards 2009, Businessman of the Year at the Singapore Business Awards 2011, and conferred the Public Service Medal by the President of Singapore in 2010 in recognition of his community services.

“Our mission is to provide quality services that consistently meet our clients’ needs and expectations through excellence in our operations.”