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Costa Rica’s transport and public works ministry (MOPT) has presented a draft of the bidding rules for the country’s metropolitan electric train (TREM) concession, connecting capital San José to Heredia province.

MOPT will launch the tender by end-October and will receive bids in February or March 2010, TREM concession project manager Juan Sauma told BNamericas.

The awardee will be responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of the rail service for 35 years.

Eleven firms attended a meeting at which transport minister Karla González presented bidding rules for the tender, according to paper La Nación.

Interested firms reportedly include Alstom (France), CAF (Spain), Inekon Group (Czech Republic) Siemens (Germany), Bombardier (Canada), Soares da Costa (Portugal), FCC (Spain), OAS (Brazil), Capital Lending Corporation (US), Pöyry (Mexico), and a consortium of Daebon Engineering and Hyundai Rotem (South Korea).

Prefeasibility studies carried out by Brazilian firm Engevix put the total project cost at US$345mn, of which US$100mn would be provided by the state and the remainder by the awardee.

The project involves the construction of two parallel railways and the implementation of electric trains capable of transporting 340 passengers each.

The system is expected to start operations in 2013.

via MOPT presents bidding rules for US$345mn TREM project, Costa Rica, Privatization, news.

Pöyry Energy is to continue providing engineering support to CNR International (UK) Limited after securing a contract for the Provision of Process and Development Engineering Consultancy Services.

The agreement will see Pöyry deliver engineering expertise for CNR’s activities out of Aberdeen as and when required.

Pöyry, which has offices in Market Street, Aberdeen, has worked with the operator for more than six years. Over this time, Pöyry has delivered various projects to CNR’s North Sea and West African assets and provided expertise across a range of projects including; Ninian Life of Field Concept studies, Espoir Debottlenecking and Olowi Field Development.

Steve Fogg, president of oil and gas Europe at Pöyry said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to continue working with CNR. The operator is one of many clients with whom we are fortunate to enjoy a long and successful working relationship and we look forward to delivering the highest standard of engineering excellence during their projects.”

The three year contract will commence on 1 October 2009.

Pöyry’s oil and gas clients include major multi-national operators, national oil companies and independent operators. It has more than 500 multi disciplined oil and gas consultants worldwide. Headquartered in Finland, Pöyry focuses on the energy, forest industry, transportation, water & environment and construction sectors.

via Your Project News – Pöyry Energy Secures a Further 3 Years with CNR International.

Gunns positive about pulp mill funding

September 29, 2009

Woodchipper Gunns Ltd says it in a positive position to progress the funding of its proposed $2 billion pulp mill in Tasmania now that global financial markets are improving.

“The company is continuing to pursue the financing of the mill project,” Gunns said in its annual report, published on Tuesday.

“… during the course of the year (2008/09), the global financial crisis had a significant impact on credit markets and project funding.

“The company has continued to maintain its relationships with key project banks through this period and is now in a positive position to progress financing as markets improve,” Gunns said.

The company said negotiations were continuing positively with the joint venture partner that it had selected in June as the preferred joint venture partner for the mill at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania.

Gunns also said it was assessing opportunities to participate in the restructuring of the Australian plantation management sector and since its June 30 balance date, on August 31, acquired Elders Ltd subsidiary ITC Timber Pty Ltd for $100 million.

The company said the key drivers for the group over the medium term would be based on adding maximum value to the timber it processed, increased demand for pulp and paper products globally, and achieving the synergies predicted from the purchase of the ITC business.

Gunns booked an annual net profit for the 2008/09 financial year of $56.24 million, down one per cent on the prior year.

At the time Gunns announced its annual result, on August 31, chairman John Gay said the outlook for company’s forest products business remained difficult.

“Wood fibre sales are largely dependent on the Japanese market, and economic conditions are expected to remain weak through at least the course of the first quarter of the 2010 financial year, with the strengthening Australian dollar adversely impacting our competitive position,” Mr Gay said in a statement at the time

via Gunns positive about pulp mill funding.

Two Spanish companies are competing with another four firms for the contract to build a metro in Panama city, a government official said yesterday.

Metro de Madrid and the consortium SENER y Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) are the Spanish companies selected by the Interamerican Development Bank and the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) after analysing proposals from 48 corporations all bidding for the consultancy.

Also competing for the contract are the American companies URS Holdings and Parsons-Birnkerhoff, the French COTEBA and the Mexican-Swiss group made up of POYRY and Cal y Mayor.

The Executive Secretary of the Government’s Metro team, Roberto Roy, said yesterday that the selection of the winning company would be based on “demonstrated experience of integrated technical assistance in Metro type projects.”

The winning company will develop the conceptual design, call for bids for the construction contract and administer the project, according to a presidential source.

The Government will announce the terms of reference for the contract on 31 August and the final selection regarding the winning bid will be made at the end of September.

As the consultancy contract is still in its planning stages, it is not yet known what the budget will be.

The construction of the metro was one of the main electoral promises made by Ricardo Martinelli who created the position of Executive Secretary for the Metro on 1 July, the same day he assumed the presidency.

via Six companies compete for job :: La Estrella Panamá :: laestrella.com.pa :: 2009.

Shares of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc <JEC.N> fell 9 percent Tuesday, a day after the construction services company reported lower quarterly profit and backlog, and trimmed the top end of its 2009 earnings forecast range.

Jacobs reported third-quarter backlog of $15.8 billion, down 5 percent sequentially, and removed about $665 million from backlog due to project cancellations and shifting cost risks to customers.

Barclays Capital analyst Andy Kaplowitz said backlog might have troughed in the third quarter, and it could stabilize in the next couple of quarters and rise again toward the end of calendar year 2009 and early 2010.

A company executive said on a conference call that about $300 million of backlog in the third quarter was hit by a project cancellation in the upstream market and there might be more cancellations going forward in that segment. “I am not going to rule out a cancellation (in the fourth quarter) but I expect the overall oil and gas markets to be slightly firmer, meaning slightly lower chance of cancellations,” said analyst Kaplowitz, who has an “equal weight” rating on the stock.

The Pasadena, California-based company, which caters to industrial, commercial, and government clients, said although the oil sands business appears to have “reenergized,” it would like its exposure to that market to be smaller. About 55 percent of the company’s revenue comes from the oil market.

“While our public sector markets – led by national government programs – remain good, our growth there was insufficient to offset declines in our private sector markets,” CEO Craig Martin said.

Jefferies & Co analyst Michael Dudas said though Jacobs’ public sector would get a boost in 2010 through stimulus spending, it would be the energy and oil markets that would drive a recovery in earnings and orders.

Dudas said the company’s new outlook reflects backlog issues, and he sees an upside to its backlog in 2010. Jacobs, which ended the quarter with $1 billion in cash, said it would capitalize on acquisitions over the next few quarters. Jacobs also said it was expanding aggressively in India and the Middle East and that it was looking to bring its domestic and international exposure to about 50 percent each, from a current ratio of 60 percent to 40 percent.

On Monday, Jacobs posted a profit of 76 cents a share, in line with Wall Street estimates, but saw revenue fall 7 percent during the quarter. For 2009, the company trimmed the top end of its earnings range by 15 cents to $3.35 a share. It had previously forecast an earnings range of $3.10 to $3.50 a share.

Barclays’ Kaplowitz said investor sentiment was negative as the company has lowered its outlook for the second time and on concerns about its exposure to U.S. refining market.

Shares of company fell $3.13 to $40.26 Tuesday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a low of $39.63 earlier.

WSP Group Plc <WSPG.L>, a British building and environmental consultancy, posted a 23 percent fall in first-half adjusted pretax profit but maintained its interim dividend and said the order book exceeded 1 billion pounds ($1.64 billion) in June.

The group, which offers management, planning and environmental advice, said it was well placed to trade through the current economic environment. The company said it was seeing a high level of bidding activity in the wider Middle East and North Africa region with some significant project wins. “Whilst these remain competitive and can be slow to progress we see our expansion in the region continuing,” the company said in a statement.

“The first half of 2009 has seen a strong performance in our public sector activities with a corresponding deterioration in most markets in the private sector,” it said. Northern Europe continues to perform well and it does not see any immediate change to the difficult private sector in the UK and the U.S., WSP Group said. For the six months ended on June 30, profit before tax and exceptional items was 17.7 million pounds, compared with 23 million pounds a year ago, WSP Group said. Revenue rose 4 percent to 376.9 million pounds.
The company said worldwide staff numbers were around 9,000 compared with over 10,000 at the end of last year due to material reductions in the UK private sector and the Middle East.
WSP Group shares closed at 244.75 pence on Friday on the London Stock Exchange. ($1=.6083 Pound)

BRUSSELS, June 25, 2009 (RISI) – UPM and Sveza’s plans to build a greenfield pulp mill and sawmill in the Vologda region of northwest Russia, have been pushed back due to the current economic climate.

“We are still continuing the work on the project together with Sveza, but given the economic situation in Russia and the pulp business in general right now, it is not possible to make any investment under current conditions. At least not before the economic situation in Russia as well as the general economic situation improves,” Tapio Korpeinen, president of UPM’s energy and pulp business group, commented.

In 2007, UPM teamed up with the Russian Sveza Group to form a joint venture, with each party holding 50% of the share capital.

The Finnish and Russian companies intended to start up a 800,000 tonne/yr pulp mill, a 300,000 tonne/yr sawmill and a 450,000 m³/yr oriented strand board building panels facility by 2012. However, the scheme, which is worth around Euro 1.2 billion ($1.67 billion) is still at the feasibility stage.

Korpeinen was not able to say when the project will advance. “We need to have a better visibility on both the economy and the possibility of getting financing for the investments as well as on the pulp cycle,” he said.

Andrey Kashubsky, managing director of Sveza, commented, “The project is ongoing. We are currently selecting a site for the complex in the north-western region of Russia.” He added, “Following the recent drop in demand for paper and pulp coupled with temporary investment limitations at Sveza and UPM, the final decision regarding the investment has been pushed back until further notice.”

via RISI.

Australia’s WorleyParsons is the low bidder for a consultancy contract for Oman’s first solar power plant. The company submitted a price of RO861,540 ($2.2m) for the work.

Eight other companies also bid.

The UK’s PricewaterhouseCoopers priced the contract at RO996,000, Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) bid RO1.08m and the UK’s Ernst & Young submitted an offer of RO1.15m. KPMG of the UK bid RO1.31m, followed by Germany’s Fichtner at RO1.47m and Finland-based Poyry Energy with RO1.82m ($4.6m). The local Advance Mechanical Engineering Consultancies bid RO1.84m and Spain’s Trama Tecnoambiental was the highest bidder at RO2.9m.

The Public Authority for Electricity & Water is the client

via WorleyParsons bids low for Oman solar consultancy.