Commercial A.M. Bisley wins $6M order

Press, 2 August 1979, Page 18

Commercial A.M. Bisley wins $6M order

PA Hamilton' A. M. Bisley and Co., Ltd, has won a S6M export con*' tract from the Thai Govern-j This is the biggest export: order obtained by the agricultural and industrial engineering specialists. It involves the supply, installation, and commissioning of grain processing, storage? and conveying equipment at 11 sites in Thailand’s maize-i

i'growing areas, and at the I . deep water port of Sattahip,! 160 km from Bangkok. ■j Bisley Industries, Ltd, the| manufacturing subsidiary, is I :’to build five grain-drying and! storage installations; substantial storage additions to! j three existing plants, which were originally commissioned; under New Zealand aid pro-; 'grammes; and storage addi-j . tions to two Danish-built! plants.

These will give Thailand 10 complete installations for storing, drying, and processing maize to export standards. They will form part of a system of export facilities at Sattahip, a port built by the United States of America for military purposes during the Vietnam war. which is now being redeveloped for commercial purposes. A. M. Bisley provided a

large commercial silo at Sattahip some years ago and is now to build extra silo storage totalling 20,000 tonnes and install a grain conveyer system capable of loading ships at the rate of 500 tonnes an hour.

Bisleys Industries will supply all equipment—several shiploads — all de- ! signs, engineering, technical supervision, and staff training. The grain plants are to be commissioned over a threeyear period, but the Sattahip installations are to be in operation inside a year. The new plant has more than 90 per cent New Zealand content. The A. M. Bisley chairman and joint managing director, Mr David Bisley, says that the contract-signing in Bangkok last Thursday was the culmination of three years of team work. He made many trips to Thailand during that period—four in the last three months—and was accompanied by technical and engineering staff on a number of occasions.

Mr Bisley expects that up to eight supervisory staff will work in Thailand. A project engineer will coordinate operations through the duration of the contract, and will call on skills from New Zealand as needed. The contact will have major impact on the incomes of Thai grain farmers and on the quality of grain exported. It will also make a contribution in the Waikato in that the company will be “running at a full head of steam” and increasing staff in a time of national economic downturn. A. M. Bisley became involved in Thailand through aid projects about 10 years ago. The firm also exports its skills, and products to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tahiti and Indonesia.