Patrick Regis of Rolls-Royce (Vietnam) International Ltd. gives his company’s business updates at a press briefing in HCMC on Tuesday - Photo: Mong Binh
HCMC – Global power systems firm Rolls-Royce is pinning high hopes to win more business contracts, especially from the aviation and marine sectors, in this expanding market following its successful deals this year.
Patrick Regis, president of Rolls-Royce (Vietnam) International Ltd., told reporters in HCMC on Tuesday that the business opportunities were emerging from Vietnam Airlines’ fast fleet expansion and the take-off of new private airlines.
“Vietnam Airlines has a big ambition… a vision and a strategy that it wants to be the very top of the list in Asia as an airline. I think that’s great and we want to help them,” Regis said in response to the Daily’s question about the possibility of Rolls-Royce to win more bids for supplying engines for the Airbus and Boeing aircraft that the carrier had ordered.
Regis said to realize the strategy, Vietnam Airlines would need to purchase new Boeing and Airbus airplanes including A321s, A350s and B787s. “Vietnam Airlines wants to go to London and the United States so it needs the airplanes with energy-efficient engines, and I think this is where there is a very good opportunity in that range.”
Rolls-Royce wants to be the major provider of engines for Vietnam Airlines. “Yes, that’s our strategy,” Regis said. He acknowledged the company would have to compete with other manufacturers of airplane engines for the Boeing B787s.
Vietnam Airlines and Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Co. (VALC) have placed firm orders for a combined number of 16 Boeing 787s but will be able to receive the first of these Dreamliners after 2015. Vietnam Airlines CEO Pham Ngoc Minh explained to reporters in HCMC recently that deliveries were two years later than scheduled.
Just last month, Rolls-Royce announced it had won a US$240 million share of a Vietnam Airlines order for V2500 to power 36 Airbus A321s. Regis confirmed to the Daily that this was the biggest contract that the company had gained from Vietnamese market so far.
The V2500 engine is produced by the International Aero Engines consortium (IAE) in which Rolls-Royce is a senior shareholder. Vietnam Airlines now has 22 IAE-powered aircraft in service and begins to take delivery of the Airbus A321 aircraft with the low-emission V2500 engines from next year.
Vietnam Airlines has signed memorandums of understanding or placed firm orders for around 12 long-hauled Airbus A350s in a move to expand its fleet to 150 by 2020 from the nearly 70 as currently.
Regis said Rolls-Royce also saw the opportunity to power the airplanes owned or chartered by new private airlines individuals in Vietnam.
Earlier this month, Air Mekong received four Bombardier CRJ-900s to prepare for its domestic flights from this October. In June, Hoa Phat Group’s chairman Tran Dinh Long completed his purchase of a US$4.9-million Eurocopter EC-135P2i helicopter.
More businesspeople have had plans to buy airplanes since Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group’s chairman Doan Nguyen Duc became the first Vietnamese businessman to own a private aircraft in May 2008 when he brought Beechcraft King Air B350 designed with 12 seats at a cost of US$7 million.
Though aviation is now the biggest business segment of Rolls-Royce in Vietnam, the company has established a strong presence in the marine sector. The company reported acquisition of the Odim facility in Vung Tau in April this year to manufacture marine offshore equipment.
In June, Rolls-Royce won contracts to design and supply shiplift systems for shipyards under Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense in Danang and Northern Shipping Joint Stock Co. (Nosco) of Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).
Other customers of Rolls-Royce in Vietnam include PetroVietnam, Vietsovpetro, Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), oil and gas companies, and shipping lines.
The Saigon Times Daily
