Matco Asia Celebrates 30 Years in Oil & Gas Industry

Strong foundations

In 2011 Matco Asia celebrated its 30th year operating in the oil and gas industry, representing an important milestone for the company and reaffirming its status as one of the leading players in the global market.

Since it was founded in 1981 the business has achieved a 100 per cent successful project completion record working with clients worldwide.

“With over 31 years in the oil and gas industry Matco Asia has positioned itself as the leading valve automation centre in Southeast Asia,” confirms Dan Stiff, CEO at the business. “We started as the first valve automation centre for Bettis actuators in our region, providing the full service of mounting, calibration and testing of the valves and actuators. Today we also promote and distribute related equipment, engineering and supply technologies to the oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, refining, pulp and paper, water treatment and process industries.”

This level of service is achieved through the Matco Asia Group, which consists of Matco Asia Singapore and its affiliates; Matco (Thailand) Co, Matco Asia Indonesia, Matco Malaysia Sbn. Bhd., Matco Asia Vietnam, Matco Asia Pilipinas, Matco Asia Brunei and Matco Asia Myanmar. This Group, which has Matco Asia (Singapore) as its technical and commercial hub, gives Matco a distinct competitive advantage over its competitors due to its presence in the region.

This widespread presence has enabled the company to build a considerable reputation: “Quite simply, the industry knows that if Matco automated it, it will work; if Matco serviced it, it works better; and if Matco built it, it can be counted on to work correctly and immediately,” says Dan. “Matco Asia has a strong brand equity/image within the industry due to our personnel, who provide key technical and management strengths.

“Similarly, we are able to distinguish ourselves in the market because of our size and our experience,” he continues. “Most of our competitors have not been in business as long as we have and are much smaller, with less of a presence. We remain committed to complete customer service and have invested in our infrastructure to ensure that we meet their needs today and in the future. Because of this we are positioned to really excel in the growth environment that the oil and gas industry is experiencing at the moment.”

Matco represents a number of major brands in terms of its portfolio, which covers several areas including actuators, valves, automation & controls, accessories and services. “Our main product line is actuators and the building of control panels for these actuators,” Dan highlights. “We keep various actuators in our inventory in order to cover key account requests. We do not focus on any standardised product or service but rather operate as a custom build operation that can cater to the needs of its clients through engineered solutions.”

Matco’s actuators portfolio consists of products from manufacturers such as Bettis, EIM, Shafer, Dantorque and Kinetrol. Similarly, when it comes to valves, automation & controls, Matco utilises solutions from many of the leading developers in this field, offering products from companies such as Versa, Westlock, BiS, K-Tek, HLR, Deltrol Fluid Products, Piper Oil States Valves, Dux Valves, Mercer Valves, Bifold, and Welker.

In terms of services provided Matco covers all of the key areas related to its product range. For example, the company can provide integrated valve automation packages that are specifically designed and assembled to efficiently and reliably suit individual control loop requirements. These are fitted to a client’s valves and fully tested and calibrated by Matco’s highly skilled automation experts. Alongside this the business offers full maintenance and retrofit programmes, which can be carried out on-site or at Matco’s highly reputed range of facilities.

“We have an in-house, full service valve repair and testing facility as well as a world-class valve automation and controls facility, which we relocated to last year,” says Dan. “This is complemented by the skill and expertise of our employees, all of whom are trained at our very own facility in Singapore where we have trained instructors using curriculum, provided by our suppliers and our own, to train and certify our technicians. We currently have 40 trained/certified technicians with plans to double this figure the end of 2013. Our curriculum is a blend of formal classrooms and on the job training with a thorough testing programme prior to awarding certification.

“We have developed a pool of trained/certified technicians throughout our extensive network of offices and have arranged our support system into Tiger Teams’, which can be assembled very quickly and are able to fly offshore or to client sites to provide fast response support.”

As we reach the end of 2012, Dan looks to the future of Matco with much anticipation: “Our sales and shipping have been very good over the last couple of years – we achieved record sales in both 2011 and 2012. Investment in our world-class facility has augmented our competitive advantage through increased productivity and efficiency in our assembly and production processes, which means we will be able to carry out our programme of delivering higher value-added services and increased benefits to our customers and partners.

“We have spent many years building the foundations of our business. The demand for a flexible organisation that can provide ‘Tiger Teams’ at a moments notice, and one that has the reputation of being the best valve automation, testing and repair facility will survive and thrive in any market conditions, so we are very optimistic about the future,” he concludes.

Matco Asia
Services: Actuators and valve automation