Protea Sp. z.o.o.

New heights

Protea Sp. z.o.o. was established in 2001 with the founding aim of fulfilling the need of foreign, particularly Scandinavian, companies for cheaper industrial production.

Due to a constant increase in order numbers, in 2004 Protea merged with NTD Olesno, which resulted in an extension of the company’s scope for design and strength calculation capabilities. From 2005 onwards Protea has continued to progress rapidly with significant growth in both sales and profit.

Headquartered in Gdansk, Poland, Protea maintains a representative office in Molde, Norway, and works with agents in Venezuela, the US, Brazil, China, South Korea, and Singapore. In addition, Protea has over the course of its history obtained a number of contracts from Russian, Norwegian, European, and Asian companies. Many of these markets are notably active today, and Protea is continuing to expand its presence within these. Most recently, new opportunities have arisen in the Indian market, which presents new potential for Protea.

Specialising in heavy machinery, cranes and winches for the offshore, marine and onshore markets, Protea delivers a comprehensive portfolio including BOP gantry and semi-gantry cranes, overhead travelling BOP crane systems, offshore hydraulic and pneumatic winches, fixed and travelling cranes, pipe handling cranes and equipment, mud tank systems, A-frames, and many other types of equipment. Included within this is the company’s own brand of offshore pedestal cranes, RAM luffing, Rope luffing, and Rope King post cranes, under the name Proteus. Beyond initial engineering, Protea also supports its clients and equipment with logistics, assembly, start up, and warranty and post-warranty servicing.

“Recently we have designed and tested a new Proteus series SWL 30mT King Post Offshore Pedestal Crane for an oil production platform in Venezuela,” begins Tomasz Paszkiewicz, managing director of Protea. “The crane was designed according to ABS Lifting Appliances and API Specification 2C, and features a hydraulic diesel drive and lattice boom. The purpose of this crane is open sea lifting operations between offshore installation, and supply vessels.” Another major step forward in expanding Protea’s range of sophisticated equipment is the development of a new series of pneumatic winches. Available in a variety of different sizes, these winches can be fitted with several customised options and accessories.

In terms of what sets Protea apart within its target marketplace, one of the key elements is the company’s flexibility and capacity to manufacture tailor-made equipment to meet specific demands. Additionally, Protea prides itself on manufacturing sophisticated, high quality equipment at lower production costs than many other western companies. A new strategic partnership with GMC Limited is also set to propel Protea to new heights in terms of providing unique offshore installation solutions. The two companies’ successful co-operation on the construction of the ‘GMC Pride’ modular pipelay barge is a showcase example of this partnership in action, with Protea providing state-of-the-art deck machinery for GMC’s vessel.

Of course, Protea works closely with all of its clients and customers, another of which is Borkey GmbH, which invented the industrial roller skate in 1951. Borkey produces ABS, DNV and LRS approved skates in Germany for the offshore industry and has some 2500 specialised designs in its portfolio. The company provides Protea with skates for moving equipment such as heavy cranes, winches or BOP.

Protea also pays particular attention to internal matters such as OH&S to ensure safe working conditions in accordance with international standards and environmental protection. Over the years the company has achieved various certification including a quality management system according to ISO 9001 standard in 2004, from which point Protea also incorporated ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 specifications.

“In the third quarter of 2012 we plan to be certificated by external certification society, Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance,” highlights Tomasz. “More recently we completed a very important American Petroleum Institute (API) certification for the manufacture and supply of offshore pedestal cranes according to API Specification 2C. We have already manufactured the first cranes with this rating, and several more are still in production. The certificate API 2C-0103 will allow us to extend production capabilities and venture into new oil and gas markets.”

The last few years of business have remained good for Protea, with the company only suffering a slight dip in order numbers in 2010 due to the world economic crisis. This was followed in 2011 by a rapid change in situation to bring many new clients to the business, and with twice as many orders Protea made a quick decision to expand its factory to cope with such demand. “Our factory in Kluczbork, Poland, therefore will be rebuilt and extended, increasing the production capacity to 2000 tonnes of steel per year, which is double its current capability,” confirms Tomasz. “This is in line with our intention to increase the capacity of manufactured equipment, which will help us to enter new markets in India, the Middle East, and even potentially Australia. The biggest challenge at the moment is to maintain the highest quality of crane production, whilst undergoing this expansion progress.”

Protea Sp. z.o.o.
Products: Heavy machinery, cranes and winches