An AlCircle exclusive interview with Hugues Vincent, CEO of the Aluminium Division of Fives

Fives is a business conglomerate from France having diversified business interest. The company specialises in designing and supplying machines, process equipment, and production lines for the world’s largest industrial groups including the aluminium, steel, glass, automotive, aerospace, logistics, cement, and energy sectors.

AlCircle had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hugues Vincent, CEO of the Aluminium Division of Fives and discuss about its business and current projects catering to the aluminium sector on the sideline of the Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL), the premium platform for the aluminium industry that took place in Kuwait city from 11-13 November, 2018.

AlCircle could get an insight into the latest innovations and developments in the industry, directly from a key figure like Mr. Vincent over the interaction during the 2nd day of the event.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

AlCircle: Fives is an industrial engineering group with an extensive multi-sector expertise which also includes aluminium. Could you please brief us about the introduction of aluminium division in Fives, and how the functionality and performance of this division stands out from the rest?
Mr. Vincent: Fives is an international group that supplies processes and equipment to several industrial producers and customers who produce aluminium, steel, cement, energy, automotive, aeronautics, and inter-logistics. Within that group is a division of aluminium which is well-known under the legacy names of Solios and ECL that supplies key processes and skilled equipment needed to build and operate primary aluminium smelters. In the aluminium division we are a group of 900 people including engineers and technicians who are fully dedicated to the aluminium industry, both in projects and in services.

AlCircle: Fives signed several contracts with companies in Bahrain. Garmco awarded EPC contract for the construction of its 120,000 tpy re-melting/slab casting facility in Bahrain, and Alba awarded several contracts as part of its line 6 expansion project. So, do you consider Bahrain your major market area or the primary force to drive your business?

Mr. Vincent: We have been involved in the construction and the operation of all smelters in the Gulf and particularly, in Bahrain, where it also established a services company in 2003, with an aim to service all smelters that Fives had built in the Gulf. We have 50 employees in Bahrain and recently decided to indulge in further developments there. We are establishing a workshop for parts fabrication and for repairing tools in Bahrain that will expectedly become operational in 2019 and will employ about 15 operators. On top of that, we have recently signed a contract with Alba for a long-term maintenance of their equipment. It will be a five-year contract that will employ about 25 people. So, by the end of 2019, we will be closed to 100 people in Bahrain. Along with this development, we have recognised the need for training and thus, joined hands with Tamkeen, the education fund of Bahrain and Bahrain Polytechnic University to launch vocational training programme. This joint venture will close the gap between the need of the industry and the universities in Bahrain, somewhat like the apprenticeship programme in Europe.

AlCircle: As part of Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project, do you have any opinion on the difficulties encountered on Alba’s site due to short planning and congestion or on the lack of qualified local resources at Alba’s project? Did you feel any impact on your business because of the above mentioned matters?

Mr. Vincent: On Alba 6 project, we are a major supplier of various systems like the green-anode plant, the gas treatment centre, and the pot tending machine. It’s a very “hot” time for the project because we are getting close to the start-up. There are about 2000 people working on the site under our supervision.  It’s true that Alba 6 project was under a very tight schedule which led to a lot of congestion on site and a lot of co-activity. But despite this co-activity, we could achieve zero loss time injury. We have spent already 4 million man hours on site without any lost time injury. So, we are very proud of that.

The constraints at Alba 6 expansion project created many kinds of issues like low productivity and man power shortages. There had not been large industrial projects, like Alba 6, in Bahrain for many years, and the Alba 6 project is now draining a lot of capabilities and resources from the country of Bahrain because of its sheer magnitude. We have found a lack of management skills and skilled labour to sub-contract the fabrication and construction work. So, it has been a difficult project for us but now we are getting close to start its operation.

AlCircle: What betterment can you notice in your business’s operational performance and economic performance after you have developed digital solutions (Carbon Digital Chain)? Do you think it has accredited your business in the market?

Mr. Vincent: Yes, we have made a lot of progress on digital solutions and one of them is the Carbon Digital Chain. It is a way to track the anodes all the way along their lifecycle from raw materials to the usage to the pots in order to track them, to identify them by their production parameters, and co-relate production parameters with their behaviours on the pot. This is a way to improve the predictability of anode failures of pot and to anticipate on process correction. We see it as a great potential for saving millions of dollars per year in smelters and we have been talking with several smelters to implement this on a global full scale basis.

AlCircle: How would you rate your business performance in China where performance and reliability were key factors towards local competition?

Mr. Vincent: We have been in China for a long time and supplied equipment there, while at the same time, being copied by the Chinese competitors. China is a very tough market because the standards of safety, performance, quality, reliability, and services are different from our international market and that often creates difficulty for us to compete against the low-cost pricing of Chinese suppliers. But we are finding that things are changing in China. The government and the major players are raising the standards of safety as well as reliability. Fives has recently been successful in the Chinese market and proudly worked with two major producers who bought solutions from Fives and really liked its performance and the safety of equipment. In the future we see a rise in their standards coming close to what we see on the other international market. We see a renewed potential in the technologies in China and we are quite excited about it.

Disclaimer: “The information presented herein is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The views and opinions shared in the interview section of www.alcircle.com are unique to the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of www.alcircle.com."