President of Honeywell Process Solutions, Vimal Kapur, spoke to the media at the recent Honeywell Users Group (HUG) EMEA Conference, which took place between 24-27 October in The Hague, Netherlands
The first of three general sessions, which were opened on Tuesday 25 October by HUG chairperson Jose-Maria Martin of BP and Monica Martinez-Gonzalez of Repsol, highlighted Honeywell Process Solutions' latest innovations and business plans.
Kapur then gave guests an overview of the challenges Honeywell Process Solutions faces in the years to come, including six key areas of focus. These were reducing project capex, improving production levels, sustaining plant performance, ensuring a seamless supply chain and safety and skills.
Following the presentation, African Review took the opportunity to ask Kapur for his take on African market developments...
How excited is Honeywell Process Solutions about the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the African market?
"We have been present in Africa for several decades, including in South Africa. We are expanding into countries like Angola, Nigeria and Mozambique, but I think the challenges are that if a project is conceived from conception to execution, it takes longer than in other parts of the world.
"That is a problem for a company like us because of the credit rating of the companies that we are dealing with. I am part of Honeywell's shareholders: if you hold shares in Honeywell then I work for you. Because we only do business though a letter of credit, we must protect our shareholders and we have to be careful who we do business with.
"But I think that all new economies go through a cycle, and these kinds of problems do tend to take care of themselves. Honeywell always acts 'local for local' in every country that we operate in. As more business opportunities come, we shall show up more in Africa – so far so good."
Stay close to Africanreview.com for further coverage of the HUG EMEA conference.
