The Shanghai office recently marked its 10-year anniversary as a procurement hub.
The Sedgman office in Shanghai, China is a procurement hub offering low-cost sourcing solutions that meet stringent quality standards. The hub has been operating for 10 years, successfully delivering fabrication works, modular processing plants, mining equipment and quality surveillance services for projects and operations in Australia, North America, South America and New Zealand.
As an integral part of Sedgman’s delivery model, our Shanghai procurement hub provides the full circle of in-country services including:
- sourcing strategy
- prequalification (including supplier auditing)
- estimating support
- tendering, contract negotiation
- quality control
- progress expediting
- cost control
- logistics coordination
- contract settlement.
Sedgman has a long history in China which dates back 40 years ago with John Sedgman, who formed Sedgman and Associates in 1980, and colleague Ian Runge, travelling to China to sell their services there. They made quite an impression in China with their new approach to designing plants that could handle different grades of coal.
Looking back – Sedgman’s history in China
An office was established in Beijing to target emerging coking coal mines, particularly Mongolia, and to provide a base for an Asian procurement centre. In 2008, it was decided to stay in Beijing, and we re-entered the market as Sedgman Engineering. The Australian expats quickly gathered a talented local team to develop local capability. The team established relationships with local Chinese engineering institutes, leading to sourcing low-cost local structural steel, piping, platework and some process equipment.
In Shanghai, Sedgman focused its efforts on increasing its engineering base to enhance its competitiveness. The global procurement centre enabled Sedgman to offer competitive price options for processing equipment, fabricated steel, wear-resistant piping and major electrical components. Systems of assessment and quality and schedule control were established to benefit clients and to support projects around the world. Today, to benefit clients and to support projects around the world, specialist buyers and engineers manage and supervise procurement. Sedgman remained focused on offering innovative engineering and strategic procurement to deliver cost-effective solutions, and on pursuing project opportunities in China and Mongolia.
Procurement for all
The procurement hub in China continues to provide the full range of procurement disciplines using pre-qualified suppliers to meet civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and services requirements. In addition to supporting procurement for projects, China also supports operations and maintenance requirements. Chinese processing equipment – including slurry pumps and centrifuges – was trialled and subsequently adopted in Sedgman’s Australian operations. The China office acted as a communication hub between the operations team and the supplier, with support of the operations team, ensured the equipment met Sedgman’s technical requirements.
During Sedgman’s history of over 40 years, the opening of the Shanghai office has been fundamental to our success in growth.
Check out some of the highlights of the Shanghai office below: