Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has overhauled its overseas organization. The company has recently closed its less efficient overseas branches in Africa and the Middle East and instead promoted its office in Poland to a branch to step up its efforts to tap into the Eastern European market.
The company has recently decided to abolish its Water Research and Development Center in Damman, Saudi Arabia. The center was established in 2013 as a forward base for the company’s desalination business in the Middle East, and has been developing key technologies in seawater desalination and water reuse technology in cooperation with the Saline Water Conversion Corp. (SWCC) of Saudi Arabia.
The company was compelled to shut down the center as Middle East countries drastically reduced orders for large desalination projects amid a prolonged slump in global oil prices. The end of joint research and development projects was another factor behind the closure of the center.
Doosan Heavy also closed its branch in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was established in 2014 as an outpost for the African market.
Yet the company promoted its office in the Katowice region of Poland to a branch to secure a forward base in Eastern Europe. The Katowice branch will work with Doosan Lentjes, the company’s subsidiary in Germany to build a waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Poland. A WtE plant turns various combustible wastes from industrial sites or homes into energy through gasification, incineration or thermal decomposition. WtE plants are on the uptick as they not only supply electric power and heat but reduce environmental pollution by minimizing landfills.