Article on TCPI in Portuguese daily newspaper

In today’s edition of its supplement “Valor Económico”, the Portuguese daily newspaper “Diário de Notícias”, publishes an article on TCPI.

Diário de Notícias is a centenary newspaper with a large national circulation.

Here is a translation of the interview text, written by the journalists:

TCPI TECNOPROJECTO INTERNACIONAL

35 YEARS PROJECTING AND BUILDING THE FUTURE

DUE TO ITS HIGH LEVEL OF EXPERTISE, TCPI HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN PROJECTS OF ENORMOUS GLOBAL RELEVANCE, IN SEVERAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES, POWER PLANTS (NUCLEAR, CONVENTIONAL AND HYDROELECTRIC), GAS AND OIL PIPELINES (MARINE AND LAND-BASED OIL TERMINALS AND TANKERS), LNG STORAGE STATIONS, WATER AND WASTE TREATMENT PLANTS AND IN THE REFINING, PETROCHEMICAL, CHEMICAL, PULP, PAPER AND MINING INDUSTRIES.

BASED ON A TEAM OF TECHNICIANS WITH EXTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE, TCPI IS A PORTUGUESE COMPANY THAT HAS PARTICIPATED IN THE MOST RELEVANT PROJECTS AND WORKS WORLDWIDE, IN THE AREAS OF ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE AND IN THE EXPERTISE OF ELECTRICITY, INSTRUMENTATION AND AUTOMATION.

TCPI – Tecnoprojecto Internacional is a company of Engineering, Construction and Maintenance that completes in 2021 the milestone of 35 years of existence. Founded in October 1986, the company was born by the hands of José Manuel Brandão and a group of technicians, and integrated the French group Ponticelli in 2019, one of the world’s largest companies in the field. Led by Christophe de Amorim, current General Manager of TCPI and representative of the major shareholder. But no one better than the two people in charge to tell us how this successful project was born and has evolved, which promises to continue a promising path through participation in the largest and most challenging international projects.

Back then, more than three decades ago, José Manuel Brandão decided to take a risk and set up the company with the aim of filling a gap in the market, as he believes that “there was a need for a company that brought together all these areas of engineering worked on by TCPI”.

To pursue this idea, the founder recruited a team of excellence, made up of workers with whom he had already come across professionally and who had worked in the largest national companies: “I have no doubt that at a certain moment we had the best technicians in the country”, guarantees José Manuel Brandão, in relation to the hard core that was decisive for TCPI’s success.

The expansion and growth of the company led to the inclusion of new services and TCPI currently operates in the industrial area, in engineering, construction and maintenance projects, in the expertise of electricity, instrumentation and automation. “We were innovative from the outset because we offer an integrated package of services and in this way, clients do not have to negotiate with different players. The industrial specialisation was also one of our initial advantages”, say those responsible, but they point out that in recent years they have been diversifying their areas of activity, namely into the tertiary sector and the construction of renewable energy equipment.

TCPI’s merger with Ponticelli was not intended to expand the group’s operations, as their core business differs – “Ponticelli is a mechanics-based company”, explains Christophe de Amorim – but rather to complement it, to provide the group with the added value of integrated service provision, i.e., a “turnkey” service. In this sense, TCPI also provides a maintenance service, which guarantees a multi-annual activity and greater visibility.

PROJECTS OF WORLDWIDE RELEVANCE

TCPI is currently based in Porto Salvo, in the municipality of Oeiras, and has delegations in Sines and Porto, as well as offices and representations in other countries, such as Belgium, France, Estonia, Angola, Romania, Cameroon, Mozambique, Algeria, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and Cape Verde.

Due to its high level of expertise, TCPI has been a presence in projects of enormous global relevance, in various industrial complexes, power plants (nuclear, conventional, and hydroelectric), gas and oil pipelines (marine and land-based oil terminals, and tankers), LNG storage stations, water and waste treatment plants and in the refining, petrochemical, chemical, pulp, paper and mining industries. “From early on, the foreign market was a bet for TCPI,” explains the Portuguese partner. It began its internationalisation in 1998 with a project in Angola, and then went on to Romania, Russia, Serbia, France, Belgium, Mozambique, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Ivory Coast, and can claim to have been present in projects all over the world, from China, Macau, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Guinea Conakry, Algeria, Spain, Rwanda, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Syria, among many others. “We have always gone after investments. We have always been attentive to business, not only in Portugal, but throughout the world. Since 2000, the company has invoiced around 80% abroad. We have had projects in 13 different countries at the same time”, explain the two directors. As for the most emblematic international projects, TCPI has a very rich portfolio. “We spent seven years in Chernobyl, supervising construction and performing engineering of safety. Nuclear activities are a real challenge, but so are jobs in oil companies, for example. We were also at Galp in Sines, we undertook the Valorsul project, connected to Expo98. We were present at a work on a chemical platform in France (HEXCEL Instrumentation) and at the ExxonMobil refinery in Antwerp, Belgium. TCPI has also collaborated on the geothermal power plant project in the Azores and, for example, on the gas exploration and transport project on Sakaline Island in northern Japan, where there are extreme temperatures. It has also carried out a project at the Fos sur Mer LNG Terminal in France and the Soyo LNG Terminal in Angola. In the field of photovoltaic energy, we have a subsidiary belonging to the Ponticelli group that won a project in the north of Lisbon for the creation of this type of energy, for 2021/2022.

WE ALWAYS FIND SOLUTIONS

Trust, problem-solving capacity, quality of work and technical team are the main differentiating elements of TCPI highlighted by its two leaders who justify: “We prepare projects of high levels of difficulty and this is only possible thanks to our team of highly qualified professionals who have accompanied us. In addition, these large projects need quality, safety, environmental and training certifications – for example, to work on a petrochemical platform they do not allow any company or employee who is not qualified, and as such we have always invested heavily in training. All these requirements are milestones that have been reached and conquered”. With a history full of successes and challenges, TCPI has grown based on a sustained path, as a result of excellent management and strategic vision. However, Ponticelli’s support has assumed the greatest relevance as an extra support base and source of contact enhancement and business.

The future of TCPI is to be always present in the largest international projects, but those in charge also have other goals: “The idea is to renew the generations of the company, creating a good, specialised base of new members to the team. We will also continue to monitor projects and we want to maintain a balance between new and maintenance projects, accompanying TCPI’s growth together with that of Ponticelli, with a very relevant component of minimising geopolitical risks, bearing in mind our strong international presence”.