TT
Asphalt Olympics '08 Winner
By
Louis B Homer
Trinidad
Express
Petroleumworld.com,
06 18 06
TRINIDAD
Lake Asphalt is already a winner at the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing, China.
The
company has won a significant number of contracts
to supply the Chinese Government with raw asphalt
for paving the Beijing airport and all roads leading
to the site of the games.
Visitors
to the 2008 Olympics will be landing on an airport
paved with asphalt from Trinidad.
For
this year alone, China will be importing 25,000
to 30,000 tons of raw asphalt.
Wayne
Woods, general manager of state-owned TLA, said
China was one of its major importers of raw products.
"Over
the last five years, TLA has been quietly improving
its strategies to maximise sales to that country,
and so far we are succeeding," Woods told Business
Express.
TLA
expects to increase its exports this year to countries
in the Caribbean, Europe, Far East and North America,
despite fierce competition from countries where
rock asphalt, which is harder than what is found
at the La Brea Pitch Lake, is now mined.
Ten
years ago, TLA was producing some 12,000 tons of
asphalt a year. Now, it is producing near 40,000
tons a year from which new and improved products
have been placed on the market.
Woods
said: "The sale of natural asphalt is becoming
more competitive. Now we have to compete with countries
like Nigeria and Angola where huge supplies of bitumen
similar to ours are available."
TLA,
in conjunction with state-owned oil company Petrotrin,
supplies large quantities of bitumen from Petrotrin's
plant at Pointe- a -Pierre.
Woods
said many oil refineries in the world were producing
bitumen, and in the field of rock asphalt China
and Nigeria were conducting tests to determine how
best to use this natural resource.
He
said Israel also has indicated its interest in buying
Trinidad asphalt and learning our technology.
"People
from Israel came here to study the techniques we
use in mining our asphalt. That means we are doing
something right," Woods said.
In
September, some 300 delegates from the World Asphalt
Association will be attending an asphalt convention
in Trinidad aimed at exploring new techniques in
the mining of asphalt.
"TLA
would be hosting the conference which will be held
in Port of Spain and we expect professors from different
countries of the world to present papers on taking
the industry forward," Woods said.
Working
sessions would be held at the lake in La Brea.
Woods
said the asphalt industry in Trinidad has been making
unprecedented strides since it became a state -owned
company.
"The
previous owners of the company had guaranteed markets
worldwide and clients were serviced from Liverpool,
England. When government bought it and turned it
into a state company, they virtually had to start
from scratch to build their own markets," Woods
said.
Now,
TLA virtually has a monopoly on asphalt sales to
many Caribbean and South American countries.
"We
have huge markets in Anguilla, Antigua, Suriname,
Guyana, St Vincent, Barbados and several countries
in South America," Woods said.
He
said the demand for products has caused the company
to invest $5 million in plant upgrade.
"We
need to improve our storing and feedstock facilities."
The
plan is to deliver a higher quality product.
TLA
recently put on the market pelletised asphalt which
is easier to handle. This took the market by surprise
and already it is proving to be a major success,
Woods said, noting that the company was always seeking
new ways and means to improve its products.
In
a few months, a new product will be launched which
will make road surfacing more efficient.
Woods
said details of the new product will be given at
the launch. All he was prepared to say was that
"it will be a new system of recycling by asphalt
injection."
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday, June 14th 2006
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©2006 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
