SK Engineering & Construction is strengthening its position as a leading global developer on a series of successful contracts overseas, with the latest one from Kazakhstan, the company said Tuesday.

Amid intensifying competition in the market, SK Engineering & Construction is gradually transferring its business from the traditional engineering, procurement, and construction-centered to taking on an advanced role as a developer for sustainable growth and higher profitability.

Since the early 2000s, the company has set up divisions and trained professionals to boost its developer portfolio, engaging in public private partnership infrastructure projects and independent power producer projects.

“SK Engineering & Construction is expanding its business on the global market. We are engaging more actively in projects from the early stages of designing a project to operating them after construction,” the company noted.

The company first applied to receive a patent for its world-class blasting method dubbed “Supex-Cut” here in 1994, followed by the US, the UK and Australia.

On notable construction skills, SK Engineering & Construction built crude oil storage facilities in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province and Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province along with the Eurasia Underwater Tunnel in Turkey in 2016, it added.

With hopes of advancing into the nearby Commonwealth of Independent States, the company signed a build-operate-transfer contract for the “Almaty Ring Road” in Kazakhstan this February. This is the country’s first Public Private Partnership infrastructure project.

SK Engineering & Construction had formed a consortium with Korea Expressway Corporation, Turkish firms Alsim Alarko and and Makyol Construction to take part in the $730 million project.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)