TURNKEY CONSTRUCTION WITH ANT INSHAAT

 

Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Ibrahimov, how would you evaluate the way passed by ANT Inshaat?

Azad Ibrahimov, Chairman of the Board, ANT Inshaat: Regardless of the rate of our growth, we believe our company has done much and little at the same time, so we are not going to stop on the stage achieved and always have hope for the future well-being of the company along with the well-being of each individual and the entire republic. In this connection we think there is still a lot to be done.

 

CE: What are the specific aims and objectives of the company today?

Azad Ibrahimov: When we started our activities, we were constructing residential buildings, and now we mostly perform customized work as the time has come to understand and perform this kind of projects. When we speak about selling houses or apartments, we develop one kind of policy, and its different when you should accurately schedule you activities and maintain a stable pricing for customers. In this connection a big necessity arose in the production of quality construction materials and finishing works, from concrete and facade to furniture. Today we can say for sure we can perform all these works.

Speaking concretely, we have recently a lot of state-of-the-art equipment. In particular, we purchased a fully computerized mobile concrete plant of 35 m3/hr capacity and the stationary concrete plant of 60 m3/hr capacity from German manufacturers.

At the moment these plants with automated control system are considered to be one of the most advanced in Europe and the best in Baku. Apart from these, we purchased concrete mixers on Mercedes chassis, some earthmovers, in particular crawler and wheel excavators, and other small-size vehicles from Germany. Recently we purchased KAMAZ and MAZ dump-trucks.

Thus, we are working to equip our company with state-of-the-art equipment and updating the equipment stock by purchasing new cranes. All we are purchasing are only new models and turning down used equipment.

We virtually completed the construction of the shop producing AliCabond facing material for the front part of the buildings. Our company is one of the first to implement hi technology and we have already performed a big amount of work with it. At the moment we are performing this work in the Hand Games Palace, finishing its façade, using AliCabond and stained glass.

We are also about to complete the plastic and aluminum window producing shop.

On the other hand, we get many orders from our customers on the manufacture of furniture. For this reason we purchased new equipment from Italy to make comfortable furniture and we are not going to rest on our laurels. At the moment we are intensively bargaining with any firms, chiefly from Turkey, as we are using their models and professionals in the process of furniture manufacture.

 

CE: So, you seem to have revised the company's services.

Azad Ibrahimov: I would not say we revised it, as we just extended its profile. Our activity is directly related to construction. Actually, through the construction we often faced the necessity in such approach and, as a result, the relevant steps followed. Therefore there is one aspect in saying our services were revised: if before we used to build using ‘build and sell' principle, now we still construct residential buildings as such, but also we construct customized buildings. Thus, today we mostly work by orders, so we need fresh ideas, professional consultants and architects. We are performing a huge variety of construction operations. You may ask what all this is about. For example, we performed the turnkey construction of the hotel of Olympic complex in Gazakh District, started from the foundation and finished with furniture and crockery for restaurant, thus providing the complete service. We are happy that we can do a hotel business as well. Due to this we send our specialists to various countries to learn the up-to-date technologies.

Alongside we commissioned a high-school with full set of furniture in Sulu-Tepe settlement. At the moment we are about to complete the construction of Azerbaijan Economic University on Hasan Aliyev street. In my opinion, these projects proved to be successful ones. This is the work we are performing and will continue in future.

 

CE: What are the construction projects ANT Inshaat is currently implementing?

Azad Ibrahimov: Today we mainly work in Yeni Yasamal part of Baku, also by orders. Due to the government decree, cooperative societies were allowed to build houses at the locations where the buildings had been planned to be constructed in the Soviet times at our citizens' funds. These funds were ‘swallowed' by inflation and so we setup contracts with these societies and build for them residential buildings for 180 manat/m2. We also have the right to sell or in the future use first floors in these new buildings. We have already completed several buildings so far and this work is going on. Although the prices for construction materials slightly changed, we maintain the constant pricing as we think it is better to earn less but enable our citizens to get long-awaited apartments.

At the moment we are completing the construction of 2, 4 and 6-block buildings and proceed with two single-block buildings.

Apart from that, we are implementing a very interesting project in Sulu-Tepe settlement. The first project was carried by the order of the Ministry of Communication and IT: 4- and 6-storey buildings with all facilities on the 4 ha area. We provided drainage and gas supply line, currently installing a power line and station and now solving problems with water supply.

 

CE: What are your company's standards? What is ANT Inshat's image built upon?

Azad Ibrahimov: Indeed, reputation is a priority issue for us. We can earn less but secure our reputation. I think we have established our image in Azerbaijan. We think we should use the newest technology and be ready for new ideas. At the moment we are not inventing anything, we just want to take the same way that was taken, say, in Europe.

When a German manufacturer's representative was persuading us to buy a used concrete plant I told him approximately the following: enough to look at Azerbaijan as a country that must purchase your 15-20 year old technology. Today this technology is 30 years behind. We want as a minimum today's technology to become our tomorrow. There shall be smaller gap between Azerbaijan and Europe. We should not chase Europe all the time. Why should we yield to other countries? I think Azerbaijan has a sufficient potential in terms of resources: we have a plenty of competent scientists and our standards are no lower than Western or American.

If we analyze our scientific potential, we will see it is quite high and it shall be addressed and utilized.

I think Azerbaijan has quite a promising future. Our program is to expand beyond the capital of Azerbaijan. We have already tried to work in Gazah which is the farthest region from Baku. This means that we can manage work in regions and we shall freely proceed with construction in other places than Baku. Why did we purchase a mobile concrete plant? Because we faced the necessity in concrete production in Gazah. Tomorrow we can perform major construction in any other region of Azerbaijan as we are confident we have a mobile concrete plant and other machinery.

We have obtained ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Standard and OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety Management System. We have always taken care of safety-related matters, provided employees with working clothes. To date we have toughened our safety rules. Previously only one employee supervised over labour protection, whereas to date we have a group of employees to deal with the same issue. We regularly arrange trainings and seminars for workers and foremen. As a result, we have never had a case when a worker forgets to wear a HELMET or a safety belt. We apply the system of penalties to those who do not obey to these measures. Finally, if an employee does not care about his safety, we terminate a contract with him.

 

CE: What are further perspectives of the company's development?

Azad Ibrahimov: The perspective directions in the company's development mainly concern the field of construction. In particular, it is necessary to set up the manufacture of necessary products and base materials. We are completing the construction of a concrete plant, which is going to be followed by quarrying. Respectively, we have to enhance the quality of sand and gravel chippings. Own manufacture of these components will give us technological confidence in the qualified approach to construction.

I think we will mainly put our efforts to the production of construction materials. As a result, we will enjoy reasonable and acceptable price for us. Benefits should be driven due to the reduced prime cost of construction. These are task for the near-term perspective.

 

CE: Why are buildings of metalware not constructed in Azerbaijan?

Azad Ibrahimov: Because the import of this metal is very expensive. This is an unusual material intended for multi-storeyed buildings. But, most likely this period is just around the corner and we will reach it very soon.

 

CE: Are you capable today to construct from scratch and put in commission a key-in-the-door building erected in compliance with state-of-the-art standards?

Azad Ibrahimov: I state with confidence that today we are capable of performing such a work. At first we employed the required personnel. Afterwards, we commenced implementation of the second task to purchase all necessary equipment. Now we are capable to construct a key-in-the-door building of any kind from scratch.