BSI Services (Trinidad) Limited

Business View Caribbean 3 BSI Trinidad is primarily a pressure vessel manufactur- ing and servicing facility, but also provides turnaround support services, piping, structural steel fabrication, and general construction and contracting, “but our niche is with ASME code work,” Kellum states. “There are two different stamps that we hold from ASME. One is called a U1 stamp and the other is called an S stamp. The U1 stamp licenses us to build unfired pressure vessels, and the S stamp allows us to build fired pressure vessels. A few years ago, we finished a power plant here in Le Brea, Trinidad – the TGU Power Plant – and they have fired pressure vessels in their steam boilers. We’re the only contractor on the island that has an S stamp for manufacturing fired pressure vessels.” Interestingly, BSI started out 30 years ago in the U.S. as a safety company, and, today, it still provides safety services, equipment rental, confined space and high angle rescue teams, and an extensive training suite for safety training through OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in Trinidad and Tobago. “We di- versified into the turnaround business in the mid-‘80s, with the last bust that we had in the oil business,” Kel- lum explains. “We were strictly in the oil field safety side working the drilling operations. So, we diversified there, and in Trinidad, we diversified in the services and full construction side.” Being nimble enough to diversify is what allows a com- pany such as BSI to survive the booms and busts en- demic to the oil industry. And now, Kellum says that it is trying to wait out yet another bust. “This is the third time we’ve been through this,” he avers. “Our parent company has been in business since the late ‘70s and this is the third time this has happened in the history of the company. It’ll eventually turn around; it takes time and a lot of patience. You have to diversify; you have to have a niche to fit into and then diversify the services you’re providing.” “In Trinidad, when we first came down here, there was an industrial explosion. We worked on straight con- struction projects until 2013,” he continues. “That’s when the Recession started hitting hard. Companies are not spending as much money on capital projects as they were prior to the Recession; they really pulled in their spending. A couple of years ago, we were work- ing anywhere from 50 to 100 projects a year. That’s been cut in half. This year, our project count is around 30 for the year. A couple of years ago, the projects were valued between $2-5 million; now we’re doing AT A GLANCE WHO: BSI Services (Trinidad) Limited WHAT: A construction and project management company WHERE: La Brea, Trinidad & Tobago WEBSITE : www.bsi-services.com