The Berkes company, recognized in the construction market and electro-mechanical assemblies in Uruguay, is committed to strengthening its growth abroad, especially in Europe, where they see “much more powerful” growth possibilities, as stated in dialogue with Coffee & Business the commercial director of Berkes, Rafael Vendrasco.
“The company is committed to consolidating itself in Europe and Latin America as a provider of design, construction and commissioning of biomass plants”, described Vendrasco.
The commercial director highlighted that both in Europe and in other Latin American countries, the decarbonization of the economy is a priority. “There is a lot of room for the development of renewable energy projects,” said the manager, adding: “The world is going there.”
In turn, these energy projects have greater development potential abroad, since Uruguay has limited space – due to its scale – for the development of projects of this size.
In order to achieve this international consolidation, Berkes is in the process of integrating and strengthening Burmeister & Wain Energy (BWE), a Danish design and engineering company that was acquired by the Uruguayan company during 2021. The firm already has offices in Copenhagen and New Delhi and there are even Uruguayans on their staff.
“Our goal is to have half of our turnover outside of Uruguay by 2025,” said the commercial director, referring to his goals for the coming years and remarked that it is on this path that they see the greatest growth projections. “The Uruguayan market is somewhat oscillating with the cycles of construction and the economy, and the international market gives us the stability we need,” he confirmed. Today, 70% of its turnover is in Uruguay and the remaining 30% abroad.
Camilo dos Santos
Rafael Vendrasco, commercial director Berkes
back to the origin
Within the framework of this expansion plan for Europe, the brand’s last major milestone was signing a contract for 15 million euros for a plant located in Lleida, 160km west of Barcelona, in Spain. It is a boiler that aims to generate steam by burning pine wood chips.
“It is a boiler that has a capacity of 50 tons of steam per hour,” explained Vendrasco. Its design is 100% Berkes and it has a vibrating refrigerated grill designed by Burmeister & Wain Energy (BWE), the firm acquired by Berkes that has been in existence for more than 100 years and offers excellent engineering and design quality.
This project marks the return of Berkes to Spain, the first European country in which the firm landed in 2008.
From that moment on, the firm set up a commercial office and was the starting point for developing projects in France, Hungary, Turkey, Slovenia and Romania, where today they are developing a 5MWe “turnkey” power generation plant.
“It seems to us that there is a very good scenario for the development of energy generation businesses from biomass because Spain, like much of Europe, is immersed in this decarbonization process,” said Vendrasco.
In this sense, the guidelines of the European Union regulation of 2018 related to sustainability imply certain commitments of the countries in direct actions for what is the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. “Spain is very committed in this sense and the type of solutions we provide generates an efficient use of natural resources”, stressed the commercial director. This is because agroforestry residues derived from industrial production processes are used to generate energy, which leads to efficient business management. “Electric power can be generated for the self-consumption of the industrial plant, the discharge of waste is reduced and independence from oil-derived fuels is generated,” emphasized Vendrasco.
The most thriving markets in what has to do with renewable energies in his vision are: Spain, France, Eastern Europe (which is strong in grains and therefore also in the burning of grain husks), India and at a regional level from Berkes bet with force to Colombia and Brazil.
By the way, the firm is moving forward with new contracts in France, French Guiana and also with a French client in Colombia where they will land a “turnkey” plant. The investment value of each of these projects is between US$15 million and US$45 million, “depending on the configuration and scope, whether it is the generation of steam through a boiler or if it is the complete plant turnkey electric power generation, which is our big bet”, concluded the executive.
