DENZAI's Kohki Uemura: Seizing the Saudi Opportunity

By Luke King

From Issue 1, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine.

(7-minute read)

At first glance, it may seem a bold move for a Japanese heavy-lift company to be embarking on a major investment in Saudi Arabia, but for Kohki Uemura, president and CEO of Tokyo-headquartered DENZAI Group, Middle East expansion is a logical next step.

“One of the main reasons we decided to enter Saudi Arabia is because we were invited by Japanese and Korean EPCs to support their projects there,” says Uemura, whose company was founded in the early 1970s, and has a long history of working for major EPCs, including Saudi Arabia’s Aramco.

In February 2024, DENZAI announced it was establishing a joint venture with Dammam-based road haulage specialist Fawaz Alshammari Co. For Transportation, also known as FTE Logistics. A JV company, FTE DENZAI, was formally opened in October and there are plans to transfer some cranes to the JV from DENZAI’s operations in Japan and Singapore, while additional, new equipment will be sourced from Chinese and European manufacturers. DENZAI also opened a subsidiary company, DENZAI Arabia Co. Ltd., in Jubail, Saudi Arabia in 2023.

Where Uemura sees a gap in the market is around the provision of engineered heavy-lifting solutions – which he says are difficult to procure in Saudi Arabia. Uemura is also encouraged by Saudi Arabia’s efforts to commence domestic manufacturing of wind energy components.

According to recent Saudi press reports, steel towers for wind energy systems will soon be manufactured in the country, following the signing of two agreements by the Kingdom’s Local Content and Government Procurement Authority.

The deals, struck between Al-Yamamah Steel Industries Co. and Arabian International Co. for Steel Structures, were finalized during October’s Energy Localization Forum in Riyadh, where the Ministry of Energy and LCGPA oversaw the signing of 107 agreements and memorandums of understanding valued at SR104 billion (US$ 27.69 billion).

Huge Volume of Work

Uemura is not unduly concerned by reports that the Saudi government may be questioning the scale and viability of its ambitious Vision 2030 development framework. (Bloomberg reports that the trillions of dollars of investment required are “starting to cause concern at the highest levels of the Saudi government.”)

“From the beginning, many people expected some kind of scale-down or budget cut,” Uemura said. “But even if you reduce the budget, the volume of work is huge compared with other parts of the world. I don’t doubt the market potential in Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudi government has a very ambitious goal to reduce oil dependency and they’ve planned a huge amount of investment in infrastructure and decarbonization. On the other hand, most of the EPCs and construction companies face a shortage of the equipment and know-how required. We don’t just supply cranes, we provide engineered heavy-lifting solutions, including jacking and rigging, and so on.

“Our clients require high-quality engineering services – that’s where we differentiate ourselves from others.”

Asked about any cultural differences Uemura observes in the Middle East, compared to working in Asia, he said: “It’s a totally different culture, of course. Timelines are compressed in Saudi Arabia. The Japanese plan every aspect of a project three years out, whereas in Saudi, decisions move at a rapid pace.

“So, a supplier like a heavy-lifting or heavy haul company working in Saudi Arabia must adapt to the client’s timeframe. And, of course, you must offer a certain level of quality. All in all, I think the market is still more attractive than many other parts of the world, and that’s why so many players are now entering Saudi Arabia.”

International Expansion

DENZAI was founded in Muroran, Hokkaido, in 1972 by Uemura’s father, Yukihiro Uemura. In 2013, the business acquired a Tokyo-based lifting company and, with it, the ability to operate on an all-Japan basis.

The group’s first international expansion began in 2018 with the opening of an office in Bangladesh – a necessary development, according to Uemura. “As you may know, the population in Japan is decreasing, and it’s a very competitive market too, so I started to explore business opportunities overseas,” he said.

“My travels took me to Bangladesh, where the Japanese government was strongly supporting infrastructure development like airports, bridges and mass rapid transport (MRT) projects. For those reasons, we decided to start our overseas operations in Bangladesh.”

Just two years later, the DENZAI Group acquired Huationg Holdings – one of Singapore’s biggest heavy-lifting and specialized transport companies at the time, with more than 500 staff and hundreds of machines. DENZAI’s Singapore operation – which now oversees its offices outside of Japan – remains strong and counts ExxonMobil among its largest clients.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Singapore, DENZAI has offices in Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, India and the U.S., with plans to expand to Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria and Papua New Guinea in 2025.

In South Korea, DENZAI is currently heavily involved in the Shaheen project – Aramco’s biggest investment to date in the East Asian country, where its S-Oil affiliate is developing one of the world’s largest refinery-integrated petrochemical steam crackers.

DENZAI’s scope of work, which began in October 2024, includes much of the heavy-lifting for the US$ 7 billion project, located in Ulsan, in the south-east of the country. The site is expected to produce up to 3.2 million tons of petrochemicals annually, and include a facility to produce high-value polymers, by completion of the project in 2026.

“For us, it’s very important to have this track record working for an Aramco project in South Korea,” said Uemura. “That is one of our advantages as we enter Saudi Arabia.”

Star of the Show

For DENZAI, the star of the show is its newly-delivered 2,500-ton crawler crane, an LR12500-1.0 manufactured and delivered by Liebherr last July. The state-of-the-art crane began its working life at the S-Oil project in South Korea, and is expected to be deployed on offshore Japanese wind projects thereafter.

Explaining the rationale behind the Liebherr purchase, Uemura said: “As the amount of electricity generated by offshore wind increases, the height and weight of offshore wind turbines are becoming larger and larger.

“The construction of even larger offshore wind turbines is expected to become impossible with the 1,350-ton crawler crane, the next largest crane we currently own. In the offshore wind turbine construction projects currently underway in Japan, the weight of the towers will be different from European specifications – the Japanese specifications are expected to be even heavier.”

Besides Liebherr machines, DENZAI boasts a fleet of more than 530 cranes, including those manufactured by Demag, Tadano, Sany, and Hitachi-Sumitomo, as well as around 450 axle lines which include SPMTs from Goldhofer.

With global operations and frequent travel, moments of free time are scarce, but at home in Tokyo Uemura is kept busy by his daughter and five dogs. As our conversation reverts back to business, he tells Breakbulk of his future plans.

“We recently signed an MOU with Hebamo Transport, one of the major logistics and port handling companies in Papua New Guinea, which is a significant producer of natural gas, exporting much of it to Japan. DENZAI will provide engineering, heavy haulage and heavy- lifting operations, while Hebamo will manage much of the local compliance and customs clearing for work on the country’s Papua LNG project.

“We’ve also established a joint venture in Algeria, working with MEGALIFT, one of the biggest crane companies in Algeria. So, Algeria, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia will be some of our main markets in the coming years.”

Last year, DENZAI announced it had secured a loan facility worth 12.2 billion yen (around US$80 million), designed to enable further expansion of onshore and offshore wind farms in Japan, as well as investment in large cranes and special transport vehicles.

Announcing the loan facility, DENZAI said: “By improving the efficiency of construction work, we will contribute to the Japanese government’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. In addition, overseas, we aim to further expand our business in ASEAN countries, India, the Middle East, and North Africa, where the introduction of renewable energy is remarkable.”

DENZAI says the loan facility will help the company achieve its sales target of 35 billion yen (around US$230 million) by 2030, which includes an overseas sales target of 14 billion yen (around US$92 million).

One item lingering on Uemura’s desk is a final decision on where to source the more than 200 SPMTs that DENZAI plans to add in early 2025. As our interview draws to a close, he quips: “We are doing our best to keep the global equipment manufacturers busy…”

DENZAI and FTE Logistics will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Middle East 2025.

Top photo: Kohki Uemura, president and CEO of DENZAI Group. 
Second: The FTE DENZAI JV. Pictured to the left of Uemura is Fawaz Alshammari, CEO of FTE. Credit: DENZAI Group
THIRD: DENZAI Group’s Liebherr LR12500 crane at the S-Oil Shaheen site, South Korea. Credit: DENZAI Group