Uhde completes 100 years

by Suman Gupta

New Delhi, April 2021:-Chemical Process and Technologies – the former Uhde Gmbh – the plant engineering major and an important group company in the Business Area thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India – has completed 100 years since its foundation in Germany.

Started by the late Friedrich Uhde on April 21 1921, the centenary is a momentous landmark in the history of the company. Uhde GmbH started out as an engineering contractor for implementing fertilizer plants, before venturing into petrochemicals and polymers, caustic soda and other sectors of the chemical industries. Known for its trademark attention to its projects as well as its systems, quality and customer-orientation, the company evolved into an engineering major building mega-projects in Europe and Middle East. It entered India as a site office in the mid-sixties, before setting up a branch office in Mumbai in the late sixties, and converting it to an Indian company, Uhde India Limited, in 1977.

Uhde India Limited established itself as a leading provider of solutions for the Chemical process industries soon after inception. Amongst the first engineering companies to be allowed a transfer of technology under the ‘License Systems “of those days, the company has gone on to establish itself as a leading engineering major with projects in a variety of contracting modes for India’s leading chemical manufacturers.

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions India as the company is now known, has made rapid strides in the group’s core competencies of Nitrogenous fertilisers, petrochemicals, caustic soda-chlorine, and cryogenic storages. In many of these areas like Caustic Soda-Chlorine, it has a market share in excess of 75% in India, while it accounts for over 50% of the low temperature Cryogenic Storage tank domestic market. In the last decade, the company further ventured into the refining, phosphatic fertilisers and metallurgical businesses in a big way, and is today one of the leading engineering companies engaged also in the setting up of these complexes.

Speaking on the occasion of the centenary, Dr S Pelkonen, CEO Business Unit Chemical Processes and Technologies said : ‘The 100 year celebrations of Uhde help bring to mind the immense contributions it has made to not only the thyssenkrupp group, but also to the chemical industries across the globe. This is why we are especially proud to be named thyssenkrupp

Uhde again – it is a name that is synonymous with world-class plants for many of the leading chemical manufacturers, using either technologies from its proprietary portfolio or based on licenses from other international licensors. It’s a matter of pride to recount the role some of these technologies have played in the evolution of the chemical industries as we know them today. Through a systematic global programme, Uhde has a network of daughter companies worldwide – Russia, Thailand, Egypt and India, to name a few – that do not just reflect the competence of the parent company in Germany, but are also well-established names in their own countries. We are particularly proud of our India operations, which represent our largest subsidiary outside Germany.’

Mr PD Samudra, CEO & MD and Member of the Board said : ‘Uhde has been a lifeline for us. From the mid-sixties, when they began a systematic transfer of technology to India, Uhde has helped strengthen our plant engineering business on an ongoing basis. In India, the name Uhde is associated with leading technologies and quality engineering & implementation work. The plants we have built are a testimony to this. It is therefore not surprising that our customers, whose trust we are honoured to receive, readily recall our name. It is indeed a great honour to be celebrating this milestone in what has been a century of remarkable achievements and landmarks.’