Engineering is one of the strengths of our country: it has contributed - and continues to do so - to the innovation of Italian civil and industrial culture, in particular with regards to plant engineering, oil services and more. The history of such an avant-garde sector is made up of intertwining of corporate brands, which have now become part of our Group and memories from witnesses that experienced them.
Founded to enhance the industrial development of the parent company, based on the most advanced canons of architecture and industrial technology of the time, Fiat Engineering developed an engineering culture of excellence in the field of industrial plant engineering. Becoming independent, the company then diversified its business into complex buildings, infrastructures, and power plants in Italy and abroad. It was then merged into Maire Tecnimont Group thanks to the acquisition in 2004. Thanks to relations with some Italian companies, it started its work as an EPC contractor for the construction of combined cycle plants. The company’s transformation has not diminished the growth of engineering know-how, expanding to new energy, environmental and geotechnical technologies.
"We Italians are among the best in the world as far as engineering development vision is concerned" - says Carlo Masetti, who joined Tecnimont in 1973. "The strategic capacity that distinguishes us" - continues Masetti, today a consultant for the technology department at Maire Tecnimont - "requires that the "intelligences" adapt to the spirit of the countries in which they operate, with the idea of contributing to the growth of the community where the plant will be built".
Speaking of Tecnimont, means to evoke a historic Milanese engineering company dating back to Montecatini-Montedison, which over the years has been able to establish itself all around the world in the oil processing and chemical engineering of hydrocarbon transformation, with a historical leadership in polyethylene and polypropylene plants. "Italian engineers have been pioneers all over the world" - explains Dario Pirovano, in Montedison since 1970, today a senior consultant for Business Development at Maire Tecnimont - "thanks to their innate ability to adapt to complex and evolving situations. The so-called Italian genius can still be seen today in specialized approach to the problem, and in the extraordinary ability of mediation between the parties. Also in the creative flexibility that allows us to imagine in detail a project that still does not exist." In addition - concludes Pirovano - "we are the number one in the systematization of what is parallel to plant building".
Being recognized as problem solvers also means knowing how to quickly identify competitive advantages. An intrinsic quality of KTI (Kinetics Technology Int.), with 35 years of international experience in process engineering, then acquired by Technip Italia and merged with Maire Tecnimont Group in 2010. Alfio Millacci - who was amongst the most active player in the legendary CTIP, in Technipetrol (that later became Technip Italy) and then landed in KTI - confirms what had previously been said: "Italian engineers have shown extraordinary knowledge in every field. Oil engineers, given the complexity of plants, are still today recognized as the best in managing the variability encountered in the implementation phase of any project.
Gaetano Iaquaniello, who is now vice-president of Innovation Strategy in KT, also experienced professional growth at KTI. Since the early 1980s, he has experienced all the transformations of a company strongly oriented towards the design and building of furnaces for the oil and petrochemical industry. And that from the beginning started to develop new technologies to achieve international leadership in the fields of hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, ethylene, sulfur and industrial furnaces. "KTI group" - explains Iaquaniello - "was at the time structured as three operational centers in the Netherlands, Italy and California. Among its strengths, was the investments dedicated to the continuous professional growth of managers".
An intangible heritage of human resources that over time has represented a reservoir of excellence, necessary to develop adaptiveness, and thus overcome the various changes linked to market scenarios. An ante litteram (ahead of time) managerial philosophy that has anticipated innovation, the development of international human resources, and a style of business that makes all the difference.
Sergio Paggi - current vice president of Research, Technology, Process and HSE at Maire Tecnimont - concludes the discussion by underlining the importance of an Italian engineering DNA that goes beyond the boundaries of EPC contracting. "We continue to be welcomed into the world as experts in technological problem solving, capable of seeing beyond the core business. Although today the most important research centers have moved to the United States, Asia and the Middle East, Italian engineers continue to show the flexibility necessary to carry out a project. A philosophy that starts from the relationship with universities, where companies today more than ever try to intercept "talents" oriented to project management and entrepreneurial sensibility.
"To the young people" – we’d like to quote Carlo Masetti - "I always tell to get their hands dirty, and not to think that everything can be solved with technology and computers. Certain intuitions, certain brilliant ideas, come to us only when we go to the construction site and talk to people, we get in touch with everyone's experiences. Because it is a chess game even with customers, partners, technicians and suppliers and even in the future it will have to be played “live” on site".