EFIC supported Environmental Systems & Services with advance payment and performance bonds
Environmental Systems & Services Pty Ltd (ES&S) has established a reputation throughout the Asia-Pacific region as a leading supplier of Australian-designed and manufactured satellite ground stations for environmental monitoring and weather forecasting.
The Melbourne-based company won a US$726,000 contract with the Polar Research Institute of China to supply, install and commission advanced satellite tracking ground stations at the Zhongshan and Changcheng (Great Wall) research stations in Antarctica.
Under the contract, ES&S will also install related data processing systems in Beijing and Shanghai, and provide training in both Antarctica and China.
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), Australia’s export credit agency, helped ES&S win the contract by providing an advance payment bond and a performance and warranty bond for a total of US$363,000 to the Chinese buyer.
These bonds give a buyer comfort that if an exporter doesn’t perform the contract obligations, an upfront payment from the buyer will be returned and that funds will be available to reduce the buyer’s losses.
"EFIC’s support was crucial in helping us to deliver this contract," said Bob Wright, CEO of ES&S. "Together the bonds represent about 50 per cent of the contract value. EFIC’s financial assistance helped to free up our working capital so we could meet the customer’s requirements."
The ground stations are intended to contribute to China’s atmospheric, oceanographic and sea-ice research programs in Antarctica.
ES&S’s first project in Antarctica involved the installation of a weather satellite system for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in 1990. The company has installed around 80 satellite ground reception systems around the world.
EFIC had previously helped ES&S to win highly competitive tenders for the supply of weather satellite ground stations to the Korean Air Force and the Hong Kong Government.
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