The process industries have for years operated internationally. A number of countries are now developing a process industry for the first time and need to find their way in overcoming the inevitable problems associated with project execution.

IChemE’s Forms of Contract have a history in the UK of facilitating the delivery of process plants. This range is now being added to with a suite of international contracts – a contract where at least one of the parties is contracting outside his home country and/or where the parties recognise that a major part of the plant will be constructed from materials imported into the country where the site is situated.

What is so special about a process plant contract that it needs conditions of contract which are different from those for other engineering and construction contracts? A process plant is different from the provision of a major structure or mechanical and electrical plant in that its end product is a chemical and/or biological process and if the process itself does not work as a complete system then the plant is of no value.

IChemE’s international contracts will make a major contribution to the achievement of best practice throughout the process industries.

IChemE is based in Rugby, UK. www.icheme.org/foc