CB&I
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : CBI |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1889 |
| Founder | Horace E. Horton George Wheelock William Wheelock |
| Headquarters | The Hague, Netherlands, and |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Michael L. Underwood (Chairman of the Audit Committee) L. Richard Flury (Non Executive Chairman of the Board of Supervisory Directors Philip K. Asherman (President, CEO & Director) |
| Revenue |
 $ 12.93 billion (2012)
|
 $ -425.1 million (2015)
|
|
|
$ -504.4 million (2015)
|
|
| Total assets |
$ 9.202 billion (2015)
|
| Total equity |
$ 2.164 billion (2015)
|
|
Number of employees
|
50,000 (May 2013) |
| Website | www |
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, known commonly as CB&I, is a large American conglomerate engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company. CB&I specializes in projects for oil and gas companies. According to one of the founder's heirs, "The old joke is that Chicago Bridge & Iron isn't in Chicago, doesn't build bridges and doesn't use iron." CB&I employs approximately 40,000 people worldwide.
CB&I was founded in 1889 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, as Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, when Horace E. Horton, a bridge designer, agreed to merge business with George and William Wheelock of the Kansas City Bridge and Iron Company. While initially involved in bridge design and construction, CB&I turned its focus to bulk liquid storage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coinciding with the western expansion of railroads across the United States and the discovery of oil in the Southwest. CB&I quickly became known for design engineering and field construction of elevated water storage tanks, above-ground tanks for storage of petroleum and refined products, refinery process vessels and other steel plate structures. As such, CB&I supported the expansion of oil exploration outside the US, starting operations in South America in 1924, in Asia two years later and in the Middle East in 1939.
During World War II, CB&I was selected to build Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs), which carried troops and supplies to American and Allied troops fighting in Europe and the Pacific theater. CB&I was chosen because of their reputation and skills, particularly welding. Since the coastal shipyards were busy building large vessels for the war effort, such as aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers, there was no alternative but to use the inland waterways and shipyards for the production of smaller ships. As a result of these and other wartime production activities, CB&I ranked 92nd among US corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.
CB&I has been involved in a number of changes during the past two decades. It was acquired by Praxair in 1996; Praxair kept a chemical subsidiary and spun off CB&I as a Dutch-incorporated company the next year. CB&I headquarters moved from Chicago to Houston, Texas in 2001 and then to the Hague, Netherlands when Texas enacted a franchise tax.
Since 2000, it has acquired a number of companies. Most recently in 2012, CB&I agreed to buy The Shaw Group for about US$3 billion, completing the acquisition in February 2013.
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Wikipedia