singapore market report 2014

An Asia Shipping Media publication

Still rising? Challenges facing the Lion Republic, the world’s leading maritime centre as voted by you

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Contents

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Sam Chambers [email protected]

CHIEF CORRESPONDENT Katherine Si [email protected]

CORRESPONDENT Jason Jiang [email protected]

ONLINE EDITORHolly [email protected]

ECONOMISTGary Bowerman

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DESIGN Tigersoft Pte LtdPrinted in Singapore

Copyright © Asia Shipping Media Pte Ltd (ASM), 2014.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this review is correct, the publishers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions that may occur. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. For reprints of specific articles contact [email protected].

3 Demographic timebomb

5 Setting the scene

9 The state of the economy

13 Future proofing the port

15 Yards gear up

19 LNG hub aspirations

21 Finance discussed

23 Owners battle back

29 Offshore diversification

35 New entrants

41 Shipmanagers set up shop

42 Women at sea

43 HR issues

47 Bunkering focus

Jia you Singapore!52 Battling pirates

55 Technology roundup

57 More cruise infrastructure

58 What events to attend

59 Travel guide

60 Singapoll

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) develops and promotes Singapore as a premier global hub port and an international maritime centre, and advances Singapore’s maritime interests.

Shaping Singapore’sMaritime Future

Editor’s Comment

Demographic danger has many on edge

Much of this magazine focuses

on the excellent job Singapore

is doing in future proofing its

transport infrastructure whether it be

from developing a new maritime cluster in

the west of the republic, investing heavily

in research and development or ensuring

the financial conditions are attractive to

the many shipowners that now call the

city-state home. All commendable, but

what cannot be changed – and what may

well slow this maritime juggernaut – is

demographics and more specifically the

aspirations of the nation’s youth.

Goldman Sachs syndrome is how one

shipping executive described the problem

to me rather memorably; the blind pursuit

of getting a job in finance above all else.

The fact is – as borne out via the

results from our special poll carried on

page 60 – the republic is in danger of

running out of enough qualified talent to

fill its ever expanding maritime scene.

This was not lost on Patrick Phoon,

president of the Singapore Shipping

Association (SSA), who noted at SSA’s

packed annual dinner, “Without the young

the industry cannot grow.”

A look ahead suggests the ranks will

get more difficult to fill based simply on

demographics.

Despite the best efforts of the

Singaporean government to encourage

larger families the fertility rate still stands

at just 1.2 berths per woman.

Higher education standards, a

determination to forge a career in their

20s, and perhaps most pertinently

sensationally expensive property

prices have all played their part in this

demographic timebomb.

“Salaries have not kept pace with the

increase in the cost of living,” comments

one of the close to 500 respondents who

filled in our online poll on Singapore.

As a result of this jobs-first mentality,

the population is ageing rapidly like a

silver tsunami, forecast to hit a median

age of 47 by 2030, up from the current

39. There’s also a noticeable decreasing

growth in what still remains a sizeable

foreign population.

Filling senior positions in shipping

has become fraught with difficulty. We

are regularly regaled with stories of

frustration from firms looking to set up

in Singapore but having to delay and

delay as they wait to find the right people.

Nevertheless, as befits the world’s most

leading maritime centre (the view of 79%

of our readers), companies continue

to flock here. Take a look at our New

Entrants section on page 35 for who’s set

up shop here this year.

These new firms on Singapore’s shores

are lured by the remarkable growth in

shipownership here. Compared to about

30 groups 10 years ago, Singapore now

has more than 130 international shipping

groups covering the container, tanker,

bulk shipping and the offshore energy

sectors.

Our regular annual shipping report

serves to highlight everything that is

happening in this 49-year-old country,

and on the following pages you will be

able to find every key moment in another

frenetic year here via our useful timeline

contained at the bottom of every page

starting overleaf.

And frenetic it most certainly is.

Keeping track of what’s going on, even

from an event and social networking point

of view, can be bewildering for many so

we have provided a useful guide to the

must-attend events for next year, which

you can find on page 58.

As ever, we hope you enjoy the

contents on the following pages – any

comments, questions or quibbles

don’t hesitate to drop me a line: sam@

asiashippingmedia.com.

Sam ChambersEditor

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January

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89

10

Kreuz Holdings announces plan to delist from SGXMaritime media veteran Helen Ong joins Asia Shipping Media

APL president announces major restructuring

The authorities have mapped out the city’s maritime future

Next generation port city

A remarkable 79% of you reckon

that Singapore is now the leading

maritime centre in the world. The

question was one of a series posed for

a poll, which drew 483 responses – full

results are carried on the back page. The

latest statistics show that compared to

about 30 groups 10 years ago, Singapore

now has more than 130 international

shipping groups as well as 30 law firms

with maritime practices, 20 Lloyd’s

insurance syndicates, more than 25

banks with shipping portfolios and more

than 30 key shipbroking companies. A

ringing endorsement of the government’s

impressive transformation of the Lion

City over the past 10 years into the

world’s shipping city sine qua non? Not

necessarily. As is so often the case with

this fast moving country, the authorities

are not resting on their laurels. Indeed,

to listen to leading names in the shipping

hierarchy, you’d believe Singapore was

still a maritime work in progress.

Planning ahead is very much the

thinking among the heads of the nation’s

maritime bodies. Witness the huge shift

in port operations from the city centre

to Tuas in the west of the republic as

detailed on page 13 as well as the decision

to relocate some of the island’s shipyards

(see page 15).

With global trade growing at a rate

of knots there is a risk that spending

on ports will not keep up, Lui Tuck Yew,

Singapore’s minister of transport warned

at the inaugural Danish Maritime Forum

in October.

Lui predicted global trade will double

by 2030, with shipping routes becoming

more crowded than ever.

“Spending on port infrastructure is

vital,” Lui said, something Singapore is

doing to the tune of billions of dollars.

Finance and insurance focusEnsuring Singapore has every facet of

maritime licked, Patrick Phoon, president

of the Singapore Shipping Association

(SSA), has urged the country to further

develop and strengthen the pillars of

marine insurance and shipping finance if

it is to be fully regarded as an influential

international maritime centre.

Addressing a gala dinner to celebrate

the SSA’s 29th anniversary, Phoon said

work was underway to achieve these

goals. He told the gathering of over 2,000

guests at the Sands Grand Ballroom:

“Some of you may be aware that over

the past year, the SSA Council had

commissioned consultants to assist in

producing reports in these two areas.

“In the field of marine insurance, a

working group, headed by SSA councillor

Mr Tan Chin Hee, has been tasked to

explore the creation of a Singapore War

Risk Mutual that would take advantage

of economies of scale to secure the best

possible cover for crew and ships, thereby

achieving significant cost‐savings for

Singapore shipowners.”

He added: “In the field of shipping

finance, SSA Councillor Mr Lee Keng

Mun heads the working group to follow

up on some of the key recommendations

proposed by the report with the aim of

developing Singapore as the premier ship

finance centre in Asia. Both projects are

still works in progress and all I can say

for now is that there will be exciting times

ahead.”

Favourable business environmentThose in shipping are fortunate to have

the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA)

as gatekeepers of the nation’s shipping

development.

The latest Pro-Enterprise Index,

a measure of how business-friendly

government agencies are, saw the

MPA beat out 26 other government

departments to be crowned most

responsive to customers, and most

transparent in their rules.

Senior minister of state for finance

and transport Josephine Teo commended

the MPA and said government regulations

must adapt to changing business needs in

the areas of costs and constraints.

She noted regulations must actually

produce the outcomes that are helpful

to the business community. Moreover,

she said, “Smart regulations should be

efficient and forward-looking in their

design and enforcement.”

MPA was named the top agency for the

third consecutive survey. Said MPA ceo

Andrew Tan: “We are open and receptive

to new ideas, and we listen. We are also

responsive and anticipatory of the needs

of the industry and we act quickly. We also

collaborate very closely with the industry

and engage them in all the measures we

introduce.”

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the

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January

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1920

Bunker licences of Excel Petroleum Enterprise and Lian Hoe Leong & Brothers cancelled

Dagfinn Lunde becomes chairman of Executive Ship Management

Vopak leads consortium to operate SE Asia’s first subterranean hydrocarbon storage facility in Jurong

Bunker trader Alliance Oil Trading’s licence cancelled

Introduction

Singapore Nautical Institute in October,

Tan said, “Singapore is investing in

infrastructure and technology to ensure

that our port remains highly efficient and

competitive.” He added: “We are developing

our maritime cluster by attracting maritime

companies to Singapore.”

Given Singapore’s limited land and

manpower resources, the maritime

industry must make “a major push”, Tan

said, for productivity-driven growth.

With this in mind, in June last year,

MPA launched a S$25m productivity

programme.

Tan, as with so many of his colleagues

high up in the maritime fraternity, are

clearly believers in the old adage: He who

fails to plan, plans to fail.

Singapore’s place in world shipowning Singapore fleet breakdown

3

1

2

5

China

Greece

Japan

Singapore

4 Germany

3,844

228.86m

98.71bnS

#DWT

3,880

204.99m

78.01bnS

#DWT

2,644

70.01m

53.15bnS

#DWT

1,819

88.54m

39.66bnS

#DWT

S

#DWT

4,157

319.06m

115.4bn

LNG

Bulker

Container

Tanker

4

263

980

0.61m

0.88m

44.55m

0.64bn

5.6bn

LPG

1.49m

2.55bn

19.31bn

S

#DWT

S

#DWT

S

#DWT

S

#DWT

S

#DWT

472

41m

11.55bn

100

Key Total number of ships including afloat and on order

DWT Total tonnage including afloat and on order

Total value of the fleet including afloat and on order

data taken on September 1, 2014

S

#DWT

38%DWT

growth y-o-y

45%DWT

growth y-o-y

99%DWT

growth y-o-y

17%DWT drop y-o-y

27%DWT

growth y-o-y


Singapore’s muted vibe has some on edge

Economic sails still require more wind

The still uncertain global outlook

continues to weigh heavily on

the Singaporean economy, which

expanded by 3.5% year-on-year in the

first half of 2014. Although growth of

2.4% in the second quarter was ahead

of expectations, Singapore’s Ministry of

Trade and Industry (MTI) cautioned that

this was achieved amid a cross-sector

slowdown. This reticent approach was

confirmed in September, with Singapore’s

exports in the first seven months of 2014

dropping 2.4% year on year.

Looking ahead, more buoyant growth

is hugely conditional. The World Bank

expects the global economy to expand

by 2.8% this year, increasing to 3.4%

in 2015. Hence, as is often the case,

Singaporean economic planners are

sitting on the cautious part of the fence

with GDP growth predicted to be between

2.5% and 3.5% in 2014, compared to

4.1% in 2013. By comparison, the Asian

Development Bank has lowered its 2014

forecast from 3.9% to 3.5%, and its 2015

projection is 3.9%. With growth slowing,

inflation is being closely monitored, and

2014 is expected to record a 1.8% price

growth, down from an earlier estimate of

2.2%.

A hoped-for trade boost from ASEAN

economic integration in 2015, plus an

upswing in export activity from China

and India and more robust consumer

purchasing in European and US markets

would enliven Singapore’s muted

vibe. That said, a quarterly survey of

economists released by the Monetary

Authority of Singapore in September

proved that unexcitable economic

sentiment pertains for the foreseeable

future, with GDP growth of 3.7% predicted

for 2015.

Tangible signs of uncertainty have

troubled Singapore’s economists

throughout the year. The Singapore dollar

endured a difficult start to 2014, rallied

strongly in June and July but then dipped

again in August and September. And while

manufacturing output in Q2 rose by 1.5%

compared with the same 2013 period,

it represented a stiff fall from the 9.9%

expansion in Q1.

This stagnation was officially

attributed to a Q2 reduction in electronics

output and slower growth in transport

engineering. Meanwhile, wholesale

and retail trade saw sluggish growth of

1.7% year-on-year, and growth in the

As is often the case, Singaporean economic

planners are sitting on the cautious part of the fence

Economy

January

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Kim Heng Offshore & Marine Holdings listsHerbert-ABS Software Solutions opens local office

Singapore completes its fist ship-to-ship transfer involving a cargo of LNG

10 www.seashipnews.com

transportation and storage sector slumped

to 2%, from 5.5% in Q1.

Economists point out that Singapore is

confronting a structural shift in emphasis,

as services increasingly dominate. The

contribution of the services sector to GDP

increased from 64% in 2003 to 70% in

2013, while manufacturing declined from

26% of GDP in 2003 to 19% in 2013.

Certain manufacturing sectors, notably

biomedical, transport engineering and

precision engineering, have performed

strongly in recent years, however, and

their continued strength is considered

vital to economic growth.

A tapering of the previously upward

curve of inbound tourism heightened

fears about the short-term impact of this

rebalancing. In 2013, goods and services

consumed by travellers accounted for 15%

of services exports, while 34% came from

the transport of passengers, charter of

carriers with crew and related services.

Tourist arrivals, which generated

revenues of S$23.5bn in 2013, dipped

2.8% year-on-year in the first half of

2014, largely attributed to a 30% drop

in tourist arrivals from China. Chinese

travellers have tended to shun Southeast

Asia this year following the disappearance

of flight MH370, kidnappings of Chinese

nationals in Malaysia, anti-Chinese

protests in Vietnam and political unrest

in Thailand. This has hurt Singapore, as

Chinese tourists often combine it with one

or more of those three countries when

visiting Southeast Asia – and their coveted

spending power is sorely missed.

Although tourism receipts increased by

5% in the first half of the year, concerns

are growing that emerging competitor

destinations in Asia are eating into

Singapore’s market. While its two casino-

based ‘integrated resorts’ – Marina Bay

Sands and Resorts World Genting – have

earned huge revenues, growth has slowed.

Although a third resort could earn a

concession after the current government-

mandated duopoly expires in 2017, the

appetite for another casino palace seems

muted. Meanwhile, countries ranging

from Vietnam to Sri Lanka to South Korea

– and pending a government decision,

maybe Japan – are forging ahead with new

Macau-style hotel, entertainment, dining

and gaming mixed-used developments.

Globally competitiveWhile a haze of consternation hangs over

the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula,

Singapore’s international economic

status remains buoyant. The city-state

retained its second place ranking (behind

Switzerland) for the fourth consecutive

year in the World Economic Forum (WEF)

Global Competitiveness Report 2014-

2015. The report noted “outstanding

and stable performance across all the

dimensions of the Global Competitive

Index,” and remarked that the Singaporean

economy is supported by “a sound

macroeconomic environment and fiscal

management” and a strong budget surplus.

Future growth will require sustained

innovation, particularly as the small

population continues to grow.

Singapore counted 5.47m residents

in 2014, an increase of 7.74% since

2010. “Singapore’s private sector is

fairly sophisticated and becoming

more innovative, although room for

improvement exists in both areas,

especially as these are the keys to

Singapore’s future prosperity,” the MEF

adds.

At present, Singapore is treading water

and seeking satisfactory rather than

covetous growth. Unless the global winds

of economic sentiment blow stronger than

at present, this may represent the crest of

its short-term economic ambitions.

Singapore is confronting a structural shift in

emphasis, as services increasingly dominate

Singapore’s GDP by sector, Q2 2014 v Q1 2014

Q2 2014 (yoy US$m)

Q1 2014 (yoy US$m)

GDP at Current Market Prices 93,931 95,508

Consumer Price Index 117.3 117.1

Exports

Re-exports

Imports

Manufacturing

Construction

133,304

63,014

120,184

18,542

4,322

128,250

60,075

117,801

18,081

4,378

Wholesale & Retail Trade

Transportation & Storage

Accommodation & Food Services

Information & Communications

Finance & Insurance

Business Services

16,956

7,437

1,756

3,424

10,912

12,452

16,331

7,222

1,779

3,328

10,617

12,320

Source: Singapore Ministry of Trade & Industry

February

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

Containership and chemical tanker collide in Singapore Strait, third accident in 12 days

Economy

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11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Otto Marine takes over the 51% stake held by Hoe Loeng Corporation in joint venture, Aries OffshoreMalaysia’s Yinson Holdings forms Singapore subsidiary, Yinson Production

February

The authorities have mapped out the coming 20 years of port operations already

Future proofed

Port

Anyone who has been to Singapore

recently cannot have been

impressed with how the city-

state is future proofing its transport

infrastructure. As visitors peer out from

their plane coming into land diggers are

carving out what will become a third

runway and a fourth terminal. Glance west

from on high and the eagle-eyed might

also be able to spot plumes of muddy

water flying into the air as dredging for a

brand new mega port gets underway.

Singapore is clearly good at planning

ahead, unlike many others. Lui Tuck

Yew, Singapore’s minister of transport,

speaking at the inaugural Danish

Maritime Forum in October, warned that

globally, “Infrastructure growth will lag

behind demand.”

Not so in Singapore where a

combination of real estate developers

eyeing prime central port areas as the

next big shopping mall as well as a

genuine need to expand terminals will see

all of Singapore’s port areas shift to Tuas

in the west of the republic by 2027. The

new premises will be able to handle 65m

teu a year.

Dutch dredging firm Royal Boskalis

Westminster (Boskalis) has in consortium

been awarded work associated with the

expansion of the Singapore Tuas Mega

Port development worth S$960m.

It is expected that the majority of the

24.5m cu m of sand required for the

project will be supplied by bulk carriers.

In addition to the land reclamation work,

the consortium will undertake dredging

and construct 3.4 km of quay wall. Work

started in August and will last until late

2018.

Singapore is also spending big to

upgrade its port management capabilities.

For instance, a new $54m initiative will

research port management and urban

congestion to help boost the country’s

port efficiency.

The Urban Computing and Engineering

Centre of Excellence, a joint venture

by the country’s Agency for Science,

Technology and Research (A*STAR),

Singapore University and Fujitsu,

will research sustainable options for

improving port operations. The project

examines the flow of shipments to and

from the port in order to reduce wait

times for ships, and will also help the port

authority predict volumes due for arrival.

Meanwhile, trials are under way to test

automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that,

if fully implemented, will see the vehicles

buzzing through busy terminals carrying

containers without the need for drivers.

“It’s conceivable that in the not-too-

distant future, we will see our terminal

operations as automated as possible,”

reckons Andrew Tan, chief executive of

the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA).

In November, the MPA signed a

memorandum of understanding with the

Singapore Management University (SMU)

to promote research and innovation

for a clean and green next generation

port. Topics include clean energy and

environment, energy management,

simulation and data analytics for maritime

applications.

At the signing, Tan commented,

“Singapore is committed to promoting

a maritime industry that is not only

competitive but also efficient, responsible

and sustainable.”

In the first nine months of 2014,

Singapore port moved a total throughput

of 28.1m teu, up 3.6% compared to

27.12m teu in the same period of last

year.


February

21 22 23 24 25 2627

28

BW Group buys out Heidmar’s stake in product tanker pool, WomarChemoil Energy announces it will delist

Singapore PM opens nation’s first LNG terminal

Marco Polo Marine expands into the jack-up market with $214.3m rig order at PPL ShipyardJurong Shipyard lands huge contract from Transocean for up to five drillships worth $540m each

There’s been a host of shipyard buyouts this year

Sunrise industry? Yards

The obituaries for Singapore’s

shipyards have been written

countless times, but once again this

often maligned ‘sunset’ industry has had

another banner year defying the odds.

Indeed, new investment across the board

at Singapore’s myriad shipyards would

suggest there’s a long future ahead for

most of them.

Among the most significant

investments has been by Sembcorp

Marine at its new giant yard in Tuas.

Sembcorp Marine will invest in a

multi-functional steel fabrication facility

which will, it says, significantly enhance

automation and productivity at its

offshore rig building, conversion and

production and ship repair businesses.

Total investment in the fabrication facility

is approximately S$222m.

“When phase two is completed, we

will have seven dry docks in operation

including the four VLCC docks in phase

one. This will give the yard greater

flexibility and enable us to keep work

flowing continuously,” said Sembcorp

Marine president and ceo, Wong Weng

Sun.

Sembcorp Marine’s main rival, Keppel,

has had a busy year at its yards all over

the world. Among banner projects is the

world’s first FLNG conversion as well as a

raft of FPSO conversions.

Michael Chia, managing director of

marine and technology at Keppel Offshore

& Marine, commented, “We are seeing an

increasing demand for more sophisticated

FPSOs which can operate in harsher

environments, more challenging and

deeper oil and gas fields.”

Keppel Shipyard confirmed in the

summer the signing of a contract with

Golar Hilli Corporation, a subsidiary of

Golar LNG, to perform the conversion of

an existing Moss LNG carrier, the Hilli,

into a floating liquefaction vessel. The

contract is worth around $735m and

includes options for two further LNG

carriers to be converted.

This July Keppel’s joint venture yard

in Azerbaijan won its first newbuild

contract, a subsea construction vessel

for BP, something Chia described as a

“significant milestone” for Keppel in its

‘Near Market, Near Customer’ strategy.

In April, Keppel Offshore & Marine,

through its wholly owned subsidiary, FELS

Offshore, signed a management services

agreement with Titan Petrochemicals

Group and Titan Quanzhou Shipyard to

manage the Chinese shipyard.

Shipbuilding shiftsThis October, Triyards Holdings

purchased Strategic Marine’s shipyards in

Singapore and Vietnam for a total sum of

A$23.3m.

Meanwhile, in August Aztech Group

bought out the Glenn Marine Logistics

Base in Singapore for S$11m.

Glenn Marine, which is involved in

the repair of ships, vessels, and tugs as

well as marine logistic services provision,

has been renamed Az Marine Offshore

Services.

The yard has an area of approximately

251,500 sq ft and water frontage of about

2,475 ft in length, including a part four-

storey/part six-storey detached factory

with an open yard space of over 200,000

sq ft.

Michael Mun, the founder, chairman

and ceo of Aztech Group, said: “The

We are seeing an increasing demand for

more sophisticated FPSOs

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March

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

A*Star launches maritime and offshore research lab

acquisition of our shipyard will expand

our capability to add and undertake a

vessel renewal plan more quickly when

project demand grows and make us

less dependent on third party shipyard

spaces.”

The yard will also help Az Marine get

more into the offshore space, Mun said.

In January, shipbuilder ASL Marine

Holdings paid $20m to buy Miclyn

Express Offshore’s yard in Batam, a

facility that lies adjacent to ASL’s existing

shipyard on the Indonesian island.

The yard is situated in the free

trade zone designated for shipyards

and comprises a site of 12.2 ha with

berthing quays of 220 m, two shiprepair

launchways and shipyard facilities which

cater for shipbuilding, vessels repair,

modification and mobilisation, as well as

modular fabrication services.

Also buying into a yard on Batam has

been offshore support vessel operator

Vallianz Holdings who snapped up this

September Singapore-incorporated

Jetlee Shipbuilding & Engineering and

its Indonesian entity PT United Sindo

Perkasa, who owns a fabrication and

engineering shipyard located at Kabil,

Nongsa. The purchase price was S$19.8m.

Vallianz ceo, Darren Yeo, said of the

deal, “With direct ownership in a shipyard

facility, Vallianz will have its own marine

base to dock and carry out maintenance

operations for our vessels and third-party

vessels that are managed by the group.

As we continue with our fleet expansion

program, we expect to reap greater cost

savings and operating efficiencies from

having our own marine base as compared

to leasing third-party shipyards. The

shareholders of Jetlee are industry

veterans with decades of experience in the

marine sector.”

China looms largeDespite all this clear bullishness on local

shipyard prospects the unavoidable fact

is that Singapore is losing its grip on its

formerly very solid jack-up orderbook.

Singapore has been replaced by China

as the world’s biggest builder of jack-up

rigs, with 33% of the global orderbook

compared to China’s 47% according to

research by Douglas-Westwood.

“Given this regional industry landscape,

Singapore is in a fairly good position at

the moment,” commented Rajiv Ghatikar

from Siemens PLM Software, “but in

the face of such strong competition, the

shipbuilding industry here will need

to take measures like improving visual

planning, optimising yard resources and

improving cross-discipline engineering

and manufacturing collaboration to get

and stay on top of the game.”

Yards

In the face of such strong competition, the shipbuilding industry here will need to take measures

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Singapore loves to be the hub of everything. Top dog in natural gas is now in its sightsAsia’s top gas trading destination?

LNG

Singapore’s first liquefied natural

gas terminal (pictured) was only

officially inaugurated this February,

but already there’s plenty of talk of making

the Lion Republic into Asia’s natural gas

trading hub. A second receiving terminal is

now under consideration. Asia is leading

the growth in LNG demand and Singapore

wants to be at the heart of it. Globally, LNG

consumption is expected to double in the

coming two decades.

Authorities are now looking at where

best to place a second terminal, which is

likely to be completed in the early part of

the next decade.

A panel advising the government on

how to develop the republic as a gas hub

came out with its list of suggestions at the

end of October. These included developing

trading mechanisms and standards to

facilitate the growing LNG market as well

as adding more gas infrastructure.

S Iswaran, second minister for trade

and industry and chairman of the panel,

commented: “We have certain advantages

by virtue of our reputation for regulatory

standards, our connectivity to the region

and also the supporting infrastructure

that we have here because we already are

a major trading hub for oil, for example.

And some of these services, ancillary

support services can easily also support

the activities for gas.”

It might take the addition of its

neighbour, Malaysia, for Singapore to

realise its LNG trading ambitions, the head

of the republic’s top LNG trader, Pavilion

Energy, said recently. Seah Moon Ming,

the ceo of the firm set up by sovereign

wealth fund, Temasek Holdings, said the

two countries could set up an Asian LNG

price marker as well as the development of

financial instruments such as LNG future

contracts.

“It is timely for the two countries to

work together towards an Asian LNG hub,”

he said at a recent conference, “as their

locations in the Straits of Malacca and

South China Sea are host to some of the

world’s vital sea lanes with about 50%

of global LNG supplies passing through

each year. I am confident the Asian LNG

hub would benefit many countries, even

suppliers of LNG. The United States,

a major supplier of LNG, has taken an

interest in this initiative.”

As well as soon-to-be two LNG

terminals in Singapore, Seah noted the

nearby Pengerang project in Malaysia, an

oil storage terminal with plans for an LNG

terminal and storage facilities.

Seah called for both countries to

develop an integrated gas market as part

of the wider Asian LNG hub initiative.

Pavilion Energy is working with the

Singapore Stock Exchange, International

Enterprise Singapore - a unit of the trade

ministry - and regional governments to

develop a Singapore LNG price marker,

another key plank of the republic’s gas

trading hub bid.

Singapore is already the largest oil

and petroleum products trading hub in

Asia. In recent years it has also become a

hotspot for LNG trading with companies

like Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group

and Yamal moving their LNG trading

operations here.

March

1112

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20UN report says North Korea smuggling arms via Singapore

FSL Trust quits bulk trades with sale of last bulker pair


March

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Gunvor starts iron ore trading in Singapore

Swissco buys land for repair yard in Tuas

Ultimately valuation drives the location of shipping listings

Singapore not on the IPO radar

Finance

The capital markets of

Norway and New York

have been aggressively

providing equity and debt for

shipping investments. Who

can succeed in raising such

finance? Can Asian bourses

compete and play a leading

role? These were the questions

posed at Marine Money’s

annual Singapore gathering in

late September.

Andy Yeo from Pareto noted

that a total of $13bn had been

raised in the US in the six

months through to September while ABN

Amro’s Perry van Echtelt said that in all

investment classes there are still lots of

equity available.

“Last year private equity was driven

by the eco story,” van Echtelt said, adding

that newbuild ordering has subsided this

year and private equity will be looking

for an exit via the capital markets or

consolidation.

Jon Connor from HSBC observed that

Asia has contributed to 7% of equity

raised through to July this year.

“Debt capacity markets are very open

in Asia,” he insisted, adding: “Name

recognition is very key to raising capital.”

While the US and the UK are much

larger in terms of deal sizes, OCBC’s

Andy Teo said Hong Kong and Singapore

are very active maritime-wise. $1.5bn

has been raised in the equity markets in

Singapore in the last five years, he pointed

out and $5bn in Hong Kong. “Sentiment

is getting rosier,” he said . Offshore, LNG,

LPG and containers are the most popular

with both investors and customers.

Harold Malone from Jefferies pointed

out that while the US had indeed seen a

tremendous amount of capital raised it

had centred around a “narrow” amount of

sectors, principally LNG and LPG which

are in a different cyclical place to other

shipping sectors.

On the markets in general, ABN

Amro’s van Echtelt said they were moving

sideways with a great deal of volatility.

“It will be more difficult to IPO a

smaller shipping company,” he suggested.

IPOs will be driven by private equity who

will look to consolidate to gain size prior

to listing. New York will continue to be

the number one destination for shipping

share launches, he said, something all

the panel agreed with, HSBC’s Connor

stressing, “Size is absolutely paramount.”

OCBC’s Teo said IPOs would start to

come to market next year and that private

equity had not invested much in Asia to

date with the notable exception of Korea’s

financially troubled Hanjin Shipping.

Ultimately valuation will drive the

location of IPOs, maintained Thomas

Preben Hansen, the ceo of Rickmers Trust

Management.

“It needs the Singapore Exchange and

the Singapore local banks to be more

aggressive to ensure there are some IPOs

from private equity in Singapore,” he

urged.

The Singapore dollar bond markets

have been “very active” in the last two

years, according to OCBC’s Teo with

S$5bn raised just in the first nine months

of 2014.

Concluding, HSBC’s Connor said, “We

would like to see a lot more activity in

Singapore. It is all about valuation.”

Quite so, concurred Rickmers’ Hansen

before adding the spoiler: “Singapore has

simply not been on the radar. It has been

all the US and Oslo.”

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Shipping firms in the republic are battling their way back to profits

Different tacks

Owners

While most of its container

peers are now edging back

into the black, Singapore’s

most famous name in shipping continues

to suffer from a reversal in fortunes

and is now actively looking to hive off

businesses to get back on track. Neptune

Orient Lines’ (NOL) losses continued in

the third quarter with the company $23m

in the red compared to a net profit of

$20m a year earlier.

At the start of the year APL, NOL’s

container shipping subsidiary, announced

a raft of changes to its leadership

structure under president, Kenneth Glenn.

The new setup moves APL from a

geographically-organised structure to

a functional one, in the areas of trade,

commercial, operations, procurement and

planning and strategy.

Meanwhile, it has emerged NOL is

looking to raise as much as $1bn from

the sale of its supply chain subsidiary,

APL Logistics. NOL has sent out sale

documents to a number of possible

buyers asking for first-round bids by

the end of November. APL Logistics

accounted for 18% of NOL’s revenues

last year. Among the companies that have

made plain their keenness to acquire APL

Logistics is CJ Korea Express, the largest

Korean courier firm.

Other local containerlines have also

struggled in the downturn. In its first

ever Singapore bonds issuance local

containerline Pacific International Lines

(PIL) raised $241m this July. However, in

the run up to issuing the bonds, privately

held PIL had to release its financial

statements publically for the first time.

The containerline has been in the red

twice since 2010, notching losses of

$98.6m and $66.1m for 2011 and 2013

respectively.

Elsewhere, containerline Orient

Express Lines (OEL) is looking at entering

the Indonesian and Philippine trades.

The ceo of the firm, Biju Oommen, tells

SeaShip News, “The Indonesia and

Philippine trades are being studied

carefully, as there are opportunities

considering the growing container

volumes.” Any entrance into these trades

would be done as a joint service, he

April

1 2 3 4 5 6 78

9 10

9th Singapore Maritime Week gets underway with record 29 events

BG Group moves its HQ for and oil marketing to SingaporeSingapore mandates the use of mass flow metering systems for bunkering

Peter Tan, former ceo and founder of Sembawang Kimtrans, comes out of retirement to chair Investment Global


says, much like it did this April when it

launched a new service to Vietnam with

Taiwan’s Yang Ming.

Bulk growthSuch is the scale of fleet expansion

ongoing at China Navigation that for

the first time in its 131-year history it is

looking at farming out some vessels to

third party managers. The controlled fleet

is set to hit around 80 ships following a

dramatic series of orders over the past

four years, which has also spawned a

whole new bulker division.

In 2010 China Navigation embarked on

a big fleet renewal programme with orders

for eight 31,000 dwt multipurpose (MMP)

vessels at China’s Ouhua Shipbuilding.

These ships replace eight 25,000 dwt

ships. It then ordered four 22,000 dwt

vessels at the same yard for delivery next

year. These ships will go on the company’s

Australia – Pacific Islands trades. China

Navigation also bought three ships from

Rickmers last year.

Its liner trades, operating as Swire

Shipping, now runs on 12 tradelanes.

Bolstering its position on the Pacific,

China Navigation bought out long time

partner Polynesia Line last year, and

followed this up this January with the

acquisition of Pacifica Shipping, a New

Zealand-based container feeder operator.

Further acquisitions are possible.

Tim Blackburn, managing director of

China Navigation since 2011, tells

SeaShip News: “There is scope for more

acquisitions as we look to build our liner

network in the Pacific.” The company

will target regional operators who have

long-term relationships with customers or

markets, but have felt the pressure from

the increasingly consolidated liner trades.

The other big focus under Blackburn

has been developing a new bulker entity.

Swire Bulk was formed in 2011. “It was

the opportunity to diversify into bulk at

the right time in the cycle,” Blackburn

explains. The company quickly identified

the handysize sector as the one to focus

on. It has since ordered twenty-four

39,000 dwt ships in China in the past 24

months, plus four 38,000 dwt ships at

Imabari.

In terms of percentage fleet growth few

Asian dry bulk owners are growing faster

than Thoresen Shipping this year.

Thoresen Shipping is the dry bulk

shipping arm of Thai-listed investment

group Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA). The

business operates under three wholly

owned subsidiaries of TTA, Thoresen

Shipping Singapore (TSS) and Thoresen

& Co (Bangkok) (TCB). Singapore now is

where the commercial team is based and

all ships are flagged.

Owners

April

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Malaysian tycoon Quek Leng Chan buys 3.8% stake in Ezion


Managing director Ian Claxton says

the fleet will hit 30 ships by year-end, a

50% increase from the start of the year.

The fleet is made of supramaxes and

handymaxes and is a balance of geared

and grabbed fitted bulk carriers and open

hatch box shaped hold vessels.

“We are very active in the acquisition

of suitable additional tonnage,” says

Claxton.

On top of the owned vessels, Thoresen

Shipping is a significant charterer having

around an additional 25 vessels at any

one time.

This November Thoresen Shipping

launched a new commercial pooling

service, Thoresen Grabulk Pool, in

Singapore for shipowners and operators

of supramax and ultramax vessels.

Top tanker ownersOne of the blue chip names in Singapore

shipping announced succession

plans towards the end of the year. Fast

approaching his 75th birthday, Dr Helmut

Sohmen retired as chairman of BW Group

having served the company for 44 years.

Sohmen’s son, Andreas, takes his

place. He will retain his current role as

BW Group ceo until 1 April 2015, when

Carsten Mortensen, the former Norden

boss, will take on the role of ceo.

Sohmen commented: “It has been a

privilege to oversee BW’s growth from

a tanker and dry bulk business to a

significant maritime oil and gas player

involved in LNG, LPG, crude, products,

chemicals and FPSOs.”

A year and a half ago saw the creation

of a new gas carrier operator following

the merger of Epic Shipping Holdings and

Pantheon. Since then, Epic Gas has been

one of the most active owners in the Lion

Republic, setting about a rapid expansion

to make a big impact in the pressurised

LPG markets.

The company has significant backers

including Jefferies Capital Partners and

DVB Shipping Intermodal Investment

Management (SIIM) and a group of

private shareholders. The company also

has investment from one of the region’s

canniest shipping players, former Pacific

Basin boss, Chris Buttery along with his

long term business partner, Paul Over.

In May last year Lars Vang Christensen

joined the shipowner as ceo. Epic has

quickly built up a 40-strong fleet, part

of a dramatic global LPG fleet build-up

seen in the past 18 months, not that it has

Christensen too worried.

“The growth,” he says, “is in many

respects because owners like us are

seeking replacement tonnage and there

is all this talk about shale gas and

predicted need for LPG carriers – it is

a combination of fleet renewal, a slow

recovery of the world’s economy and

hence the positive implications for

pressurised LPG carriers”.

Lim Teck Cheng, the ceo of Singapore’s

largest bunker vessel operator, Hong

Lam Marine, sees something different

happening in his niche.

Singapore is the world’s largest

bunkering hub and is taking the lead with

the introduction of mass flow meters to

try to ease owners’ qualms about the right

amounts of fuel being delivered.

Lim argues that one consequence of

this quest by Singapore Inc for innovation

is a natural further culling of the number

of companies within his sector.

“When mass flow meters come in a lot

of smaller players will find it difficult,”

says Lim, who anticipates the playing field

being cut by another 10% making the

sector more sustainable in the long run.

Hong Lam Marine has 25 harbour

tankers plus 12 ocean going ships, a

mix of chemical and product tankers.

For the latter sector, Lim admits trading

conditions have turned sour of late.

“There are too many tankers for not

enough cargo so things are a bit tight

now,” he says, noting how rates are

coming down for product tankers.

Owners

April

21 22 23 2425

26 27 28 29 30

Zhu Ning, president of Nanjing Tanker, accused of money laundering in Singapore

PACC Offshore Services Holdings lists on SGX

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Offshore

Singapore’s many offshore support vessel operators are eyeing new markets

Global spread

Few port cities on Earth can boast

such a large and widespread set of

offshore support vessel owners.

In terms of size not many have grown

quicker than Pacific Radiance. Tracing

its roots back to 2002 when it started off

as Strato Maritime Services, involved in

chartering and technical management,

the group bought its first ship in 2004,

and rebranded as Pacific Radiance

in 2006. Nowadays, including joint

ventures, Pacific Radiance owns and

operates a total of around 150 vessels, a

mixture of tugs, barges, AHTSs, PSVs and

saturation dive support vessels.

Besides its internationally trading

vessels, the company controls around 60

Indonesian flagged vessels through joint

ventures and associate companies.

In terms of spreading its geographical

reach, managing director James Pang

tells SeaShip News he is “very excited”

by prospects in Mexico and West Africa,

specifically Nigeria, Congo and Angola

have good potential. Pacific Radiance

has been operating in East Africa for the

past three years.

It has also been a very busy year for

Singapore offshore operator Swissco

Holdings with the acquisition of rig

operator Scott and English Energy for

S$285m. The deal means Swissco now

has nine jack-up rigs to go with its 34

OSVs. There are another three more

OSVs set to deliver soon too.

Alex Yeo, the company’s ceo, explains

the rationale for the rig company buy.

“There are synergies that could be

achieved with the acquisition,” he says.

The group has since captured various

opportunities in the offshore oil and gas

industry as it penetrates the upstream

market across different geographical

regions.

Meanwhile, offshore support vessel

operator Vallianz is making moves to

bring its owned fleet up to 50 ships by

2016. With Darren Yeo as ceo Vallianz

today owns around 30 OSVs and

manages more than 50 client vessels.

Besides the Middle East, Latin

America and Asia Pacific, Yeo says

Vallianz is also setting its sights on

penetrating the offshore marine market

in West Africa.

Return of a familiar faceJohn Giddens, who built Hallin Marine

into a global subsea services player

after starting it from a container in his

back garden, has reentered the industry

with the announcement this August of

the build of a 105 m subsea operations,

diving and ROV support vessel.

The contract for the construction

of the vessel, tentatively named Tasik

Toba, has been signed with Fujian Mawei

Shipyard in China. The vessel’s design

and specification has been carried

May

1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9

10

PSA finally wins concession to build and manage a terminal in MumbaiChemoil Energy delists

New exploration and production company, AziPac, sets up in Singapore

ASL Marine pays Miclyn Express Offshore $20m for Batam shipyard

M3 MARINE GROUPOne of Asia’s largest independent Offshore Shipbroking & Marine Consultancy groups.

1 Commonwealth Lane #06-21 ONE Commonwealth Singapore 149544 Tel: +65 63274606

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out by Tasik Subsea, a company set

up by Giddens and long-time vessel

collaborator Mike Meade from broker

M3 Marine.

The Tasik Toba will be DP3 and

have a 300 m rated saturation diving

system, hangar facilities for two deep

water ROVs, a 150 tonne safe working

load active heave compensated crane

with 3,000 metre working depth, and

accommodation for 120 men.

Giddens sold Hallin to US-based

Superior Energy in 2010 for more

than £100m. Hallin has since just been

liquidated.

“I think commodity boats - PSVs and

AHTSs - are basically in oversupply,”

Giddens says, “but nevertheless people

that know what they are doing seem to

be making money in the right sub-

sectors.”

Fast developing Swire Pacific

Offshore (SPO) will celebrate having 100

ships by the end of next year.

Managing director Neil Glenn tells

SeaShip News how the fleet has changed

in recent years to reflect the new

demands of energy companies around

the world.

SPO’s offshore supply vessel fleet has

traditionally been very heavily weighted

towards AHTS vessels. However, with

the recent developments in the oil and

gas industry, such as the trend towards

deeper water exploration and the

increase in dynamically positioned rigs

and drillships, SPO has seen an increase

in demand for PSV vessels from its

clients.

“To ensure we are aligned with

industry developments and are able to

meet the needs of our existing clients,”

Glenn says, “we have rebalanced our

fleet mix to include a greater number of

PSVs.” The orderbook reflects this shift

with 14 PSVs and just three AHTSs to

deliver.

Another of the leading names in the

offshore support vessel sector sees

some overcapacity hitting certain parts

of the segment but is still bullish that oil

and gas developments will push rates up

in general.

Adam Clayton is the corporate

finance and group commercial head for

Miclyn Express Offshore (MEO) whose

current fleet stands at around 150 ships.

“We are seeing some oversupply

in certain segments such as mid-size

PSVs,” says Clayton, “but we also

believe that continued demand will

provide opportunities for growth for

the stronger service providers in the

market.”

Recently, MEO took over Uniwise

Towage, something Clayton describes as

a “natural extension” of the position the

company has built up in Thailand.

In terms of new areas for growth

MEO recently won eight long-term vessel

charters from an oil major in Brunei.

Singapore remains a good place in

which to raise capital. Robert Kuok-

controlled PACC Offshore Services

Holdings (POSH), the OSV giant with

around 120 vessels in operation,

launched its IPO on the Main Board

of the Singapore Exchange Securities

Trading Limited (SGX-ST) this April.

The company has plans to expand into

the deepwater offshore accommodation

sector.

Benefits of a downturnOSV veteran Amandeep Singh is

convinced the downturn has been

beneficial for quality owners, as it has by

default initiated the process of forcing

lots of old tonnage out of the market.

The managing director and ceo of

Offshore

11 12 13 14

May

15 16 17 18 1920

BW forms jv with investment manager PAG to buy 10 product tankers

Progressive Power pleads guilty over supplying bunkers without a valid bunker supplier licence

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Marine Delivery (MDPL), a seven-year-

old Singapore offshore firm, notes that

many oil companies across the world

have now started to demand for quality

specifications and newer vessels as they

have the upper hand.

“This is helping in phasing out the

older tonnage,” Singh says, “and we can

already see a lot of owners who have

been holding on to them for long are

now gradually moving to scrap them.”

He reckons this will have a gradual

positive impact on the OSV markets.

Given this changed paradigm Singh

warns: “All owners will have to be

cautious on the specification and age of

their fleet for survival.”

Elsewhere, Nordic Maritime

continues to carve out a niche for

itself in Southeast Asia, eschewing

overtonnaged offshore sectors in favour

of more specialised areas.

Nordic Maritime is one of myriad

Scandinavian shipping companies that

call Singapore home.

Founded in 1999, Nordic Maritime

now operates a mix of owned and under

third party management seismic vessels,

survey/chase support vessels, a DP2

multipurpose supply vessel and two

new DP2 400-men accommodation/

construction vessels.

This October Nordic Maritime and its

partner PT Alamjaya Makmur Sejahtera

won a contract worth more than $2m to

provide 2D seismic marine acquisition

services with ocean bottom node (OBN)

technology to Mitra Energy Indonesia.

Indonesia is providing more and

more business to the company following

a recent opening of a Jakarta office.

Nordic now has three Indonesian

flagged ships and a fourth due in

February next year.

Kjell Gauksheim, Nordic Maritime’s

ceo, says the plan going forward is to

add to its subsea fleet with one to three

vessels per year.

Drilling priorities Dynamic Drilling Holdco is all set to

move beyond Indian waters as it expands

its fleet of jack-ups. Founded three

years ago, Dynamic Group has three

jack-ups and a drillship on charter to

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

(ONGC). On top of that, there’s a rig plus

three options on order at Cosco Dalian

Shipyard in northern China. The options

are likely to be declared soon, says

Manav Kumar, a director at Dynamic,

and all the orders may well go on charter

to parties beyond India.

Dynamic was founded, says Kumar,

because it was clear that oil companies

needed quality rigs and drilling services

with oil prices remaining comfortably

high. Its joint venture partners include

Singapore’s Keppel and Seacor from

the US. Management takes place out of

Singapore, where rigs are also flagged.

Dynamic is not alone in clocking

that perceived rig shortage and a vast

amount of orders have flooded the

sector, something Kumar acknowledges,

but without too much concern.

“A short term drop in rates is

likely next year,” he says, “as a lot of

newbuilds come onstream, but the long

term forecast remains good for serious

drilling contractors.”

Offshore

May

21 22 23 24 25 2726 28 29 3130

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New Entrants

The republic has welcomed many more maritime firms to its shores this year as SeaShip News details

Shipping central

Anyone who attended this

September’s record turnout at the

Singapore Shipping Association’s

annual dinner can attest to the fact that the

republic continues to draw more and more

maritime firms to its shores. A record

attendance of more than 2,000 included

many new faces. Our online poll, results

of which can be found on the back page,

lends credence to the growing feeling that

the city-state is now the leading, most

vibrant place for shipping on Earth. No

wonder, then, that so many companies are

rushing to set up shop here.

Part of Singapore’s success as a

maritime hub has been in attracting

the big name shippers to relocate here.

Snagging the likes of Cargill and BHP

Billiton from other hubs really kickstarted

the migration of owners and service

providers to the Lion Republic around

a decade ago. This shipper relocation

continued this year. US grain giant

Archer Daniels Midland relocated its

Asia headquarters from Shanghai to

Singapore as part of a significant Asian

restructuring.

Meanwhile, Gunvor, one of the world’s

largest independent commodity trading

companies, started iron ore trading

in Singapore as part of its strategy to

diversify in both what it deals and where it

operates.

Also of note, BG Group shifted its

centre of global liquefied natural gas

(LNG) and oil marketing business to

Singapore from its head office in the UK,

reflecting the long term importance of

Asian energy markets.

“Asia is the world’s largest market for

LNG and where BG Group already sends

the majority of its cargoes. By moving the

centre of our global LNG and oil marketing

business to Singapore, the heart of the

fastest growing LNG region, we are closer

to many more of our existing customers

and are better positioned to develop new

and deeper relationships in the region,”

said Steve Hill, president for global LNG

and oil marketing. BG already supplies

Singapore’s new gas terminal with some

3m tonnes a year.

Owners proliferateJaccar Holdings of Luxemburg and

Hartmann Group of Germany formed a

joint venture in the city this September

for the commercial management of ethane

carriers.

The new company, United Ethane

Carriers (UEC), will focus on the

marketing, branding and commercial

management of ethane carriers

internationally.

The first vessels under the new joint

venture will be five VLEC carriers with a

Our online poll lends credence to the growing

feeling that the city-state is now the leading,

most vibrant place for shipping on Earth

June

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1213

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Pavilion Energy inks LNG supply deal with Total

Archer Daniels Midland relocates Asia HQ to Singapore

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capacity of 85,000 cu m each. They are

going to be employed under a long-term

period charter with an undisclosed party.

Fast growing New York-listed Star Bulk

Carriers, the leading name in shipping’s

ongoing phase of consolidation, is

opening up a chartering office in the

Lion Republic, the company’s chairman,

Spyros Capralos, told SeaShip News in an

exclusive interview this September.

Crowley Maritime Corp from the US

has made a significant investment in

Singapore this year, opening a new project

management office in Singapore. The

office is located at 77 Robinson Road on

the 34th floor of the Robinson Building.

William Hill has relocated from

Crowley’s Anchorage office to Singapore

where he has assumed the position of

director, business development, and will

manage the project support office.

“We’ve seen an increase in customers

requiring service in the region and as

part of our commitment to consistently

evaluate and expand service offerings to

meet such needs, we have decided that a

physical location with local personnel in

Singapore was necessary,” said Hill. “It

will allow us to not only have in-person

management of our assets in the area,

but will also provide better, more timely

communication with our current and

potential customer base.”

In addition to the newly opened

solutions office in Singapore, Crowley

subsidiary Titan Salvage also maintains a

local presence with a 45,000 sq ft site west

of the city.

One man returning to the world of

shipowning made quite a stir this August

with a debut order.

John Giddens, who built Hallin Marine

into a global subsea services player after

starting it from a container in his back

garden, reentered the industry with the

announcement of the build of a 105

m subsea operations, diving and ROV

support vessel.

The irony of Giddens’ return was that

it coincided with news that Hallin Marine,

which he had sold for more than £100m

four years ago, was to close down.

Elsewhere, CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping,

a shipowning unit of China’s shipbuilding

conglomerate China State Shipbuilding

Corporation (CSSC), set up an offshore

engineering subsidiary in Singapore to tap

into the international offshore market.

The new company, which is called

Rui Ling Offshore Engineering, has a

registered capital of S$10m. CSSC (Hong

Kong) Shipping holds 70% equity in the

subsidiary, with the remaining 30% owned

by Titan Oil in Singapore.

The company will focus on the building,

chartering, management, and operation

of offshore platforms and vessels. In

addition, Rui Ling will provide design,

technology and management support

for CSSC’s drive into the international

offshore market.

Offshore expertiseAziPac, a new exploration and production

company focused on exploring for oil

and gas in the maritime basins offshore

in the Asia Pacific region and the Bay of

Bengal, was established in May this year

in Singapore.

“The offshore Asia Pacific and Bay

of Bengal regions are experiencing a

resurgence in exploration for new oil and

gas reserves. This is driven by exciting

recent discoveries, new licencing rounds,

new company entrants and, importantly,

the potential for new technologies to

be brought to bear in new and mature

exploration areas,” commented David

Sturt, director of AziPac.

Singapore’s preeminence in offshore

has brought many specialist service

providers from around the world. Some

have cleverly chosen to club together.

Three companies this November released

a brand new concept to exploration

and production service providers. The

three companies are electrical system

integrater Alewijnse (which set up offices

in Singapore and Malaysia this year),

Part of Singapore’s success as a maritime

hub has been in attracting the big name

shippers to relocate here

June

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2726 28 29 30

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quayside repairs and jacking systems OEM

ESI Willtech group and lubrication and

condition based maintenance Oliveira

Hydro, Marine & Shipping. The result is

Total Dock Fleet Support Services - a new

entity that seeks to deliver a complete

service solution from refit, repairs,

servicing and maintenance to life-time

extensions to the offshore industry

whereby companies can get quotes for

work from one entity rather than chasing

many different firms for prices.

Meanwhile, Deep Sea Mooring

(DSM), a supplier of mooring solutions

and services for the offshore industry,

launched a new, specialist business

dedicated to subsea installation solutions.

Deep Sea Installation (DSI), which will

initially focus on the FPSO segment,

opened in Singapore this May with 12

staff and an ambition to quickly establish

itself in the key regional markets of Asia,

West Africa and Europe.

“The FPSO market is growing fast, with

$99bn forecast to be spent on floating

production systems between 2014 and

2018,” said Åge Straume, ceo of Deep Sea

Mooring. “This is creating real demand for

installation expertise and DSM recognises

the potential for a business focused on

this niche.”

Wave of new service providersIn a very fast turnaround time a new

shipping agency, Wave Shipping, was

launched at the beginning of September

in Singapore with founder and ceo Lars

Rosenkrands noting what a fragmented

sector the agency business was and the

need for consolidation. Practicing what he

preached within a couple of weeks Wave

had been bought out by Norway’s EMS

Seven Seas with Rosenkrands taking over

as ceo of the whole group.

Elsewhere, Chromalox, a manufacturer

of electric heat and control products,

opened a new sales and operations office

in Singapore this July.

Herbert-ABS Software Solutions, a

company involved in marine regulatory,

load management, salvage and ship design

software, opened a Singapore offshoot in

January.

“Close proximity to shipowners and

operators, opportunities for salvage and

offshore projects and software sales

to other engineering companies, make

Singapore the natural choice for the

next phase of our expansion”, stated

Hendrik Bruhns, president of Herbert-ABS

Software Solutions.

Micaline, a subsidiary of Malaysia-

listed Shin Yang Shipping Corporation

(Syscorp), incorporated Bayshore

Shipping Services in Singapore this

November. Bayshore is engaged in

shipbroking services and as an agent for

providing commercial management and

marketing services.

At the end of October more than 100

executives from Singapore’s maritime and

offshore industry attended the launch

of Asia’s newest recruitment firm, Direct

Search Asia, set up by former Faststream

employee, Jason Tay.

With piracy in the region rising a

number of private security firms have

been looking to find the right people to

set up in Singapore. Jumping ahead of

many was Guardian Global Resources

who opened an office here in November.

Former soldier Alexander Leslie is

leading operations as managing director,

Southeast Asia.

“The narrow choke point upon

entering the Singapore Strait has become

a playground for a new breed of pirate,”

Guardian said in a release, noting how

criminal elements in the area have ramped

up their hijacking efforts, with assailants

targeting tankers laden with oil-related

products, which are then seized and sold

on the black market.

“Regional criminal networks are

growing more sophisticated, and are

led by extremely powerful leaders. As a

consequence it has become imperative

for the commercial shipping sector to

rely on established and adaptable security

providers,” Guardian maintained.

Bunkering musical chairsThe year 2014 will be best remembered

in bunkering terms for the very sudden

demise of OW Bunker, Denmark’s third

largest company by revenues. The $125m

hole in its bottomline from fraudulent

activity by Singapore subsidiary, Dynamic

Oil Trading triggered chaos. There were

a number of other bunker suppliers that

fell by the wayside in the republic too.

However, despite the tough times there

were new names that entered the fray to

the world’s largest bunkering hub.

In June, A DOT Marine was accredited

by the Maritime & Port Authority of

Singapore (MPA), becoming the first new

bunker supplier at the port in 16 months.

A month later, another new bunkering

firm, Unicore Fuel, started operations.

In related news, Canadian marine

surveying organisation Bunker

Detectives formed a subsidiary in

Singapore this year.

The FPSO market is growing fast, with $99bn

forecast to be spent on floating production systems between 2014

and 2018

July

1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10

New bunkering firm, Unicore Fuel, starts operationsPacific International Lines raises $241m from first ever bond issuance

Singapore Shipping Association unveils Michael Phoon as new executive director to replace Daniel Tan

4

New Entrants


Shipmanagement

While managers increasingly are shifting much back office work elsewhere they’re still polishing their local shop windows

Lure of owners ropes managers in

It is a fact that shipmanagers are now

finding Singapore too expensive

to base all their operations there.

Back office operations are shifting

elsewhere, more often than not to

Manila, while sourcing the right talent,

such as superintendents, is getting ever

more difficult. However, the world’s top

managers continue to invest in the Lion

City, getting close to the country’s vast

shipowning base.

A relatively new Singapore-based

shipmanager is well on the way to

looking after more than 50 vessels as well

as carving itself a considerable niche in

managing VLCCs.

Capt AR Sabnis is the managing

director of Goodwood Ship Management,

a company whose current fleet under full

technical management stands at 32, but

should be passing the 50 mark by mid-

2016, he says, by which time it will have

more than 10m dwt on its books.

Another comparatively new name

in the local sector is one-year-old

Masterbulk Ship Management (MBSM),

part of shipowner Masterbulk.

Based in Singapore, MBSM has

focused on the dry bulk sector to begin

with and is now managing a fleet of more

than 20 ships. Opportunities with both

shipowners and financial institutions

who have taken possession of distressed

assets are also being explored.

Meanwhile, Höegh Autoliners and

Hong Kong’s Wallem Ship Management,

which already manages nine Höegh

vessels, intend to expand their

cooperation and the parties are in

dialogue to establish a joint venture

company in Singapore. The company will

handle the technical management of all

Höegh Autoliners’ owned vessels.

There are 28 owned vessels operated

by Höegh Autoliners which are today

technically managed by Höegh Fleet

Services. In the future these will be

managed by the joint venture company,

with all vessels transferred by the end of

June 2015.

SeaShip News understands another

well-known name in Hong Kong’s

shipmanagement circles is readying

a big expansion in Singapore. Univan

Ship Management is expected to make

an announcement soon on a new office

set up in the republic. The company’s

ceo, Bjorn Hojgaard, is well known in

Singapore having headed up Thome Ship

Management for a number of years.

Hojgaard’s successor at Thome

since 2010, Carsten Brix Ostenfeldt,

has recently been poached by Nordic

Tankers, one of the world’s largest

operators of small- and medium-sized

chemical tankers.

Earlier this year, Thome opened a

crew recruitment and placement services

agency in Myanmar with the company’s

chairman, Olav Eek Thorstensen,

noting: “Establishing a strong manning

operation in Myanmar underlines the

Thome Group’s commitment to this fast-

moving and highly important seafarer

recruitment market.”

The world’s largest shipmanager,

V.Group, continues to make its presence

felt in Singapore. This September it

concluded the acquisition of Core-

IRM, a Singapore-based offshore IRM

(inspection, repairs and maintenance)

services provider.

Moreover, a well known name in

the local shipmanagement arena made

a comeback this year. Manish Singh,

chairman of consultants Ideocean as well

as the Cambridge Academy of Transport

announced this September his return to

V.Group as group director for strategy

and M&A, leading many to speculate that

there will be a raft of Asian acquisitions

by V.Group soon.

“In seeking potential partners, V.Group

looks for businesses with experienced

and committed management teams that

add expertise and a track record in

technical, operational and commercial

performance assurance,” Singh tells

SeaShip News.

The opportunities being considered,

he reveals, range from broad based

international service providers to niche

service companies with specific skill sets.

V.Group’s president and group

ceo, Clive Richardson, confirms that

expansion in Asia is a top priority in the

coming years.

“From the point of view of revenue

growth in a particular geography, our

biggest opportunity would be through

our Asian office network,” he reveals.

July

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19

20Standard Chartered sues India’s Varun Shipping’s Yudhishthir Khatau

for $5.2m over a loan default in Singapore

DNV Petroleum Services rebrands as Veritas Petroleum Services


Crewing

July

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31

Maritime Heritage Fund launchedSwissco buys rig operator Scott and English Energy

Sinwa creates barge JVEzion sells two subsidiaries to AusGroup for S$55m

Four-year dredging project starts for new Tuas megaport

Crowley Maritime opens local office

Singaporean authorities are worried about where the next generation of seafarers will come from. Have they forgotten about 50% of the population?

The female factor

Despite numerous initiatives from

local authorities to foster the next

generation of seafarers, it’s a fact

Singapore is struggling to find enough

people interested in a career at sea.

Speaking at the inaugural Danish

Maritime Forum in October, Lui Tuck

Yew, Singapore’s minister of transport,

warned that getting the next generation

of seafarers was a “global challenge”,

something he thinks will be very difficult,

leading to the possibility of more

automated vessels. “Will robots work

alongside the crew to relieve some of the

work and stress?” he mused, adding: “I

think it is important we must discuss this.”

59% of respondents to our poll on

Singapore (full results carried on page 60)

feel the government’s efforts to get people

interested in maritime careers have been

ineffective thus far. However, perhaps the

government has missed a trick. Why not

get more women involved in shipping?

According to UK maritime HR firm

Spinnaker Consulting, women are 52

times less likely to join the maritime

industry than men.

The outcome of a number of

surveys by the Women’s International

Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA),

International Transport Federation and

the International Labour Organisation

prior to the World Maritime University

Female Global Leadership Conference

found that women make up just 1 to 2%

of the world’s 1.25m seafarers. Moreover,

94% of women working at sea are working

on passenger ships.

“In no other profession would it be

acceptable to have the current male-

female ratio,” says Nicholas Fisher, ceo of

Singapore’s Masterbulk.

Excuses about officer shortages

should not wash when this industry has

consistently failed to employ half the

available workforce.

In late 2014, Masterbulk hired its first

two Singaporean female cadets, Nurul

Sahira Binte Sha’ri and Era Yuhanis Binte

Abdul Ghani.

“More talks should be given in schools

to create awareness about the good

prospects in the maritime industry,”

says Sahira, who also calls for the

establishment of a local female seafaring

organisation to make it easier for future

female cadets.

“All is not lost for shipping in

Singapore,” Fisher argues, insisting:

“There are youngsters out there who

don’t want to be bankers. They don’t

want to just sit in an office. They want to

get their hands dirty and to be involved

in one of Singapore’s most important

industries.”


Recruitment

Attracting young people to a career in maritime is proving difficult

Different career paths

SeaShip News contends that the

single greatest impediment to

Singapore’s future as a world

leading international maritime centre

(IMC) is not in its hardware, but more on

the soft side of things. The government

has already made plans for the next

generation operations of the port and

the republic’s shipyards, with a big

shift out west to Tuas. However, what’s

proving more tricky is ensuring there

are enough competitively priced people

engaged in the industry. And it is not

just us who think that this is the crucial

speed bump in the Lion Republic’s

IMC intentions, you, the reader, seem

to concur judging by the results of our

online poll on Singapore maritime,

results of which are carried on page 60.

Increasingly, most people under

the age of 30 are not interested in a

maritime career, the nation’s youth

suffering from a collective ‘Goldman

Sachs syndrome’, meaning they all want

to work for investment banks and earn

vast salaries.

In the past year nearly 10

shipmanagement companies have left

Singapore, either moving back to their

shipowning home countries entirely

or leaving a mere one-man ‘listening

post’. “It’s just way too expensive for

shipmanagement,” one executive with

access to many top local managers

moans to SeaShip News.

The government is aware of this

coming human resources crunch, the

chief executive of the Maritime and

Port Authority of Singapore (MPA),

Andrew Tan, commenting at this year’s

Singapore Maritime Week, “Singapore

has to remain relevant, by making sure

that we have sufficient capabilities and

people joining the sector, which is why

we are very keen to attracting younger

people to join the industry.”

Experienced staff in high demandSupply of experienced dry cargo

operations staff in Singapore is drying

up fast. Competition for operators in

Singapore with more than five years’

experience is intense.

With numerous owner operators

all fishing in the same pool, each

is finding it tough to fill vacancies.

Maritime recruitment firm Spinnaker’s

Matt Cornelius, who specialises in

commercial shipping recruitment in

Singapore, says, “There are enough

vacancies for each candidate five times

over at the moment.

“There are now so many employers

on the island that poaching is rife and

competition for staff is never ending,”

says Cornelius. “Combined with the

industry-wide lack of investment in

new talent during the first half of

the recession, there are not enough

operations, chartering or freight trading

staff with five years’ experience to go

round.”

New immigration rulesFurther complicating matters, this

August saw the introduction of the

Fair Consideration Framework in

Singapore. This is intended to ensure

that employers give local people the

opportunity to apply for vacancies; and

it means that all Singapore vacancies

must be advertised on approved

websites for at least 14 days before

visa/employment pass applications for

August

1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hallin Marine founder John Giddens returns to OSVs with new firm, Tasik Subsea, created with M3 Marine’s Mike Meade

4

Actions speak louder than words.

Faststream Recruitment GroupTel: (+65) 653 - 27 - 201 www.faststream.com

CEOShip Owner, Singapore

FLEET MANAGERShip Manager, Hong Kong

MANAGING DIRECTORShip Owner, Singapore

GENERAL MANAGERSalvage, Singapore

CHARTERING MANAGERShip Owner, Singapore

OPERATIONS MANAGERShip Owner, Singapore

HEAD OF SHIPPINGCommodities, Singapore

OWNERS REPShip Manager, Indonesia

DRY DOCKING MANAGERShip Owner, Singapore

CHARTERERShip Owner, Korea

BD DIRECTORShip Manager, Singapore

CFOShip Manager, Hong Kong

TECH SUPERINTENDENTBulk Ship Owner, Singapore

HR DIRECTORShip Owner, Hong Kong

GENERAL MANAGERDry Bulk, China


foreign workers can be considered.

Singapore has possibly become a

victim of its own success, Cornelius

reckons. “Its size and dependence upon

foreign labour, high housing costs, cost

of living and the incredible growth of the

shipping community means that it’s hard

enough for employers to fill some of

their roles, let alone fill them with local

staff,” maintains Cornelius.

“2014 has seen a rising concern from

employers in Singapore with regards to

the increasing cost of employing people

and increasing scrutiny and restrictions

on hiring foreign talent, contributing to

a further constriction of an already tight

maritime talent pool,” says Matt Conway,

managing director of Faststream

Recruitment in Singapore.

Nevertheless, the ceo of Faststream,

Mark Charman, tells SeaShip News

that Singapore has been “super busy”

in hiring mode this year. However, the

Faststream boss hears more and more

that companies are finding employment

costs in Singapore prohibitive but he is

not seeing a decrease in hiring.

Jason Tay, a former Faststream

employee, set up on his own this year,

creating Direct Search Asia with offices

in Singapore and the UK. He has some

astonishing statistics on the difficulties

facing maritime employers in Singapore.

Based on today’s industry standard,

employees staying in the shipping

and the maritime sector have slipped

from 2.5 years average to less than

two years, which means people stay

in their jobs for a shorter period and

move around more. Approximately 80%

of the movement comes from the local

workforce highlighting, Tay says, the

demand for employees but at the same

time the shortage of talents in the sector

“With Singapore moving into a

more service-oriented industry, and

the media’s consistent promotion of

more glamorous jobs where money

comes easily and living is good,

certain skillsets and experience within

the shipping industry become less

common among the local workforce,”

he admits. For instance, many shore

jobs require prior sea experience such

as technical superintendents, marine

superintendents and surveyors, which

necessitates hiring foreign talents.

The setback to hiring an expatriate

is always about the additional costs

incurred on overseas allowances, which

usually includes schooling, housing and

transport. Salaries aside, more expensive

office space and increasing wages mean

higher operating costs for employers,

resulting in constrained hiring budgets.

The issue of employment is made more

challenging with the tightening of the

local immigration policy.

“So,” says Tay, “it really depends on

the individual’s reason for working in

Singapore, and how much skillset is

required for the potential employer to

stretch their hiring budget.” Usually,

he says, it is a situation where both

employer and employee each tend to

come to an agreement.

Offshore off elsewhereWhile employment for shipping remains

predominantly localised - except for

senior positions, movements are more

active among the marine and offshore

community. This has a lot to do with the

region’s newbuilding scene for offshore

support, drilling and production

facilities rather than merchant vessels.

In Singapore, the orderbook for

jack-up rigs and OSVs seemed endless

as they fell on the lap of local yards

for many years, elevating the city’s

dominance by capturing more than

70% of the world’s new construction

for offshore drilling rigs. In recent

years, Chinese builders have scaled

up their engineering capabilities and

taken over Singapore as the world’s

largest builder of jack-up rigs, causing

the Lion City builders to be sandwiched

between the cost competitive Chinese

and Vietnamese yards, and higher end

Korean yards. Such market sentiment

is believed to have triggered the

movement of many engineers and

project management teams to move out

of Singapore.

Recruitment

August

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1920

FSL Trust celebrates first quarterly profit in three years

Marco Polo Marine and Malaysian shipbuilder Nam Cheong form OSV owning jv

NOL admits to Singapore Exchange it is looking at selling APL LogisticsEzra shareholders approve merger of subsidiaries EMAS Marine and EOC

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www.v-p-s.com

Veritas Petroleum Services Group


Bunkering

The Lion Republic is not resting on its laurels

Innovate to stay ahead

Singapore may well be the world’s

leading bunkering hub, but that

does not mean operating there is

easy. Far from it. In fact, there is nowhere

more ferociously competitive than

the Lion Republic hence the ongoing

contraction in the number of bunker

suppliers. In the past two years some

22% of the bunkering field have either

folded or had their licences cancelled

by the Maritime & Port Authority of

Singapore (MPA). As we went to print

there were 62 suppliers left.

This year’s bunker sales have been

rather flat. In the first eight months sales

for all products stood at 28.18m tons,

just 60,200 tons more than in the same

period in 2013.

More worrying for the bunker

sellers – though not for hard-pressed

shipowners – are falling prices. As

we went to print the outright price of

Singapore 380 CST ex-wharf bunker

fuel fell to its lowest in more than 44

months hitting $553 per ton.

Competition is also felt increasingly

by the republic’s mandarins with

neighbouring ports in Malaysia and

Indonesia making much noise of late

about establishing credible bunkering

rivals to Singapore. Competition,

however, breeds innovation – and it is

here that the Southeast Asian nation

leads the pack, whether it be via its mass

flow meter introduction or preparing for

an LNG fuel future.

“What stands out in the Singapore

bunker scene in 2014 is the positive

effort put in by the port authority team

to improve bunkering standards,” says

August

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Jurong Port appoints Ooi Boon Hoe as ceo

Aztech buys Glenn Marine Logistics Base for S$11m

THE REPUBLIC’S

MINISTER

for transport

promised to up the

nation’s bunkering

credentials at this

year’s Sibcon

bunkering gathering. Lui Tuck Yew

announced that two of the country’s

bunkering codes - SS600 and

SS524 - have been revised effective

this November. As of January 2017,

all surveyor companies need to be

licensed. Previously just the actual

surveyor had to be, and companies

only needed to be accredited.

On mass flow meters, which

Singapore introduces at the end of

this year, the minister said that the

meters were currently in use on 5%

of the city-state’s bunkering fleet,

the aim was to get that figure up to

50% by the end of next year.

Singapore is also leading the

way in the introduction of LNG

bunkering. A pilot program is being

established to develop operational

protocols for LNG bunkering,

the minister revealed with grants

available for testing at $2m per

vessel up to a maximum of six

vessels per company.

Singapore is also looking closely

at the use of electronic bunker

delivery notes, conference delegates

were told.

Minister vows to boost bunker systems

SingaporeA Major Bunkering Hub

Searights Maritime Services Pte LtdCertificate of Accreditation: MPA/AS 04 00180 Marine Parade Road#16-05/06/07/08 Parkway ParadeSingapore 449269

Tel: +65 6344 1108 Fax: +65 6344 1128email: [email protected]

Singapore Bunkering Report (ASM) 2014.indd 1 9/29/2014 3:02:18 PM


SingaporeA Major Bunkering Hub

Searights Maritime Services Pte LtdCertificate of Accreditation: MPA/AS 04 00180 Marine Parade Road#16-05/06/07/08 Parkway ParadeSingapore 449269

Tel: +65 6344 1108 Fax: +65 6344 1128email: [email protected]

Singapore Bunkering Report (ASM) 2014.indd 1 9/29/2014 3:02:18 PM

Rahul Choudhuri, coo, Asia, Middle

East and Africa for Veritas Petroleum

Services.

“Improving the Singapore Standard

Code of Practice for Bunkering by

bunker barges/tankers or SS600,

implementing mass flow meters, making

it clear to all bunker industry players,

whether surveyor, supplier or ship, that

corrupt practice will not be tolerated,

these are all signals that Singapore takes

its bunker business seriously and will

continue to exercise leadership in this

respect,” Choudhuri reckons.

Says another local bunker trader,

“One of the key challenges for

Singapore, as for all bunker markets,

is to remain competitive in the face

of competition from other bunker

ports and to continue to supply the

high quality products that shipping

companies need. Singapore is not

immune to this challenge, despite the

benefits of its location and the strength

of the bunkering infrastructure in place

here, and understands that it doesn’t

have a divine right being the biggest

bunker port in the world.”

Lim Teck Cheng, the ceo of

Singapore’s largest bunker vessel

operator, Hong Lam Marine, argues

that one consequence of this quest for

innovation is a natural further culling

of the number of companies within his

sector.

“When mass flow meters come in

a lot of smaller players will find it

difficult,” says Lim, who anticipates the

playing field being cut by another 10%

making the sector more sustainable in

the long run.

There are too many bunker tankers

in Singapore now, admits Lim. Mass

flow meters can supply 15 to 20% more

than before, he points out, which in turn

means there will be no need for 15 to

20% of today’s bunker tankers. However,

there are a still a number of single hull

tankers plying Singapore waters so

eventually everything should balance

out, Lim maintains.

THE SPEED AND nature of the demise

of OW Bunker had overtones of Nick

Leeson and Barings Bank’s dramatic

bankruptcy nearly 20 years prior also

in Singapore.

So the story goes, the head of a

Singapore subsidiary turns up at

the Copenhagen headquarters of

the world’s largest bunker supplier

fearing arrest in the Lion Republic

for fraudulent actions carried out

by a couple of employees that, it

emerges, resulted in a dramatic

$125m hole in the firm’s accounts.

Within a couple of days OW Bunker,

Denmark’s third largest company

by revenue, declares bankruptcy

sending shockwaves around the

world, especially in Singapore, where

despite the authorities best efforts to

try and maintain calm, disruptions in

the bunker supply chain were evident,

leading to a spike in bunkering sales

in other Asian ports.

The real people to gain from

OW Bunker’s demise have been

lawyers with claims against it and its

subsidiary running into the millions

and once again Singapore being at the

centre of many legal wranglings.

The actions of its Singapore

subsidiary that spurred its downfall

were unknown to the board of OW

Bunker, its chairman has said.

Chairman Niels Henrik Jensen said the

board had been “extremely surprised”

by the $150m trading loss at its

subsidiary Dynamic Oil Trading and

that the board had never approved

a credit line in the region of $125m

from Dynamic to Tankoil Marine

Services.

Bunkering

OW Bunker’s demise

September

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

MPA cancels Northwest Resources’s bunker licence

V.Group acquires Singapore’s Core-IRM, an offshore inspection, repairs and maintenance services providerNew shipping agency, Wave Shipping, launches in Singapore

New York-listed DHT Holdings buys out local firm Samco Shipholding for $317mEzra subsidiary EOC

launches Singapore IPO Keppel takes 10% stake in Golar Hilli, the world’s first FLNG vessel conversion project

Singapore Bunker Sales

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

201320122011201020092008200720062005

Metric Tons

Need daily news from Southeast Asia?

The only maritime and o�shore news site dedicated to Southeast Asiawww.seashipnews.com

@SeaShipNews


SINGAPORE’S POLICE COAST Guard

(PCG) says it will continue to actively

tackle illegal bunker trading.

A spokesman for the Singapore

Police Force says it had arrested 58

people, six vessels, and taken 17,363 in

cash since 2013.

“The Coast Guard will continue to

conduct enforcement operations and

checks, as well as engage relevant

stakeholders to clamp down on the

illegal sales of MGO [marine gas oil],”

said the spokesman.

Tugboats continue to be modified

in order to carry greater quantities of

fuel oil than they would ordinarily and

then used as transporters for the illegal

bunkers.

“These tugboats are a fire hazard

and pose a danger to other vessels in

the area,” added the police spokesman.

The PCG has said that in the first

seven months of 2014 compared to all

of last year there had been a tenfold

increase in illegal fuel trade volume so

far in 2014. Those found guilty of theft

of bunker oil face seven years in jail

and a fine. Those who buy the stolen oil

could be jailed for five years and fined.

THE NATIONAL METROLOGY Centre

and Mogas Flow Lab (MFL) signed a

research collaboration agreement in

April this year to provide scientific

metrology expertise and consultancy

for the establishment of a primary

liquid flow standard, construction

of a heavy hydrocarbon calibration

rig (HHCR), and a R&D lab in flow

measurements for bunkers. MFL is

investing approximately S$20m for

the building of the R&D lab, HHCR and

associated facilities.

The lab will be the first of its kind

to use actual bunker fuel as the flow

medium. When completed, the facility

will give the local maritime industry

a head start in allowing locally-

calibrated bunker mass flow meters

(MFM) to have a direct traceability to

the standard mass.

On the collaboration, Dr Thomas

Liew, NMC’s executive director, says:

“This assures business partners -

owners and buyers - of quantity

standards, promotes fair trade, and

also enables local suppliers to attain

industry standards and related

accreditation/certification, enabling

them to access the global market.”

NMC and Mogas are currently

in discussion and assessing sites

appropriate for the facility. Expected

to occupy 5,000 sq m, the facility is

targeted to commence construction in

early 2015.

Other initiatives by NMC for the

bunker industry include providing

metrology expertise to verify the data

of MPA’s acceptance tests as well as

the establishment of a new liquid flow

lab with the capability to measure

the mass flow rates of water-based

synthetic fluids, using the gravimetric

method, down to a measurement

uncertainty of 0.05%.

Investment in local research

Coast Guard clamp down

Bunkering

September

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

1920

Sembcorp Marine acquires Houston’s SSP Offshore

Ship chandler EMS Seven Seas buys out ship agent Wave ShippingJaccar and Hartmann form ethane carrier jv in Singapore

Bunker supplier Centra Oil folds


Piracy off Singaporean waters has intensified dramatically this year. Solutions are at hand

Piracy

How to beat the pirates

Piracy around the Malacca Straits is

very much back in the news, with

the United Nations saying the region

has now surpassed West and East Africa

to become the global hotspot for piracy.

In particular, small product tankers have

been targeted by robbers throughout the

year. In the final week of June alone there

were five reported incidents.

Piracy in Southeast Asia is nothing

new. What is new, however, is the jump in

numbers and the very specific targeting of

certain types of ships.

This spike in hijacking and cargo

theft has been brought about by the

black market demand for marine fuel oil

in Southeast Asia, says Steve McKenzie,

a senior analyst at the UK firm, Dryad

Maritime. There have been crimes similar

to these for many years, the majority of

which were from bunker barges and small

tankers with only small amounts of fuel

being stolen. A large number of these

incidents went unreported, however, over

the last three or four years reporting

of these incidents has increased as the

criminals have targeted larger vessels.

The common denominator for all of these

hijackings and cargo theft incidents this

year has been Singapore. All the vessels

that have been targeted had prior to being

boarded called at Singapore, McKenzie

notes.

“The stealing of oil products in the

region is targeted product theft, which

results in the stolen cargo being sold on

the black market,” says Gerry Northwood,

the coo of security firm, GoAGT.

Recent successful hijacks of tankers

whilst underway, coupled with a rise

in the average number of pirates

involved in a single attack may suggest

a partial evolution in the typical trends

of the industry, notes Harry Pearce, an

intelligence analyst at Ambrey Risk

“We assess that these crimes will

continue unabated until the black market

in marine fuel oil is curtailed and the crime

syndicates who are controlling the gangs

who carry out the crimes are dealt with,”

the Dryad analyst reckons.

While the greatest concentration

of incidents undoubtedly lies adjacent

to Indonesia’s often marginalised

communities in the Riau Archipelago, they

are shaped by their proximity to Malaysia

and Singapore and aided by long-standing

boundary disputes.

Indonesia’s new government is focused

on economic nationalism and delivering

energy self-sufficiency. A concentration

of piracy in the Makassar Straits may

threaten investor confidence in upstream

developments across Kalimantan where

reserves are falling and the unrealised

deepwater potential of local concessions is

increasingly important.

To build domestic savings and finance

energy initiatives, the new Indonesian

government may be required to curb long-

standing subsidies on fuel products, which

is likely to put pressure on more remote

regions, already dissatisfied by a decade of

widening income inequality.

“Without a viable alternative provided

to those seeking redress for an expanding

social divide and continued inflation

in Indonesia, many agitators will be

compelled to target commercial assets with

September

21 22 23 2425 26

27 28 29 30

Vallianz acquires shipyard in Batam

Pavilion signs 20-year deal for BP gas Singapore Shipping Association annual dinner attracts record crowd of 2,400

CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, part of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, sets up offshore engineering subsidiary in Singapore

Vallianz to buy crew specialist OER for $27.7m


relative ease,” says Pearce from Ambrey

Risk.

The piracy model currently used in

Southeast Asia is very similar to that used

by Nigerian gangs, who in recent years

have been hijacking large product tankers

across West Africa and then stealing fuel

oil. These crimes are intelligence led and

well-coordinated. In Southeast Asia the

vessels targeted have tended to be local

small product tankers and not the large

ocean going vessels hijacked in the Gulf of

Guinea. In recent months, however, as the

number of attacks has increased, so too

has the breadth of ship types – car carriers,

containerships and LPG vessels have all

been victims in the past few months.

Solving the scourgeSo then, what’s the way to deal with this scourge?

GoAGT’s Northwood admits that finding

a way to solve to the maritime criminality

and piracy problem in Southeast Asia is

not going to be straightforward.

“Most of the incidents are occurring

inside territorial waters, which makes

the legal use of weapons as a means of

deterrent very difficult to achieve without

the enlistment of government military or

navy,” he explains.

The primary solution is to end the black

market for the stolen cargo, says Dryad’s

McKenzie. The syndicate that is controlling

the gangs must have good connections

within the fuel business in Singapore, he

reckons. If these links were broken it would

be more difficult to target specific vessels.

Shipowners and Masters need to

introduce stricter policies on shipping

movements and cargo details. It is possible

that some crewmembers are in collusion

with crime syndicates, McKenzie thinks.

Kevin Doherty, who heads up Nexus

Consuting, observes that stealing oil

cargo from a ship is a very complicated

operation. It requires both deck and engine

officers to be involved in the ship-to-ship

(STS) operation.

“The focus area for the recent Asia

piracy acts should be on those who have

the skills and training for STS and those

who have the connections to move the

diverted cargo on the black market,” he

suggests.

It’s also important to note that this

model seems to be very cyclic. Some 10 to

15 years ago the region was awash with the

same pirate model.

“This lends to the possibility a recently

released criminal may be involved as well,”

Doherty muses.

Scott Bernat, an American maritime

security expert, says affected countries

must work together. Especially important is

the reporting and sharing of information,

such as that which is being accomplished

through the International Maritime

Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre and the

Singapore-based ReCAAP Information

Sharing Centre. Response to reported

incidents must be planned, trained for

and coordinated among all responsible

parties. Criminals must also be prosecuted

to the fullest extent of the applicable legal

jurisdiction and law, utilising a process

protectant of human rights and transparent

to all.

“This teamwork and deference to the

rule of law will highlight the region’s

commitment to countering piracy and send

a clear message to those involved that it

will not be tolerated in any form,” Bernat

says.

The shipmanager’s viewpointFinally, Vijay Soman, director of safety and

insurance at Wallem Ship Management, has

this piece of advice for product tankers

transiting the region.

“The focus of attacks in Southeast Asia

has been product carriers so we have

advised all Wallem product carriers in

the region to take defensive measures in

line with BMP4 standards, which includes

rigging razor wire, additional look outs

and regular testing of communications

equipment,” he says. Vessels which are

asked to anchor at OPL anchorages may

also be vulnerable, Soman warns, and

may be asked to take such precautions on

a case by case basis, including avoiding

remaining at anchor and instead drifting

well away from land.

Every part of the maritime supply chain

can do its bit to help defeat piracy in the

region – now is the time to act.

Piracy

IN A BID to counter rising regional

maritime piracy as well as try to keep

track of air traffic in the wake of the

MH370 disaster, Singapore’s Ministry

of Defence has announced plans to

launch a radar-equipped blimp above

the city.

A giant unmanned helium-filled

balloon will be held down by fortified

ropes to float 600 m above ground.

The so-called aerostat will be similar

to the ones seen at golf tournaments,

which help viewers track balls in the

air, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said

in a statement. The radar, operating

24 hours a day, will be capable of

monitoring as far as 200 km.

View from on high

October

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910

EMAS Offshore lists on Singapore ExchangeGAC Marine Logistics relocates HQ to Singapore

Hallin Marine shut down

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October

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

A $54m research centre launches aimed at tackling urban crowds and port management

CJ Korea Express tells Seoul stock exchange it’s looking at buying APL Logistics

MOL forms shipmanagement jv in Singapore with Chennai-based Synergy

Technology

Singapore is blessed with many

technical tertiary education

establishments who continue to

contribute to the growing efficiency

of the city’s maritime infrastructure,

some of which are detailed on our

ports coverage on page 13. Singapore’s

Maritime and Port Authority signs

up with many overseas organisations

to tap knowledge, such as US class

society, ABS, who this July signed

a memorandum of understanding

to promote maritime research and

development and innovation. Speaking

at the signing MPA chief executive

Andrew Tan talked about developing

Singapore into a “global maritime

knowledge hub”.

The nation’s tech firms are helping

develop this cutting edge too.

Lim Kian Soon, who heads up the

satellite business group at Singapore

Telecommunications (SingTel) tells

SeaShip News, “Shipowners are now

looking at ways to improve in the areas

of operational efficiency, monitoring

and controlling and crew welfare, so that

they can stay afloat during these rough

times for the maritime industry.”

New products introduced by SingTel

to the maritime industry include mobile

video surveillance, an integrated

platform for data, mail, voice calls, web

chats and surfing, and CrewXchange@

SingTel - a lightweight portal for crew

to connect with their loved ones while

at sea. On top of that there’s a secure

ECDIS now on the market as well as a

mobile app whereby seafarers can now

receive incoming calls on their pre-paid

mobile SIM card, which was not possible

previously as they could only make

outgoing calls on their pre-paid mobile

SIM card.

“These solutions,” Lim says, “were

designed to suit shipping companies’

needs to maximise operational

efficiency, control and improve crew

welfare.”

Bunkering changesThe clock is counting down the hours

to another very significant change in

the bunkering sector. Come the end

of this year, Singapore, the world’s

largest bunkering hub, will kick off a

mandatory introduction of mass flow

meters in a bid to make bunkering more

transparent.

Enforcement dates for the new system

to be fitted will apply to all new bunker

tankers applying for a bunker tanker

licence by the end of this year and for

all existing bunker tankers by the end of

2016.

The ruling is very good news for one

local tech firm, Ascenz, founded by Chia

Yoong Hui ,who has been pioneering

fuel monitoring devices for the past six

years.

A controller, accessibly remotely,

created by Ascenz that tracks bunker

usage and sales, is now on more than

180 ships

“The new regulations in Singapore

present an opportunity for Ascenz, as

we have been installing and supporting

mass flow meters for the past six

years and our controller provides

transparency and efficiency for users,”

says Chia.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s National

Metrology Centre and Mogas Flow Lab

(MFL) signed a research collaboration

agreement in April this year to provide

scientific metrology expertise and

consultancy for the establishment

of a primary liquid flow standard,

construction of a heavy hydrocarbon

calibration rig (HHCR), and a R&D lab

in flow measurements for bunkers. MFL

is investing approximately S$20m for

the building of the R&D lab, HHCR and

associated facilities.

The lab will be the first of its kind

to use actual bunker fuel as the flow

medium. When completed, the facility

will give the local maritime industry a

head start in allowing locally-calibrated

bunker mass flow meters (MFM) to have

a direct traceability to the standard

mass.

On the collaboration, Dr Thomas

Liew, NMC’s executive director, says:

“This assures business partners -

owners and buyers - of quantity

standards, promotes fair trade, and also

enables local suppliers to attain industry

standards and related accreditation/

certification, enabling them to access the

global market.”

The global maritime knowledge hubLocal firms are pioneering solutions


Cruise

Southeast Asia needs to improve

in terms of cruise infrastructure

and to have more adequate ports

that can accommodate larger cruise

ships. “These are crucial as cruising is a

regional business,” says Christina Siaw,

ceo of the Singapore Cruise Centre.

The Singapore Cruise Centre is

continually upgrading its own facilities,

with more than 600,000 passengers

using its terminal every year.

The biggest investment came two

years ago when the centre spent S$14m

revamping its HarbourFront Cruise &

Ferry Terminal.

Among the works undertaken

– it expanded its passenger space,

doubled the number of check-in and

immigration counters, increased

security lines and improved its baggage

handling system. More recently, the

queue system at immigration was

enhanced to make it faster and more

efficient and free wifi access was

provided throughout the terminal. “We

are very pleased that cruise passengers

can now breeze through our terminal

in a very efficient and expeditious

manner,” Siaw says.

Among many clever ideas on the

software side, the centre has engaged

trainers at Singapore Airlines to train

its frontline staff.

A string of improvements have also

been made to improve passenger flow

at Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore

(MBCCS).

The number of check-in counters and

x-ray machines have been increased to

allow more passengers to be processed

at the same time. The layout of the taxi

stand has also been enlarged.

The improvements have been made

in response to a traffic jam on Marina

Coastal Drive on April 10 this year,

when two cruiseships were in port at

the same time. This caused a bottleneck

of vehicles arriving at and leaving the

cruise centre.

Fortunately, the Marina South Pier

MRT station has just opened after nearly

five years of construction.

The newest station on the North-

South Line will serve Marina Bay Cruise

Centre as well as Marina South Pier, and

future developments in the Marina Bay

downtown area.

Changi Airport Group (CAG),

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and

Princess Cruises have created an

initiative aimed at growing Asia’s fly-

cruise segment and promoting demand

for cruise holidays from Singapore.

This is the second Carnival brand CAG

and STB have teamed up with following

a similar initiative with Costa Cruises

last year.

Singapore’s efforts to have the right

cruise infrastructure in place should

pay dividends with Asia now widely seen

as the fastest growing cruise market in

the world.

The Cruise Lines International

Association (CLIA) has just released a

study on Asia cruise trends in which it

noted next year will see 26 cruise brands

operate 52 ships in Asia, nine of which

are year-round. In 2013 there were 802

Asia-Asia cruises, in 2015, there will

be 981. The growth in capacity is even

more impressive, driven by increasingly

large and modern ships being deployed.

Last year, there was capacity for 1.4m

guests to take Asia-Asia cruises, next

year there will be room for 2.05m, an

annual growth of 19.5%. On top of that,

CLIA reports another 115,360 guests

may transit through Asia on longer

voyages, up 25% per annum from the

73,616 capacity in 2013.

The republic is set to welcome many more tourists by sea

Scaling up

October

21 22 23 24 25 2627

2829

30 31

Kwok Han Ying, a former crewing executive for Vermont UM Shipping, found guilty of multiple offences

New maritime recruitment firm, Direct Search Asia, opens in Singapore

Bunker supplier Vanguard Energy foldsSembcorp Marine’s former group finance director sentenced to 39 months

in prison for falsifying accounts of Jurong Shipyard


Singapore has a bewildering volume of maritime events lined up for next year. SeaShip News picks out the must-attends

Networking

The race is on

Anyone who has

visited Singapore will

notice the abundance

of maritime business and

networking events. In fact

you could probably host an

event without even telling

anybody and at least a dozen

maritime bods would show

up. At SeaShip News we

attend events all through

the year and have done the

legwork for readers on what

to attend during 2015.

When it comes to meeting

shipowners and managers, look no further

than the Singapore Shipping Association

(SSA). With 474 member companies, a

visit to the regular cocktails held by SSA

should put you in a room networking with

around 500 members of the Singapore

shipping community. Drinks are usually

held early in the year for Chinese New

Year, mid-year for the Annual General

Meeting, and December to wrap up

the year. We recommend the mid-year

drinks if you want to meet the heads of

Singaporean shipowners. The association

also holds a dinner in September, which

attracts more than 2,000 attendees,

enough to challenge even the best power

networkers in the maritime industry.

A key week in the Singapore shipping

calendar is Singapore Maritime Week.

Held every April, and organised by the

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore

(MPA), Maritime Week provides a platform

for every event company to put their

best event in the mix as the industry

celebrates everything maritime. The

coming year includes events such as the

7th Offshore Support Vessels Conference,

International Chemical and Oil Pollution

Conference, and TOC Container Supply

Chain: Asia. The main highlight of the

week is usually the MPA’s Singapore

Maritime Lecture and also the Singapore

Maritime Foundation supported

conference and exhibition, Sea Asia,

which attracts over 10,000 visitors.

During Singapore Maritime Week,

plenty of drinks receptions are held with

at least two or three to choose from each

night for those needing to slake their

thirst. SeaShip News is not one to let

everyone else have all the fun, and each

year we organise drinks at Marina Bay

Sands to celebrate with our friends and

customers. Supported by our clients such

as M3 Marine and Transas, around 200

gather at Marine Bay Sands to drink and

network al fresco late into the night. A

definite highlight of the week!

Come the end of Singapore Maritime

Week, those that have had enough

of looking at propellers

and studying powerpoint

presentations can seek

refuge at the Singapore Yacht

Show 2015.

If one week full of events

isn’t enough, after the

famous Singapore Grand

Prix each September follows

another week of events.

Highlights of this autumnal

gathering include the Marine

Money Asia conference

which attracts around 500

delegates, including plenty

of shipowner bosses looking for new and

innovative ways to access funds. There is

a host of other conferences organised for

those who can’t get enough, and the week

signs off in style on the Friday with the

SSA dinner referred to earlier, making this

another great week to be in town.

Throughout the year if you’re looking

for something a bit more intimate,

Singapore Marine Network organises a

series of evening receptions, targeting

crowds of around 100 executives on

a quarterly basis. SeaShip News also

hosts an annual lunch via our flagship

title, Maritime CEO, where we invite the

republic’s key owners for discussion on

pressing issues, and we also organise

occasional invitation only breakfasts to

discuss topics such as offshore and the

environment.

There are plenty of corporate parties,

functions and conferences all through the

year so if visiting Singapore it is always a

good idea to combine some business with

pleasure.

POLE POSITION A week of shipping events handily takes place just after the Grand Prix in September

November

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13

14 15

AusGroup buys Ezion Holdings’ marine supply base business

Höegh Autoliners and Wallem Ship Management form jvThoresen launches bulker pool in Singapore

OW Bunker files for bankruptcy after $125m fraud at its Singapore subsidiary


Travel

Berthed in Singapore with some time to kill? Here’s the inside low down on what to do

Spin the wheel

Head to the Robertson Quay area

and start your day with breakfast

at one of Singapore’s hippest

cafes: Kith Cafe - hands down best

coffee in town, or Epicurious - green

eggs and ham, oddly delicious (both

on Robertson Quay); or Baker & Cook

(nearby on Martin Road) who make

pastries to die for. Then stroll along

the Singapore river, from Robertson

Quay to the city (about 3 km). Along

the way you’ll pass Clarke Quay, the

Singapore parliament and civic district,

and Boat Quay, with spectacular views

of Singapore’s skyline. Criss-cross the

river at various bridges and make sure

to see the bronze sculptures that dot the

riverfront along the way.

For a touch of culture, pop into the

Asian Civilisation Museum at Empress

Place, where you’ll find a stunning

museum in an equally stunning setting.

The museum often has excellent

temporary exhibitions.

Next up: time to shop. Singapore is a

land of shopping malls, so why wouldn’t

you have a quick wander through the

best one? Cab to the Ion on Orchard

Mall. The top floors are wall-to-wall

designer brand names; you’ll find cooler,

funkier stores in the basement levels.

Remember most stores don’t open until

11am. If you are up for it, stroll along

Orchard Road and check out some of

the other malls – the section from Ion to

Paragon Mall is best.

By now you should be hungry

again, so make like a local and head

to a hawker stall, which is where

Singaporeans get most of their daily

sustenance. The Opera Food Court at

Ion is a bustling yet gentle introduction

to eating, Singapore style. Try local

favourites like Hainan chicken rice,

laksa (spicy curry noodles and seafood

soup) or Singapore chilli crab. For

real local flavour try coffee si – strong

brewed coffee with condensed milk,

and a serving of kaya toast (a green jam,

made of pandan leaf, egg yolk and sugar

– sinfully delicious). Finish with a deep-

fried dough-ball ‘butterfly’, and your

local dining credentials are assured.

A short cab ride from Orchard Road

is the Singapore Flyer (pictured), one of

the world’s largest observation wheels.

A full cycle takes thirty minutes. Yes, it

is cheesy and touristy, but it’s world-

class, and the views along the way give

a real sense of the modern miracle that

is Singapore. For the truly adventurous,

visit Kenko Fish Spa in the mall beneath

the flyer. Plunge your feet and lower-

legs into tubs of water and watch small

fish nibble the dead skin away. It might

sound gross, but is a completely unique

sensory sensation (a cross between

massage, static-shock and tickling), and

your feet will be smoother than a baby’s

bottom when you are done. You can

also get an excellent reflexology foot-

massage or shoulder rub as well.

Singapore’s latest gob-stopping

attraction – the Gardens by the Bay

- is a short cab ride from the Flyer,

and is absolutely worth the hype.

Here you will see flowers and plants

galore, spectacularly displayed in giant

greenhouses, complete with indoor

mountains and waterfalls. Don’t miss

the Supertrees, a grove of massive

treelike structures covered in flora of

the world. Once you’re all flowered out,

cross the bridge and head to the Marina

Bay Sands Hotel. Its tri-towers are an

architectural marvel. Buy a ticket and

ride the elevator up to the Skypark.

Views are sublime, and the world’s most

spectacular infinity swimming pool,

58 floors up, is something to behold. A

cocktail up in the sky, or a meal at the

ultra trendy Ku De Ta restaurant, will be

the perfect way to end your day.

November

21 2019181716 22 23 24

25

26 27 28 29 30

Andreas Sohmen-Pao takes over as chairman of BW Group

Viking Asset Management establishes new subsidiary, Viking LR2MPA signs R&D MoU with Singapore Management University

Just shy of 500 people voted in our online poll about Singapore’s place in the maritime world. Results plus juicy comments are carried below

Your opinion

Is Singapore the world’s leading maritime centre?

Are current restrictions on foreign talent and workers affecting your business in Singapore?

How effective has the government’s policy of getting more Singaporeans to work in the maritime sector been to date?

Is the talent pool among local workers both large enough and of high enough quality for the city’s fast growing maritime sector?

Does Singapore’s high cost of living – recently crowned the most expensive place to live by The Economist – mean much shipping operations will relocate elsewhere?

Could Singapore be doing more to help crack down on maritime piracy in the region?

Yes 79%No 21%

Yes 79%No 21%

Yes 53%No 47%

Yes 53%No 47%

Very effective 8%Quite effective 33%Not effective 59%

Very effective 8%Quite effective 33%Not effective 59%

Yes 23%No 77%

Yes 23%No 77%

Yes 62%No 38%

Yes 62%No 38%

Yes 85%No 15%

Yes 85%No 15%

“ Without a doubt and the trend is only to consolidate this position”

“ Singaporeans won’t take up work that requires manual labour”

“ Retention is not effective. Whether in office positions or seagoing positions, the sector is still a springboard to move on to something else”

“ All companies in Singapore need to increase productivity and that will balance out any temporary under supply”

“ Salaries have not kept pace with the increase in the cost of living”

“ The Singapore efforts are restricted by the other nations involved”

Singapoll

Siemens PLM Software: Smarter decisions, better products.

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