Buoyant figures for SembCorp

Thanks to buoyant demand for its ship conversion and repair businesses, the Singapore shipyard of SembCorp Marine has recorded a 21% increase in last year?s net profits at $57.5 million. Revenue also hit a record high of $787 million.

SembCorp Marine’s ship conversion and offshore business was boosted last year by high oil prices and a robust oil and gas industry. Ship repair also did well, with turnover up 32% to $276 million. And this year is looking good because more bulk carriers seem to be coming to Singapore for repairs.

Heng Chiang Gnee, Deputy President, SembCorp Marine, said, “I believe the strong freight rates have made the time factor a more important factor than just purely price. As a result, because of the reliability in the redelivery, and shorter time in delivery such ships on completion of repair, you see more ships being repaired here.” Ship and rig building, however, saw lower contributions because many projects are still at early stages of production.

Overall, SembCorp Marine’s order book appears strong, standing at $1.4 billion as at end December. The company expects ship repair demand to stay robust.

Heng said, “Our investment into the Cosco ship repair group has only become effective from 2005…compared with other previous arrangements where we had only 20% share in the Dalian shipyard. With the participation in five shipyards, we expect the contribution to be higher for 2005.”