Singapore's shipyards will remain open during the country's one-month lockdown period that goes into effect at midnight on Tuesday.

Shipyards have been given in principle notice from the Ministry of Trade that they may continue their shipbuilding and repair activities as marine and offshore engineering have been assessed as being an essential service.

The notice ends the uncertainty shipyards and their shipowner clients have faced since last Friday, when Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong announced restrictive measures in the country's fight against the virus.

Although refraining from using the word lockdown, Lee said Singapore would apply “circuit breakers” that include closing most workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors.

Uptake in business

Yards in Singapore have been experiencing uptake in repair and retrofit work due to closures of Chinese shipyards in the past few months.

As late as Monday evening shipyards were still uncertain as to whether they would have to suspend operations.

Even though operations can continue, special measures against the spread of coronavirus will have to be put in place at all yards.

A Keppel Corp spokesman said these measures are in compliance with the government’s guidelines of reducing physical interactions, including telecommuting where possible, split team arrangements, staggered work hours, postponing all group events and safe distancing within the workplace.

It is unclear how these measures will affect the shipyards' workload capacity.

Keppel Corp itself has felt the impact of the coronavirus. Last Friday, it was revealed that a Keppel shipyard had emerged as a new cluster for coronavirus cases.

Three confirmed cases were linked to Keppel's 51 Pioneer Sector 1 site and about 100 personnel who had direct contact with Covid-19 patients linked to the shipyard were placed on a 14-day leave of absence.