Enquiries for repairs, scrubber retrofits and dry-docking are on the up at South East Asian shipyards — with one outfit claiming a 50% hike in business — as their Chinese rivals near a standstill after the Covid-19 outbreak.
The scale of the problem facing shipping was revealed last week when the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry estimated that there were more than 200 vessels in the country facing potential delays.
It added that 93.3% of the ships were owned by foreign companies.
With China in lockdown, shipowners seeking such bread-and-butter work have increasingly been turning their focus to a cluster of yards around one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — the Singapore Strait.
News of the hike in enquiries in South East Asia comes just one week after TradeWinds reported a similar surge at Mediterranean facilities as shipowners switch yard bookings.
While Singapore is a hub for yards in South East Asia, the cluster includes the Indonesian island of Batam, where many small to midsize outfits have facilities due to low labour costs and available land.
In recent years, China’s low-cost shipyards have largely rendered these yards uncompetitive, but sources tell TradeWinds that interest has soared since the coronavirus outbreak.
Booked until May
Singapore-based PaxOcean, which operates yards in Singapore and Batam, said it had experienced a 50% hike in enquiries for scrubber retrofits, dry-dockings and ballast water treatment system installations.
“For both our Singapore and Batam yards, we are 85% booked until May 2020,” the company told TradeWinds.
ASL Marine, another Singaporean yard group with a large facility on Batam —with three dry docks, including one capable of accommodating a VLCC — has also indicated an increase in repair business, which it expects to continue in the summer and beyond.
“In view of the outbreak of Covid-19 in China, we anticipate a moderate increase in shiprepair activities during the next two quarters,” it told TradeWinds.
Batam yards are well placed for retrofits as two major scrubber manufacturers — Feen Marine and Clean Marine, which recently merged with FMSI Services — are based there.
Singapore’s two largest shipyard groups declined to participate in this article.
Sembcorp Marine said it was in silent mode ahead of its 2019 financial results, while Keppel Corp cited its company policy of not commenting on contracts prior to confirmation.
While the yards are keeping mum, observers said yards are experiencing a high volume of calls from owners eager to get ships into a facility.
Sembcorp has lined up some immediate cruiseship work in the form of the 116,000-gt Sapphire Princess (built 2004), after owner Princess Cruises brought forward a refit scheduled for May.
The ship entered its Admiralty yard in Singapore last weekend for a two-week stay.
