Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

ASL Marine bags $100m in shipbuilding contracts

ASL Marine bags $100m in shipbuilding contracts
Singapore’s ASL Marine has clinched shipbuilding contracts worth approximately SGD140m ($100m) for the construction of a series of tugs and barges.

ASL Marine said the vessels will be designed and built for overseas customers engaged in the mining and marine infrastructure industries.

The newbuildings will be constructed at the group’s shipyards in Singapore and Indonesia.

The new shipbuilding deals followed ASL Marine’s 2015 financial year ended 30 June 2015 results announcement, where the company recorded lower earnings compared to the previous financial year.

Net profit for financial year 2015 was reported at SGD7.93m, a plunge of 64.1% compared to SGD22.12m in financial year 2014.

Revenue during the period also decreased by 63.9% year-on-year to SGD184.16m due mainly to reversal on shipbuilding revenue following the rescission of two OSV contracts in December 2014.

“As oil prices continue to trend lower over the past few quarters, our shipbuilding business took a hard hit, especially for OSVs. Ship chartering performance was stable as our non-offshore related vessels, such as tugs, work barges, dredgers, and tankers were less impacted by the tough offshore market, and they benefitted from the lower logistics costs brought by lower oil prices,” said Ang Kok Tian, chairman and managing director of ASL Marine.

Ang added that the company has experienced “one of the worst years for the offshore and marine sector in recent history.”

As at 30 June 2015, the group had an outstanding shipbuilding orderbook of around SGD356m for 20 vessels, comprising of AHTS vessels, tugs, barge, seismic support vessel and tanker. They will be progressively delivered up to the first quarter of financial year 2018.

In ship chartering, the group had an orderbook backlog of approximately SGD57m for long tern contracts.

“Our outstanding order books for shipbuilding and ship chartering remain healthy, and they offer certain earnings visibility even as the industry outlook remains challenging,” Ang said.

“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the board expects the group to remain profitable for financial year 2016,” he added.