Newcastle: In a sign of Singapore's continued growth as a ship operating centre, the North of England P&I club has announced plans to open an office in the Republic by February 2007. Deputy md Paul Jennings said it would initially act as a representative office but subsequently as a full branch office within two years.
Like sister regional offices in Hong Kong and Athens, the branch will focus on face-to-face contact, while all underwriting will continue to be undertaken centrally from North of England's UK head office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (pictured).
The Singapore office will be managed by claims specialist and master mariner Iain Beange, who is currently a manager in the club's P&I claims department in Newcastle. From 2000 to 2004 he was based in the club's Hong Kong office, working closely with Asia members. Singapore has become the largest single concentration of North of England's fast-growing Asian membership, which now represents 20% of the club's total entered tonnage of 68m gt. [13/12/06]
Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.