Singapore: Michael Chia, president of the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI), reports that the the republic's marine and offshore sector produced a record turnover of S$15.4bn in 2008, up 18% over the previous year's S$13.05bn.
Output from the offshore sector in particular soared to $7.39bn, 49.1% year-on-year to account for 48% of the industry's total turnover, overtaking shiprepair and conversion as the lead sector.
Ship repair and conversion's contribution to the industry's total output dipped by 6% from 48% in 2007 to 42% in 2008 as the shipyards focused on the higher value add offshore rig projects. However, higher earnings saw the sector's revenue rising to S$6,468m in 2008. This was S$204m or 3.26% more than the S$6,264 million achieved in 2007. This healthy figure wass attributed mainly to the large number of FPSO/FSO projects undertaken and completed during the year.
The shipbuilding sector by contrast registered a decline in output by 16.35% despite more vessels launched during the year. Its output of S$1.53bn in 2008 accounted for 10% of the industry's total turnover.
Port statistics from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) showed a total of 6,588 vessels called in Singapore for repairs in 2008 which was 9.89% or 593 vessels more than the 5,995 vessel calls recorded in 2007. Their total gross tonnage was 43.26m grt, 31.4% higher than in 2007.
Total employment in the marine and offshore industry in 2008 stood at 141,000 workers, up 7.63%, including production, administrative and other non-production workers.
However, safety performance in 2008 failed to match the significant low of 2007. There were a total of 558 accidents in the marine and offshore industry, 13.9% higher compared to 490 accidents reported in 2007. There were 13 fatalities in the shipyards and anchorages in 2008, two more than the previous year. The industry's fatality rate rose from 8.4 per 100,000 persons employed in 2007 to 9.2 in 2008.
The industry also reported higher Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) and Accident Severity Rate (ASR) in 2008. The AFR in 2008 was 1.4 accidents per million man-hours worked, 0.1% higher than the AFR of 1.3 in 2007. The ASR of 236 man-days lost per million man-hours worked in 2008 was 11.3% more than the ASR of 212 in 2007.
Looking ahead, the ASMI president says that "overall, the industry outlook is at most, cautiously optimistic given the strong fundamentals underpinning the marine, and oil and gas industries as well as the healthy order books of the major shipyards. The Energy Information Administration expects lower global oil consumption in 2009 to be lower than in 2008 and a modest recovery in 2010... (and) the on-going world recession and credit crunch are likely to slow down new rig orders in 2009 and beyond, at least until the global economy recovers." [29/05/09]
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
