Inchcape’s busy Singapore office is a strong revenue driver for Inchcape globally. Here General Manager Benjamin Oh shares insights into the station’s comprehensive capabilities and competitive advantage, port coverage and key markets, potential areas for growth, recent noteworthy projects, and what’s key to motivating his team.
Here in Singapore our port coverage includes Singapore itself and the Indonesian ports of Batam and Karimun, as well as the Nipah anchorage, due to their close proximity versus Jakarta, Indonesia. The focus in Batam and Karimun has to date been marine and offshore projects, along with minor port agency jobs clearing vessels in and out through sub-agents. Nipah is primarily ship-to-ship transfers. At present, we don’t have feet on the ground in these locations, everything is managed out of Singapore, but our intention in future is to grow our presence firstly in Batam, Indonesia.
One-stop shop
Singapore offers the full scope of Inchcape products and services. As a one-stop shop, customers can get everything they need without having to deal with multiple vendors and service providers. In fact, many in the industry don’t seem to be aware that we aren’t just simply an agency. We provide integrated logistics and supply chain activities, including air or sea freight, survey and inspection (S&I), warehousing, end-to-end project solutions, sustainable port operations (SPO) as well as Disbursement Account (DA) management (OneCape DA), to name just a few. One of our key strengths is that we’re always able to find solutions for our clients, even for unique requests.
For vessels like tankers, bulk carriers and container ships, besides all the typical port agency, husbandry – crew changes and door-to-deck procurement and owner’s matters, bunkering and de-slopping, our S&I capability includes a team of four surveyors who can carry out bunker quality and quantity and other detective surveys on board. We can also arrange hull inspections, diving inspections and underwater cleaning inspections.
We also do a lot of S&P (transfer-of-ownership) coordination on behalf of either seller or buyer, usually the latter. The full service can take two to three weeks, what with crew changes, logistics, procurement and surveys. If there’s a hiccup, we may have to bring the crew off and stage them in Johor, Malaysia, for a couple of days before they can return because of immigration requirements. All in all, we offer flexibility to our clients
In terms of pure operations, we are around 60 people, so a big station covering all sectors, mainly tankers and bulkers where we have our hub solution. The lion’s share of dry bulk is loading/unloading of steel or scrap steel cargoes versus base stocks, as there aren’t many production facilities in Singapore. We also handle cargoes such as vessel or offshore structures/modules fabricated in Batam, which we consider more as heavy bulk than offshore. But with Inchcape’s Global Offshore Solutions, Lynn Hee and her team based here, we also use Singapore as one of the bases to centralise all project management for major offshore projects originating from Asia to the rest of the world. We can also handle ship repair, connecting customers with yards here and in Batam.
On the logistics side, we have a 10,000-square-foot covered warehouse, which we are looking to double in size by January 2025, if not earlier, as well as a 25,000-square-foot open space in Jurong Port for storage of open cargo. Hence, we can offer storage and rapid mobilisation capabilities. We also run three of our own Combi Transporters that take 13 passengers each, but usually we’ll execute crew changes of seven or eight people with luggage. One is electric, so more sustainable. We also have our own cargo vans that go around the different terminals picking up or delivering smaller parcels, as well as a large logistics truck that can carry pallets and crates. We also provide cash to master as well as crew mobile phones.
Unmatched global network
Compared to our peers we have a very wide global footprint, with a lot of customers based here in Singapore as well, so they can engage immediately with our teams to explore innovative solutions not only within Southeast Asia but the entire APAC region and across the world, enabling them to grow their business with a strong global partner based locally in Singapore. In addition, we have very large volumes, so we can offer discount rates for hotels, launches, towage, de-slopping and transport.
In terms of major markets, we get a lot of charterers’ nominations for tankers. We also have a good mix of owner’s nominations, including large tanker companies, for bunkering, owner’s matters, husbandry, crew changes and desludging/de-slopping services. We also work with ship managers, including Bernard Schulte, OSM, Thome, Cassiopea and Seapsan. We cover liner husbandry, although we don’t do liner agency anymore. We also have government services – naval, coast guard and NGOs – and cruise, where we are well entrenched with European lines, including Carnival Maritime’s AIDA and Costa brands, as well as lines in the US and Asia.
Key staging location
Geographically, Singapore is of course very strategically located, between far east APAC and westwards to the Middle East and beyond, as a staging post. It’s very easy to conduct business operations here with robust and trusted financial infrastructures and reliable service provider network. Customs clearances and immigration are very straightforward, and we also have a huge airlift capacity at Changi Airport. Singapore and Batam are also a centre for shipbuilding and ship repair; we work closely with the major yards like Seatrium and Jurong Port’s various facilities. Everything is readily available here in terms of specialised equipment and services, technicians, provisions and consumables, and thanks to our extensive local network we can mobilise fast.
We handle around 700 jobs per month in total. Close to 250 are cargo calls by tankers mainly – crude, product (clean and dirty) and chemical tankers, as well as LNG and LPG carriers – and bulk carriers. We have long relationships with both government-run terminals and private terminals. Our deep understanding of local infrastructure means we can provide clients, whether charterers or owners, with very clear pre-arrival information also for spot calls. For husbandry – crew logistics and supply chain/procurement – we do 80-plus jobs a month across all sectors.
Unlike most staging calls, cruise ships will typically be based in Singapore from a couple of weeks up to two months. We provide services including vessel clearance and crew immigration when the ship arrives, stevedores, crew changes, hotel bookings and all the resupply before clearing the vessel for departure.
Expansion opportunities
We’re definitely focused on tankers and winning more volume from national energy companies and LPA business from the major IECs [international energy companies], together with our global and regional commercial teams. We have the capacity to expand in the liner space and are bidding for work from various big operators, providing volumes that will translate into add-on husbandry services, including hotels, transport and launch transfers. We already do this for Maersk Line, Evergreen and CMA CGM, and recently won cargo volumes and husbandry for local company Sindo Damai Shipping, which does a lot of container transport using tugs and barges within shallow waters in Indonesia, mainly into Singapore.
In offshore, through our integrated project solutions strategically located across the globe, we’re also primed to coordinate east-west transits of FPSOs, FSRUs and FLNG units or any newbuilds from yards in Singapore, China, Korea or even Labuan, Malaysia to their final destinations in East and West Africa, Americas such as Brazil, Mexico, Suriname, Guyana or even Europe such as Norway, Netherlands, and Poland. This could involve completion works in Singapore, logistics and towage, and using our network for staging in Mauritius, South Africa and Namibia, all managed locally by ISS offices. Offshore production guys may have local operational marine technical knowledge of a location but the rig or floater will usually just be in one location and not traverse multiple countries and ports. That’s where we can come in to manage the agency services on the journey across the different oceans as they move from yard to location, supporting clients during a time sensitive journey, where they may lack experience and manpower to support in coordination.
We’re also targeting agency and logistics work for owners or operators of AHTS, SOVs, OSVs and PSVs, where with volume we can also handle repairs and upgrades in local yards, hiring in specialist engineering contractors as needed. My vision is to do more high-value technical management and crew supply, providing turnkey solutions as these companies look to outsource entire projects.
In terms of dry bulk, there are shipments of coal, iron ore, and nickel in Singapore, but we don’t handle that much right now. However, we have expanded our commercial team and aim to penetrate these types of cargo, as well as paper, regionally within Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. As a key cog in the entire Inchcape machine, I see Singapore as a gateway to growing business throughout the entire APAC region.
Some noteworthy projects
In the offshore space, we recently handled the ultra-deepwater drillship, which was in the Seatrium yard for upgrading. Our team supported all the agency, crew changes, husbandry and owner’s matters. Whilst we were not actively involved in technical management, we integrated into the project operations preparedness team and the offshore drilling contractor team and also provided associated procurement services.
Last year we handled two FSRUs for Singapore LNG, providing the entire agency requirement and helping to coordinate and maintain those operations month to month, including the towages, owner’s matters and slopping. In the last 12 months, we also supported the towage of two FPSOs, one going to Senegal and another to Brazil, providing integrated project agency support as the FPSOs move from the China yards to their respective operational locations. Right now, we are supporting an offshore services company to deliver three newbuilding aluminium crew transfer vessels into Angola. In terms of Renewables, we are also supporting the Windfarm Installation newbuilds moving from the yards in Asia to their locations in the West.
In government services, we recently handled the Japan Coast Guard Academy training vessel Kojima, and we’ve been in talks with Singapore’s Police Coast Guard (PCG) to provide services, including base facility management and supporting PCG vessels also from other stations within Southeast Asia. In addition, we’ve been responsible for handling the literacy and education NGO ship Doulos Hope here in Singapore, with GBA Ships looking to engage us globally for all their port agency needs and Singapore specifically as their centralised logistics warehousing location for books, machinery, spares, consumable and long-term storage of parts and capital equipment. We already do this for a tanker customer storing capital equipment and as a mobilisation location for vessels that trade around the APAC, including for example going into China for their annual surveys and refits. We coordinate with the client, yard and local agents through our Inchcape China office, and our logistics team has been mobilising transshipments of all spares for the repair and refit works, as well as capital equipment and paints. We’ve also supported a couple of US Navy ships in the past.
On the cruise side, we have provided crew logistics for Virgin Europe’s Resilient Lady and the privately owned residential ship The World, which comes into Singapore to prepare for its next adventure voyage.
‘Something new every day’
I’ve been in the post of General Manager since May 2024, and what I enjoy most about the job is working across so many different sectors. We’re not focused on a specific area, we’re strong in every sector, but it’s very exciting to have such a wide scope of challenges with different clients, cultures and expectations. Just in tankers, we have strong relationships with charterers and big energy companies from the US and Europe, as well as owners and operators from the Middle East and China. Then you have the navies and coast guards who are very much protocol-driven. Therefore, there’s something new, challenging and exciting every day.
In terms of leadership and motivating the team, my focus is encouraging everyone 1) to be very transparent with one another with respect to the role or function they perform so that all information is made available internally and externally for maximum flexibility in planning and decision making. And 2) always be positive, especially as Singapore is such a significant revenue driver and cost centre for Inchcape globally and we deal with so many different customers and requests from all over the world.
I’m very proud of our company culture. There are no teams within teams. Everyone is very collaborative, and we have very long-serving stalwarts who’ve been with Inchcape for up to 25 years. Our people have on average, eight to ten years of experience. Some have left and come back, so they really know their stuff. Inchcape Singapore is a premium name, but we still provide very personalised and localised attention to business.
As for myself, I’m an electrical engineer by qualification but have never worked a day in that field! After graduating and my national service I started in ship/rig-building when the offshore sector was booming. I was involved in building rigs, then moved into EPC, both for onshore and offshore projects, and then managed a fleet of rigs, vessels, and lift boats for a listed company here in Singapore. After COVID, I wanted a change of scene as most of the offshore business was shifting out of Singapore, which meant the likelihood of having to relocate to countries with offshore activities. As I had a young family, I was against uprooting the family hence decided to enter the shipping industry. I could have joined an owner, operator or a charterer but was very much intrigued by the agency business segment due to the variety of sectors we liaise with. It has been a great decision so far joining Inchcape Shipping Services. With our global footprint, dynamic team and excellent people within our company, we are ready to serve your next port call and project.