SINGAPORE is the "place to be if you are in shipping today", Anglo-Eastern CEO Peter Cremers told an annual luncheon of shipping journalists.
Singapore's focused drive trumps HK's laissez-faire on shipping hub
SINGAPORE is the "place to be if you are in shipping today", Anglo-Eastern CEO Peter Cremers told an annual luncheon of shipping journalists at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club yesterday.
Mr Cremers, whose Hong Kong ship management company has 20,000 seafarers afloat or on leave and manages 250 ships out of Hong Kong alone, said Singapore has a more focused policy to attract shipping interests, owners brokers and ship managers like himself.
"And when some of them come, more of them come. It starts a momentum, and then even more want to come. Singapore has been very successful in building a cluster," he said.
"They are always asking what do you need, what they can do for you. Hong Kong is more like a platform. You come here, do well, or you don't do well. There is no special interest on the part of the government," he said.
Anglo Eastern chief operating officer Marcel Liets interjected: "Singapore is run like a company. If they want something, they go after it. It's not like that in Hong Kong."
But Mr Cremers conceded that costs have gone up in Singapore in the last two years, so there is no thought of moving much more there today.
"But it is odd," he said "In Hong Kong there are no taxes and in Singapore there are tax incentives. But in a funny way, it works for them," he said.
Turning to other questions, Mr Cremers said he suspected there was reason to fear for the prospects of the Panama Canal - despite its expansion programme. This is because of 18,000 TEU ships entering the market, which are too big for even the expanded canal, which will barely take 13,000-TEUers, up from the 4,500-TEU vessels it can accommodate today.
Said Mr Cremers: "With carbon footprints becoming an issue, together with high fuel costs, it makes sense to use slow steaming and carry much, much more. Ships today are five or six times more efficient than they were even a few years ago. This trend does not favour Panama," he said.
As for Arctic shipping, Mr Cremers is hopeful, but his hopes have little to do with global warming, which he described as "debatable".
Boasting that that Anglo-Eastern had the finest ice-strengthened ships afloat, he said: "There is as much ice as there ever was. What has changed is the upgrade in technology, that ice strengthened ships are stronger and able to carry more today than ever before. And with the price of commodities rising, it makes sense to use Arctic trade lanes."
Anglo Eastern executives at the lunch commented that that a 25,000-tonne cargo of nickel ore cost US$250,000. "These days it even pays to take iron ore out of Baffin Island," said one.
