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Sinwa Proile

Growingahead

eye

with an on core

competence

in the shipping industry and weak demand has depressed

freight rates, and the shipping market may not improve in the

short term. Also, as a number of offshore projects move from
construction to production phase in Australia, and clients

become increasingly prudent on their expenditures as oil prices
stay low, the offshore business will not be immune from the

market downturn either.
“We will continue to focus on and grow our core marine,

offshore supply and logistics business and actively explore
further growth opportunities throughout the Asia Paciic

region,” he said.
According to the Sinwa boss, business was very good for

the company last year, but Sinwa does have the beneit of

having a lot of ingers in a lot of pies in the Asia Paciic region.
He told TSS: “Australia had a very good year, the best on record,

on the back of a lot of big projects that were around in 2014.
A number of those projects have completed the construction

stage and have gone into the production stage.
“We have had a very good year for shipping in Singapore

but the Singapore market still requires a lot of tender care.
There are a lot of ship owning companies out there still hurting;

companies which are desperate to search for economies of
scale and to look at ways to cut their operational costs. This

puts pressure on companies like ourselves: there are also many
companies out there who are inancially stretched and looking 1/

for that little bit of extra support in credit terms,” he said.
S
Sinwa recently opened an ofice and facility in Bangkok and hip supply is alive and well, according to Sinwa’s latest
was in the throes of being fully operational there at the time of end year inancial igures, however, when you consider

going to press. Mr Rann added: “We have a dateline of early- the impact that depressed freight rates encouraged by
to-mid April to open our full facility in Songkhla in southern over-tonnaging and weak cargo demand is having on aligned

Thailand. There are other projects going on in Sattahip on the industries like ship chandlery, then any further growth has to
east coast which will be serviced from our base in Bangkok come from focusing on areas of core competence as well as

which will also service clients we are working with in Ranong.exploring further growth opportunities.
“Yes, freight rates are still low and there is a lot of pressure As Bruce Rann, Group CEO of Sinwa, said in his company’s

on shipping internationally. The low oil price will bear down end year results: “We took a series of strategic actions to
on contractors who will try to reduce operating costs. Whilestreamline our business model and focused on our core

it is good for shipping that bunker fuel is cheaper there are a strengths of offshore, marine supply and logistics capabilities.

number of negatives to the low oil price that need to be taken The beneit of these actions has translated into a 41% increase
into consideration,” he said. uin net earnings for FY2014, even as market conditions

weakened in the later part of the year.
“This demonstrates the effectiveness of the long-term

1/ Bruce Rann, CEO Sinwa Groupvision and strategy of the management. The over-capacity

66 The SHIP Supplier 60th Anniversary Edition 1955-2015