Singapore: Last week it was announced that logistics veteran, Peter Tan, the former ceo and founder of Sembawang Kimtrans, has returned to the marine and offshore logistics industry four years after retiring to chair Investment Global, run by Tan’s son Kenneth.
Part of the group is iG Logistics, which has launched a twice-daily, door-to-door freight services between Batam and Singapore, using 20ft and 40ft ISO containers and trailers. It will also cater for bulk steel cargoes, berthing Singapore and Batam for roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off services, bulk loading and discharging.
Singapore will be the focal point for business, with plans to acquire new vessels in the third quarter of 2014. Regional expansion will focus on high growth areas include Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.
“I feel renewed vigour and passion for the marine/offshore logistics industry, and this marks a new chapter for me in my personal and professional life,” Tan remarked on his return last week.
Speaking to Maritime CEO Tan says during his four years away, he’s been keeping himself up to date with new developments, trying to understand more on offshore logistics and Asia business requirements, especially in the Indo-China region where there are still many untapped natural resources. “Having seen so much during my four years travelling around, it got me motivated once again to return to this business where I learnt and started from, focusing on the marine logistics aspect in remote areas where the only mode of transport is via river passages, infrastructure setup is primitive and is required to be built from scratch,” Tan says.
His newly designed landing craft transport (LCT Vessel) will be able to tranship project cargoes from Singapore to remote areas right at the river front of project sites.
The kick start to getting specifically into Batam trades was seeing many marine assets plying in between Singapore to Indonesia with stagnated marine special vessels not renewed for several years. “It is timely now that we design such special vessels to ply between the Riau Islands and Singapore,” says Tan.
There are industrial parks in Batam servicing major MNCs and SMEs in manufacturing and once the finished products are ready, iG Logistics will move them from Batam to Singapore and spring board to either air or sea freight where required. The estimated freight revenue from this is around $80m a year. To add to that, there are many agriculture and farms set up in Riau Islands such as Bulan and Bintan. There are also energy/power plants setting up in most parts of Indonesia including offshore marine bases. All these require marine logistics services.
“Besides the Riau Islands, Vietnam is another opportunity that we are currently exploring and we are in the midst of doing our feasibility study where seafood exports and other products are potentially huge,” says Tan.
iG Logistics has intentions to build its own logistics warehouse for project consolidation, cold room stores, heavy vehicle park and marine offshore equipment for pre-delivery inspection including heavy mining equipment assembly or refurbishment in Singapore.
“Our niche logistics support has to be built overtime as it is an asset heavy driven logistics business,” Tan says.
The newly built design LCT, SunTzu, will have her maiden voyage this June. A sister ship, SunWu, will start operating in November. [15/04/14]
