Optimus Prime: Robots exterminate foreign worker jobs in Singapore

Wheel washing robots and other labor saving devices are helping construction companies to reduce the number of foreign workers and remain profitable as worker levy starts to bite.

Its good news for Singapore’s construction industry says DMG in this report:

Companies have come up with ways to mitigate the progressively higher levy imposed for foreign workers as well as a reduction in man-year entitlement quota. Some companies have started to use more innovative means to reduce the reliance on foreign workers. An example includes the use of robots to clean the wheels of tyres. KSH has shrunk its foreign labour force by 5-10% over the last year and has taken steps to improve the usage of material and labour more efficiently, as well as shortening the time spent on projects (implying the overtime hours spent on projects are reduced). Koon Holdings has turned to precast
materials as an alternative to reduce the amount of time and labour spent on building parts from scratch. According to Koon Holdings, the industry appears to be turning to precast, with demand for precast on the rise. HDB flats have seen precast units climbing from 5,000-7,000 per year in the past to 14,000-16,000 units last year. This year, 22,000 precast units are estimated to be used for public housing alone. With a strong pipeline of projects out there (eg. MRT lines), we maintain our overweight call on the sector. Within the construction industry, we like BBR (BUY, TP S$0.52), Kian Ann Engineering (BUY, TP S$0.31), KSH (BUY, TP S$0.31) and Lian Beng (BUY, TP S$.0.67).

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