Sembcorp Marine subsidiary awarded Royal Carribean's lucrative favored customer contract

Estimated sales could reach between S$50-S$70m.

In a release to the Singapore Exchange, Semcorp Marine announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Sembawang Shipyard has been awarded the Favoured Customer Contract (FCC) from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL), USA, to provide ship-repair, revitalisation, upgrading and related marine services for its fleet of 41 cruise ships.

The signing of this Favoured Customer Contract will include two cruise ships calling at Sembawang Shipyard for major revitalization and a third ship for drydocking and repairs between January 2013 to 2014 with total estimated sales ranging from S$50 million to S$70 million, depending on the scope of repairs and upgrading packages of the ships.

Royal Caribbean is a global cruise vacation company that operates Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Cruises and CDF Croisières de France.

"This milestone long-term maintenance and refit contract with Royal Caribbean will further boost Singapore’s status as a major Asian cruise hub and reinforce Sembawang Shipyard’s reputation as one of the world’s leading shipyards in the highly specialised segment of cruise ships repair, refurbishment and conversion," said Sembcorp Marine.

The contract commits Sembawang Shipyard to handle the repairs, revitalisation and upgrading of Royal Carribean's fleet of passenger ships cruising in the Singapore region to Sembawang Shipyard. It also commits to joint planning, information and experience sharing, thus leveraging complementary resources to achieve sustainable targets in the areas of HSE (Health, Safety and Environment), logistics management, quality, cost-efficiency and onschedule deliveries, which are key performance indicators for high quality cruise vessels maintenance.

Mr. Kevin Douglas, Vice President, Technical Projects and Newbuildings, Royal Caribbean Cruises said “The selection of Sembawang Shipyard as our partner in the Far East is in line with Royal Caribbean’s strategy to grow our cruise business in Asia as we see Asia, in particular, China and Singapore as our key markets. Sembawang Shipyard is recognized as one of the leading technically competent and efficient repair yards in the world for cruise vessels repair and upgrading."

Our recent positive experiences with Sembawang Shipyard which included the successful revitalisation of Royal Caribbean International’s Rhapsody of the Seas, and our observation of the dedication and commitment shown by the Shipyard’s team, convinced Royal Caribbean that we have found the right long-term partner who understands the stringent requirements of our company. As such, we are confident that this newly forged partnership with Sembawang Shipyard will benefit both organisations in the planning and execution of our dry docking and revitalisation work in a
safe, timely and cost effective way," Douglas added. 

Ms. Wong Lee-Lin, Executive Director of Sembawang Shipyard said "We are honoured to be the chosen partner of Royal Caribbean Cruises, a world-class cruise ship owner and operator. Sembawang Shipyard has over the recent few years, focused strongly on the development of our fast-growing niche markets, one of which is the cruise ship."