SINGAPORE: Small to medium-sized bunker surveyor companies in Singapore are increasingly looking to expand overseas or explore other options as demand for their services diminishes ahead of mass flow metered or MFM bunkering becoming compulsory in the city-state from January 1 next year.
Mid-sized surveyor Lighthouse Marine & Inspection Service has taken the bull by the horns by expanding its operations into Dubai, Fujairah and Abu Dhabi in August, where non-MFM bunkering is still in demand, director Tanjit Singh told S&P Global Platts.
“We have a lot of customers from Europe and they said the standard of surveying in the Middle East is not as high as in Singapore, so we went there,” he said.
The company, which has 16 staff, began planning the move in January when it saw “business prospects were not good in Singapore next year,” he said. Potential Inspection Services, which has seven staff, has also ventured overseas, opening an office in Hong Kong in August, director Daniel Phua said.
“There are more business opportunities in Hong Kong for bunker surveyors as mass flow meters are not mandatory there,” he added. Frontier Marine Services, which has one surveyor, is mulling working in Hong Kong or Fujairah, its sole proprietor Aizat Hamid said.
The move to find new markets is based on industry feedback that some charterers may take on bunker fuel in Hong Kong or at Malaysia’s Outer Port Limits when MFM bunkering becomes mandatory in Singapore as they anticipate prices there will be lower, trade sources said.
These charterers believe the price of MFM bunkering in Singapore will be higher as barge owners will try to recoup the fixed and operating costs of the meters, even though this has yet to be seen. HD Marine Services, which has eight surveyors, said it would move its operations to Malaysia if it could secure customers there.
“Malacca is developing its port; we hope demand for bunkers will develop and our services will be needed,” director Chris Lim said. If branching out overseas is not feasible, bunker surveyors could upgrade their role to Authorized Verifier, said Potential’s Phua.
SPRING Singapore, an agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry charged with helping Singapore enterprises grow, administers an Authorized Verifier Scheme open to any company wanting to take on the role of verifications and stamping of weighing and measuring instruments for trade use.
“This will reduce turnaround time and compliance costs,” said SPRING Singapore on its website.
