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E very industry has its humble

beginning. For the process

supporting industry, it was merely

the supply of labour from the days when the

building of the first Shell refinery began in

1960.

From the bits and pieces of information

provided by those who have been with the

process supporting industry for some

30-40 years, we know that the foreign

engineering companies that built the

early refineries did the engineering,

procurement and construction

(EPC) of the plants. Labour

supplied by the local “towkays”

(bosses) in those days worked

mostly under expatriate

supervisors and managers on the

site. In fact, there were very few

local engineers and technicians

then.

Even up till the late 1960s, when

Esso began building its first refinery on

Pulau Ayer Chawan, contractors merely

supplied “arms and legs” with basic skills such

as welding, fitting and scaffolding. Such labour

was mainly from the shipyards.

In fact, the early process industry,

consisting of mainly the oil majors had to tap

on workers from whatever sources they could

get as the industry was in its infant stage and

there were not many relevant trained and

skilled workers.

A young Khaizar A. Normanbhoy, who

had then been working in a power plant in

Peninsular Malaysia, joined Esso in 1969 as

a maintenance supervisor. Mr Khaizar, 75,

today the Human Resource Manager in Mun

Siong Engineering Limited, remembers that

Esso had taken many of the local employees

from the British Naval Base that was being

wound down. (The base was converted in 1968

into a commercial dockyard under the then

Sembawang Shipyard.)

During the time when the first few

refineries were built, Japanese companies

such as Chiyoda Corporation, Japan Gasoline

Company (now JGC Corporation) and

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI)

were the dominant EPC contractors.

The companies supplying workers to the

EPCs included some of the precursors of today’s

top service providers. There were Hiap Seng,

Hai Leck, Kim Phuat Seng Kee, Soon Hing

Engineering (Mun Siong) and Tian San (PEC).

One of the earliest was Hiap Seng

Engineering Works. It used to provide covering

steelwork fabrication service and had their

welders retrained to work in the process

industry. Its first milestone project was the

construction of storage tanks and related pipe

work for British Petroleum (BP) Singapore in

1960.

From Labour Suppliers toMajor Engineering Service Providers

As there was

barely any training

and the companies did not even

supply the tools, interviewing

workers was not difficult – all

the employers had to do was

to observe if the “recruits”

brought their own set of

“seasoned” tools.Mr Chia Kim PiowChairman and Managing DirectorRotary Engineering Ltd

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Another early player, Industrial Services

Pte Ltd, which started in 1968, began its

business providing services to the shipyards.

The company shifted its focus to the process

industry in the mid-1970s to provide insulation

and refractory services, because the business

was more stable with customers such as Shell,

Mobil and Esso.

Hai Leck, which began business in 1971,

moved from the shipbuilding industry and

expanded gradually into scaffolding and

painting services. FRP Products was established

in 1970 and was supplying protective coating

and lining to the process industry. In 1972,

Rotary Engineering entered the market.

Shell provided Opportunity for Industry to GrowVictor Leo, Managing Director of Ad-Meth

Mech-Field Pte Ltd, who began working in

1966 for a contractor providing services to

Shell and other companies, remembers there

were already some mechanical contractors in

those days such as Kim Phuat Seng Kee and

Soon Hing Engineering. The two companies

each had a share of the mechanical work at

the Shell refinery projects. A British company,

Avery Laurence, was also an established player

at that time.

“There were jobs that were awarded

directly by Shell, and some were sub-contracted

from Chiyoda,” he said.

Because Singapore was industrialising

rapidly and it had also introduced national

service in the late 1960s, there was a huge

demand for Malaysian workers at that time.

Many of the pioneers in the industry

recall that low-skill daily-rated workers could

also be picked up from various places around

Singapore, especially in Serangoon Road, from

early morning.

As there was barely any training and

the companies did not even supply the tools,

interviewing workers was not difficult – all

the employers had to do was to observe if the

“recruits” brought their own set of “seasoned”

tools, recalls Chia Kim Piow, Chairman and

Managing Director of Rotary Engineering Ltd.

If the “recruits” had the tools with them, they

were immediately given a test and “employed”

after they were deemed able to do the work.

Labour Was Plenty in Early YearsWorkers were abundant and their skills and

productivity level were considerably good for

those days.

However, because the majority of the

workers were not educated or trained, the

industry in those days had some problems with

drugs as there were workers who were involved

in gangs, said Dennis Thomas of Industrial

Services (Pte) Ltd, which today is a subsidiary of

Hai Leck Holdings Ltd.

Most of the companies interviewed were

in consensus that, generally, those workers

were dedicated to hard work and were highly

productive.

There was no structured training then,

and most of the inexperienced workers were

taught their craft at the job site. Safety was

not so stringent too and the workers could be

deployed across industries at that time.

“Today, you are not allowed to cross-

deploy your workers elsewhere and employers

can’t afford to take the risk because of safety

considerations,” said Mr Normanbhoy.

“Almost everything was easily done

manually and there was no issue on labour,”

reminisced Allen Chua, who started his

business in 1971 to provide maintenance

service for Shell’s terminals in Tanjong Pagar

and Woodlands.

Mr Chua’s company, known today as CYC

International Pte Ltd, provided tank cleaning

services and supplied manpower to run the

terminal operations. He recalled that there were

other companies providing civil works, painting

and transport service etc.

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Francis Tay, Executive Director of Kaoson

Integrated Engineering (Pte) Ltd, remembers

that in those days Shell procured all the

equipment and supplies required for their

projects and the contractors merely supplied

the labour. In some instances the companies

also helped to purchase supplies and

materials.

Having been in the protective coating

business since the 1970s, Mr Tay, who is

also the Treasurer of ASPRI, recalls that the

plant owners gradually decided to deal with

a single service provider for specific parcels of

work to eliminate procurement and inventory

responsibility in order to reduce cost. Thus,

from the 1980s the company he worked for

began providing technical services as well.

“I remember in the 70s and 80s, there

were even female workers doing cleaning work

on the islands,” Mr Tay said.

Getting to work on the islands was not as

easy as it is today. M. Naseem, a Director of

Joo Siang & Company Pte Ltd, began working

for the firm in 1974 when it was providing auto

maintenance work for Esso, servicing its boats

and marine craft.

“In those days, we had to travel by

bumboats to the island. Contractors used to

take the 12-seater bumboats to and from Pulau

Ayer Chawan and the rides were usually very

bumpy. A 210-seater ferry service was later

introduced to cut waiting time and facilitate

faster travel,” Mr Naseem said.

But that was to change. The 1980s saw

Singapore entering the beginning of a boom

for the chemical industry, as the government

decided it had to level up the economy by

attracting higher-value industries because

other countries in the region were also building

refineries.

By then, there were three refineries

on the southern islands, besides Shell at

Pulau Bukom. They were Esso on Pulau

Ayer Chawan, Singapore Refinery Company

on Pulau Merlimau and Mobil Oil on Pulau

Pesek.

More investments in refinery expansion

and chemical plants began to flow in,

fuelling the rapid growth of the process

supporting industry to provide a wide range

of services to support the building of new

plants.

The 1990s were especially active years for

the industry. The massive investments attracted

a lot of new players, including foreign EPCs and

engineering service providers.

To accommodate the expansion of the

oil, chemical and petrochemical cluster, the

government earlier in the decade decided to

merge the seven islands off Jurong into an

integrated, self-contained “chemical island”.

Jurong Island was officially declared

opened by the then Prime Minister Goh Chok

Tong on 14 October 2000, marking a new era

in Singapore’s economic development. The

amalgamation of seven southern islands of

Pulau Merlimau, Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau

Ayer Merbau, Pulau Seraya, Pulau Sakra, Pulau

Pesek and Pulau Pesek Kecil had put Singapore

in the forefront to become a chemical hub in

the Asia Pacific.

Today, Jurong Island is home to about 100

leading petroleum, petrochemical and specialty

chemical companies that have invested some

S$35 billion in their operations. To prepare

for the future, the government has already

announced its initiative for Jurong Island

Version 2.0.

Meanwhile, the process supporting

industry grew by leaps and bounds and there

are today some 1,000 companies of various

sizes and capabilities catering to the needs of

the petroleum, chemical and petrochemical

Merging of 7 islands in progress, April 1997

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cluster. The firms, providing a wide range

of services from civil construction, through

fabrication and installation of process

facilities, to maintenance, have also extended

their capabilities to support the growth of

Singapore’s pharmaceutical industry.

Along with the expansion of the industry

came various problems, especially the difficulty

in finding local labour and having to import

foreign workers to fill the void. It meant a

cascade of issues that had to be addressed

for the mounting corp of foreign labour,

such as skills training, safety concerns and

accommodation, as well as rising costs and

productivity gaps. Such issues and problems

have continued until today.

“Asia is still growing, especially the

emerging economies. With process plants

being built on Jurong Island, I expect there

will be more opportunities for members for

maintenance work. The industry will always

face the challenge of labour problem, because

it takes time for employers to recruit and train

new workers”,

said Loh Lock Mun, Director, FRP Products Co

Pte Ltd.

The growth of the process supporting

industry would not have been possible

without the support and collaboration of

the government and its various agencies,

which have over the years assisted with the

development of structured worker training

and other schemes to raise the capability and

productivity of its members.

Plant owners too played an important

role in providing guidance and assistance to

help the service providers further develop their

capabilities to support their needs, especially

in the area of safety. Their cooperation made

it possible for the EDB to introduce the Local

Industry Upgrading Programme (LIUP) in the

process sector.

Working closely with the plant owners, the

government and its various agencies would not

have been possible without a representative

body. The progress of the local ESPs would

not have been as smooth sailing if some of the

leading players did not get together in the mid-

1990s to form an association.

A lot of hard work and a host of

extenuating factors including luck, some might

say, had helped Singapore’s ESPs in the process

industry rise beyond expectations to boost the

country’s position as a regional service hub for

the petroleum, chemical, petrochemical and

pharmaceutical clusters in the region.

The industry is proud to have produced five

grown-home process service providers that are

listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. They

lead the pack in internationalising the business

with operations and projects beyond Singapore,

including the Middle East and Europe, and

giving hope to aspiring smaller firms to have a

brighter future.

Going forward, our local ESPs have the

potential to grow stronger and better equipped

to compete for major projects in the region.

They just have to continue to stay together

and advance hand in hand, supporting and

encouraging each other for their shared

interests.

Transformational change of the industry