Keppel sees its future in PH

MANILA, Philippines—Singapore firm Keppel Corp. is looking forward to do more business in the Philippines as it continues to upgrade its shipyards in Batangas and Subic.

“In the last few years, we’ve already invested in the two yards in Batangas and Subic. We’ve improved the panel line and we’ve also put in Subic the gantry crane. When you have a bigger crane, our workers will be able to work with larger blocks. We’ve been working actively to upgrade our two yards here. We want to make our yards here more productive and, as we become more productive, we’d like to do more work here,” said Loh Chin Hua, CEO and director of Keppel.

Keppel operates in the Philippines through Keppel Philippines Marine Inc., (KPMI) the leading shipyard group in the Philippines that offers construction, conversion, repair and fabrication services to the offshore and marine industry, according to the company’s website.

KPMI operates Keppel Batangas Shipyard and Keppel Subic Shipyard, which has one of the largest drydocks in the country.

According to Loh, the company currently has a project with Shell for the $100-million depletion compression platform for the Malampaya gas field off Palawan. This, he said, would be the first offshore rig to be built entirely in Philippines.

Loh further revealed that company has since spent millions of Singapore dollars for the upgrade of their yards in Subic and Batangas.

He declined to give the company’s capital expenditure spending for this year.

Asked if Keppel would be interested to put up shipyards in other locations, Loh said that the company would have to be careful where it deploys its capital.—Amy R. Remo