Overseas Port Management was invited by IBC Asia to deliver a workshop at the 5th Vietnam Ports & Logistics Conference held at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 29th October to 1st November 2012. The workshop on “Container Terminal Operations Management” was led by Mr Chak Siew Cheun and Mr Francis Aurol Xavier. It serves to address major aspects of terminal management from strategic management to operations.

The topics which was discussed with the attendees from various players in the Vietnam port industry include:
•    Increasing terminal efficiency
•    Working with shippers and shipping lines
•    Ensuring ROI in technology and process investments
•    Challenges unique to Vietnam, and operational considerations
•    Case studies

OPM is pleased to know that the workshop had been well received by the participants and hopes to further expand its business in the region.

]]> https://opms.com.sg/opm-leads-workshop-at-5th-vietnam-ports-logistics-conference-5/feed/ 0 https://opms.com.sg/opm-participates-in-toc-container-supply-chain-asia-2012/ https://opms.com.sg/opm-participates-in-toc-container-supply-chain-asia-2012/#comments Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:58:41 +0000 http://opms.com.sg/?p=556 Overseas Port Management (S) Pte Ltd together with its strategic partner Weylease International Ltd participated in the “TOC Container Supply Chain: Asia 2012” conducted at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 13th to 15th of March 2012.

The TOC event is one of the major global forum for Ports, Terminal Operators, Shipping Lines, 3PLs and BCOs.

The objective of the participation was to:
i)    Create greater awareness of OPM’s activities and capabilities to the visitors of the exhibition
ii)    Promote OPM’s existing and new business to the visitors of the exhibition
iii)    Creating new contacts with players of the industry

The OPM booth had seen a healthy number of visitors from various parts of the world ranging from those located within the Southeast Asia region to as far as those located in Africa.

Port Sudan has almost completed the construction of its new container terminal facility to complement its existing berth and increase its terminal capacity. OPM believes that Port Sudan has potential to re-capture its local cargo and attract other cargoes to the port including transit and transhipment cargoes. OPM hopes to assist SPC in realising this potential and the development process towards achieving international standards and compete against the regional hubs in the Red Sea.

JUDGING by the shocking television images of Bahrain, Singapore businessman Kuah Kok Kim should have given serious thought to fleeing the tiny violence-hit Middle Eastern kingdom.

Instead, he spent yesterday playing golf, meeting potential clients and calmly rounding off the day with a gala dinner. He then headed back to his regular lodgings at a downtown hotel.

It was, in fact, a typical day on the job for the executive chairman of oil and gas firm MTQ Corporation – except, of course, that he was in Bahrain, the latest Middle Eastern nation to be hit by unrest.

This culminated in a bloody crackdown in the middle of the capital on Thursday, which left at least five dead.

He said roads were quiet in the wake of the violence, and there was tension in the air.

However, Mr Kuah, whose firm is building a factory on the outskirts of the capital, said his business is unaffected.

‘My factory is on the outskirts of the country. Roads around the area are blocked, but life goes on,’ he said, adding that he was not taking extra precautions. 

‘Yes, we avoid the parts where the demonstrations are taking place, but we continue working while our factory is being built.’

The unrest in Bahrain is the latest in a wave of unrest that has erupted in North Africa and the Middle East, following popular uprisings which have toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Protests have also erupted in Jordan, Yemen, Iran and Libya, led by people clamouring for change.

But while political tension heats up, Singapore companies with offices or businesses in the region are not panicking.

Most of the 20 Singapore companies based in the region that The Straits Times spoke to say they are closely monitoring events and are in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there.

Singapore has been a keen investor in the Middle East in recent years and hundreds of local firms do business there.

The region is of growing importance to Singapore’s trade and investments, with the Government and trade associations promoting linkages between Singapore and the region in recent years. 

Last year, total trade with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran stood at $38 billion. This is about a third of the total trade value between Singapore and Malaysia, one of the Republic’s main trading partners.

It is not known how many Singapore firms operate in the region. Among the larger firms are CapitaLand, DP Architects and Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts. Many of these firms have offices in centres which are regarded as safer – such as Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia – and which have not been affected by the unrest so far.

But even those which have a presence in the hot spots are not packing up to return to Singapore just yet.

Information Technology company NCS, which has an office in Bahrain, said it had told staff to avoid demonstration hot spots.

‘If necessary, we will redeploy staff to other locations in the Gulf Cooperation Council states where NCS has offices and ongoing projects,’ said its spokesman, adding that staff morale is normal.

The Ascott said it operates one serviced residence in Bahrain’s Somerset Al Fateh through a management contract.

‘The area around our serviced residence is calm. Our property is safe and business has not been affected,’ said a spokesman.

‘Nonetheless, we have heightened security measures at the property and will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide safety advice to our residents in consultation with the relevant government authorities.’

Overseas Port Management’s managing director M.M.J. Subramaniam said his firm has small offices in Dubai, Sudan and Libya.

‘So far, it’s been okay. But we are prepared to evacuate people in Libya to our Dubai office if things get ugly. We were in Yemen doing a project but we finished that a long time before the trouble started. Thank goodness for that,’ he said.

Life began a new at 62 when Mr MMJ Subramaniam “retired”.

Far from relaxing or playing golf to his heart’s content, he forayed to far-flung frontier lands such as Yemen after setting up his own port and logistics management and consultancy firm in 2003.

This bold venture came after a solid 37-year career with the Port of Singapore Authority, now PSA Corp, where he drove its strategy on shipping containers, beginning in the 1970s.

Mr Subramaniam, whose last post was senior vice-president of PSA’s international business, was already planning a second career in consultancy when a Yemeni contract hastened his decision to start his own firm, Overseas Port Management (OPM).

The timing was perfect, ironically. In 2000, terrorists attacked the USS Cole at the Yemeni port of Aden. Then in 2002, terrorists bombed the French-registered oil tanker Limburg. Insurance premiums in the region’s waters spiked, and shipping lines kept away.

The PSA withdrew as manager and shareholder of the Aden Container Terminal. Looking for a strong man to fill the gap, Yemen awarded the contract to Mr Subramaniam. He had previously been based in the Middle Eastern state for about five years to build, start up operations and manage the terminal, when PSA was developing the facility.

That first big break was the beginning of his frontier strategy. “We found that there’s a market for emerging ports with a handling capacity of two million TEUs (standard-sized containers) or less,” he says. “We start them right, hold their hands as they increase capacity, then move off after two or three years.”

OPM has since provided consultancy services to 14 countries and managed three ports – from the Middle East to Africa to China. It has a 10-man office and eight consultants of varied specialities in Singapore, plus another 10 managerial staff in Libya, Dubai and elsewhere.

The boss spends half of his time on the road. That work pace is “not easy” for a man of his age, he will admit. “But I have been doing this many years and the body has adjusted. I am very fit and the doctor has given me a clean bill of health. I feel alert and sharp,” he says.

Then he flips the perspective, saying: “Age is more an upside, because clients in places like the Middle East are very conscious about seniority.”

He says he also finds ready acceptance because of PSA’s international brand name and his credentials. He speaks of his experience in managing container terminals in terms of service, turnaround, and operations, from A to Z – and even encounters with tough unions.

“From age 23 to 62, I had been through the whole process of the port business. That makes you quite comfortable about challenges. To bring Port of Singapore to the status of number one port is not easy.”

Such hands-on, operational work has equipped the industry veteran for far-flung markets, where he has to customise solutions resourcefully.

“It’s also how you improvise in these places,” he says. Data is not available at the click of a button, for instance. “don’t wait for data before you submit business proposals. Look for alternatives. You may have to do your own short studies and research,” he counsels.

“For 37 years, I answered to sombody. Now I make my own decisions, and I also live with them of course.”

“The pressure of course is taking a risk with your own money. It’s different thinking. You don’t have so many people to consult. This makes you more creative. Sometimes it’s gut feeling.”

He works every day because of the time difference, and offices in the Middle East operate on weekends. Most days, he puts in eight to nine hours. “I was always in the express lane in PSA. I fear boredom. I could just deteriorate fast if I stopped working.” he says.

“I don’t want to waste my experience. I grabbed the opportunity to start OPM and I still enjoy it. I have a good team that shares the same passion. It’s not the money – what I have saved is enough.”

While work is his passion, he enjoys playing golf, walking and working out in the gym when time permits. Fortunately, work trips involve lots of walking too.

His travel also means he does not have much time to spend with his wife Josephine Doo, 63, a iShanghainese housewife. They live in a Katong condominium. Their first daughter, aged 40, is a researcher with the University of Hawaii, and she has three sons. Their second daughter, who is 36, is a marketing analyst.

Like him, his offspring thrive in other lands. However, he is not entirely sure if older Singaporeans will work stints in foreigh lands, where work awaits at any age. “It’s not easy to get consultants to go to frontier places,” he says.

At the same time, Singapore has not made the best use of older workers and managers, he believes.

Despite that, the nation is not short of role models who work at an advanced age. He admires the hardy founders of shipping lines, such as Mr Y.C. Chang of Pacific International Lines who is 90 and still active.

Full retirement is not on Mr Subramaniam’s horizon. “No retirement, until my doctor says so,” he quips.

Still, the entrepreneur has a gentle exit strategy. The next step is for his firm to enter into more joint ventures with big companies that wish to set up a port arm.

“Then I can play a more advisory role that is less intensive, and build up younger people in their 30s and 40s,” he says.

With so many possibilities, he sometimes looks back in wonder: “A different life for me began at 62. Maybe I should have started earlier. But maybe the opportunities would not have been there.”

By Senior Writer Lee Siew Hua

@ The Straits Times, 1st May 2010

]]> https://opms.com.sg/mr-mmj-subramaniam-68-port-logistics-consultant/feed/ 0 https://opms.com.sg/hpc-quits-iranian-port-project-following-israeli-diplomatic-intervention/ https://opms.com.sg/hpc-quits-iranian-port-project-following-israeli-diplomatic-intervention/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:33:47 +0000 http://opms.com.sg/?p=580 Israeli diplomatic pressure on Germany has led to German supply chain logistics consultancy Hamburg Port Consultancy (HPC) pulling out of a contract to renovate the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, which the company signed in January 2010.

Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Germany, Yoram Ben Ze’ev, told officials with the German Foreign Ministry and the German chancellor’s top aides that Iran had used the port for exporting weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza strip, reports Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Ben Ze’ev stated that weapons found on the Francop vessel, which was seized Israel Defence forces in the Mediterranean, had disembarked from the port of Bandar Abbas.

The Israeli ambassador to Germany was reported by Haaretz as stating that the German company’s contract to renovate the Iranian port was viewed by the Jewish state as ‘German assistance to an Iranian arms deal with terror organisations, and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.’ The paper reports that German officials contacted HPC and that the contract with the Iranian port has been terminated.

A contract between HPC and the Bandar Abbas port operator Tidewater Company had been agreed on January 9 2010, according to the Fars News Agency. According to BMI research, HPC was likely to have worked on the second phase of the second container terminal at the Shahid Rajaie port complex, which is due online in 2010, and is to boost capacity at the facility to 3.5mn 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The Fars News Agency reports Tidewater Company’s managing director, Abdolhamid Malahzadeh, as stating that HPC was set to replace the Singaporean firm Overseas Port Management (OPM) as the port’s manager, as OPM’s contract was coming to an end.

BMI notes that HPC pulling out of the contract is bad news not only for the German company, but also for the Iranian port. HPC is an independent company within the Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA) group, which operates the German port of Hamburg. HPC has been expanding its port operations, with a subsidiary named HPC Ukraina holding a stake in the Ukrainian port of Odessa. The Bandar Abbas project would have seen the company move out of Europe and into port operations in the Middle East.

The contract’s cancellation is also bad news for the development of the port of Bandar Abbas. The port is in southern Iran and handles 90% of the country’s container throughput. The port is operated by Tidewater, but a separate concession manages the Sharhid Rajaie port. BMI fears that the planned second phase of development of the port’s second container terminal could now be delayed after HPC pulled out of the contract. BMI also warns that the episode highlights that the Iranian port’s pool of potential contractors is limited, as Israel has already shown that it will intervene and use its diplomatic influence where it can to hamper the development of a port that it feels plays a role in Iran’s illegal weapon exports.

BMI notes that this is not the first time that Iran’s maritime operations have been caught up in politics. Iranian shipping company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) had sanctions placed upon it and its subsidiaries in 2008 by the US Treasury Department, which accused the line of providing logistical services to Iran’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces logistics (MODFL). The department also stated that IRISL’s actions were part of a broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance its nuclear and missile programmes. In October 2009 the UK Treasury ordered that ‘UK financial services cease all business with the IRISL,’ under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008.

The growth was largely attributed to additional available capacity and a strong local market. Shahid Rajaee Container Terminal (SRCT) at Bandar Abbas is Iran’s main container facility, located on the Gulf in the south of the country and its forecast throughput for 2008, was about two million TEUs.

When phase one of Shahid Rajaee’s second container terminal (named SRCT2) at Bandar Abbas opened in February 2008, the port’s annual container capacity increased from 1.7 million TEUs to 3.3 million.

There are plans to double the current capacity over the next three years. Phase II of the new facility is scheduled to become operational in early 2012. It will add 2,020m of quay length, dredged down to provide a water depth of 16 metres alongside the berths, and 18 post-panamax quay cranes.

Tehran-based Tidewater Middle East, described as Iran’s leading container terminal operator, will continue to manage the facility. The company has appointed Singapore-based OPM (Overseas Port Management [S] Pte Ltd) as executive manager of SRCT2 for a period of five years, effective from December 2007.

SRCT2 was handed over to the management of OPM on September 14.

OPM is undertaking the international marketing of Bandar Abbas’s old and new container terminals
(SRCT1 and SRCT2) but will report to Tidewater Middle East management. OPM was involved in
improving SRCT1’s operations from May 2006 to November 2007, before being appointed executive
manager of SRCT2 the following month.

By Staff Writer
© Emirates Business 24/7 2008
Article originally published by Emirates Business 24/7 19-Oct-08

• the Saudi-Japanese Consortium, including Saudi Archirodon, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Veolia;
• the Al Rajhi Alliance, led by Mada Group with Bouygues, Alstom, Eurostar and China Railway Engineering Corp;
• the Saudi Binladen Group, with DB AG, Siemens, Ircon and Yapi Merkezi;
• OHL International with CAF, Thales and ADIF plus other Spanish constuction firms.

SRO is also managing the tendering for the 945 km east-west Saudi Landbridge route between Riyadh and Jeddah, which is expected to cost around US$5bn to build. The shortlisted bidders for this project were due to submit their final bids by-mid February, and Transport Minister Dr Jabara Al-Suraisry said on January 25 that he expected the winner to be announced in April. The four teams shortlisted for the Landbridge in May 2006 are:

• Saudi Binladen Group with Mitsui, Siemens, Ircon and DB AG;
• Bouygues and Lazard with TSO, Samsung and Transtech Engineering of China, plus Halcrow, Ove Arup and Comazar;
• Mada Group with SNC-Lavalin, Chinese Railways’ 13th Construction Bureau, Mott MacDonald, CPCS Transcom and Rites.
• PWC Logistics with Société Générale, Singapore’s Overseas Port Management, Scott Wilson and Freightliner.

On January 21 Russian Railways announced that it had won a US$800m contract to finance and build the 520 km southern section of Saudi Arabia’s north-south rail link. The mixed-traffic line will run from a new terminus near King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh to meet the mineral railway from Ras Azzawr at Al Zabirah. Contracts for the other three main sections of the 2 285 km network were awarded in April 2007 (RG 5.07 p247).

Article in Railway Gazette

(http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/saudi-bidding-hots-up.html)

By Elizabeth Sanchez-Lacson

Raising P3B for expansion

Filed Under: Financing, Stock Offerings, Stock Activity

MANILA, Philippines–Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc., the country’s biggest non-containerized port operator, said it was looking at a possible initial public offering (IPO) of stock to generate some P3 billion for a plan to acquire port contracts in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia.

The company is looking at ports in Indonesia and the Middle East and remains interested in the privatization of the Manila North Harbour, Harbour Centre chief executive officer Michael Romero told reporters.

He added that it was bidding for the 25-year concession contract of the Mindanao Container Terminal at the Phividec Industrial Authority MCT Complex in the southern province of Misamis Oriental.

Harbour Centre has partnered with the group of Singapore-based Overseas Port Management Pte. Ltd. (OPM), a group of former Port of Singapore Authority executives that operates two container ports in the Middle East.

Romero said Harbour Centre might make a public offer of its shares in the second half of the year.

Last August, Harbour Centre and its bidding partner, Metro Pacific Investment Corp., asked the Manila Regional Trial Court to compel the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to proceed with and complete an auction for the contract to operate Manila North Harbor. The bidding process started in July.

Several other companies had expressed interest in the bidding for the contract, among them Asian Terminals Inc., Magsaysay Maritime Corp., Pier 8 Arrastre and Stevedoring Services, and Prudential Customs Brokerage.

Only Harbour Centre, the main bidder, was declared qualified to bid.

Asian Terminals and Prudential were disqualified for lack of eligibility, Magsaysay Maritime backed out, and Pier 8 was a no-show. The situation prompted the PPA to declare the bidding a failure.

Instead of proceeding with the auction or entering into a negotiated sale with the remaining qualified bidder, the PPA decided to hold a new round of bidding, but the schedule has yet to be set.

The case is still pending with the Manila Regional Trial Court. Edited by INQUIRER.net

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20080110-111427/Harbour_Centre_eyes_IPO_in_2nd_half_of_%9208