Issue 16
Singapore Aero Engine Services Limited (SAESL)
Expertise and PrecisionWriter: Matthew StaffProject Manager: Tom Cullum For nearly 15 years, Singapore Aero Engine Services Limited (SAESL) has been one of the pioneering manufacturing companies in the region, cementing its position as Rolls-Royce’s Trent Centre of Excellence to lay the foundations for an ever-increasing influence in the wider sector.Specialising in the repair and overhaul of Rolls-Royce’s Trent aero engine assortment - including the Trent 500, Trent 700, Trent 800 and Trent 900 for both Airbus and Boeing aircraft - the Company’s growth is evidence enough of the operational excellence achieved since its inception in 2001; subsequently carrying out work on more than 2,000 engines for clients across three continents.All told, SAESL’s portfolio comprises operations alongside 15 globally notorious businesses, applying its highly reputed range of services which include not only engine overhauls, but also more specific component maintenance and repairs, engine testing and on-wing support through boroscoping and boroblending.“Through its parent companies, SAESL combines the knowledge of Rolls-Royce, an original equipment manufacturer, with 20 years of overhaul experience of Hong-Kong Aero Engine Services Limited and Singapore Airlines Engineering Company,” the Company explains. “SAESL has an innovative state-of-the-art, in-line gantry system that is capable of handling module change and module overhaul work...This gives us flexibility to manage our engine load.“Our qualified and experienced overhaul support team provides 24-seven assistance to all our customers. Additionally, we offer advanced component repair capabilities and are the recognised Rolls-Royce Centre of Excellence for compressor blade repair amongst other high technology repair processes.”Leveraging expertiseAs one of the world’s most renowned and active manufacturers, the…
Sealink Asia
The Global Integrated Service ProviderWriter: Matthew StaffProject Manager: Ben Wigger Sealink Asia is looking to leverage its reputation as the very first integrated service provider for oil & gas in Asia to enhance its international notoriety even further.Currently serving clients across 20 countries in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, the Company has evolved over the years from being a ship owner and operator in its early days to capitalise on the developing markets in becoming a ship builder in the late 1990s.This diversification laid the foundations for what has proved to be a sustained period of growth for Sealink over the subsequent two decades; the Group also adding a shipping maintenance and repairs subsidiary to its portfolio of services.The result has been a turnkey, flexible and customisable range of services offered to players within the oil & gas markets around the world; giving itself as much chance as possible to attain key projects in what can be a fiercely competitive sector. “It has been a natural progression over the years, progressing from the early days into handling tugs and landing crafts, moving along with the industry,” says Ting Hui, Corporate Communications. “Nowadays, there is more demand for bigger, more modern vessels, hybrid vessels, or greener vessels, and we adapt our services to that.”Integrated service providerUnder Sealink’s chartering division, areas of anchor handling, transportation of supplies, diving support, towing, mooring maintenance and seismic support are all catered for. From a manufacturing perspective, the aforementioned tugs and landing crafts are complemented by an array of seismic support…
Mah Sing Group Berhad
On Song Sustainability Surpasses Industry DemandWriter: Matthew StaffProject Manager: Joe Palliser Mah Sing Group Berhad is looking to maintain its focus on providing affordable homes to the mass market segment in 2015 as it continues to enforce its position as Malaysia’s leading property developer.Incorporated in 1991 and listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia, the Company has been at the forefront of building quality homes and commercial projects in strategic locations for the subsequent two-and-a-half decades; proving flexible enough to take on a vast array of projects, while simultaneously entrenching a familiar and reputable ethos into the wider market.As such, the Group has a comprehensive portfolio of 48 projects - both past and present - to display, similarly promoting the high standards that Mah Sing has become so renowned for in Malaysia.Spread throughout the country’s economic nexus and property hotspots - including the Klang Valley and Greater Kuala Lumpur - the Group Founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Leong Hoy Kum is proud of the achievements that have been accomplished so far, and the lives that have been enhanced as a consequence of the Mah Sing offering.“The Group has proven its versatility with a diverse range of projects, from medium to high-end residential properties to Grade A office buildings, retail projects, SoHo and industrial projects,” he says. Regardless of the product series, all our products carry hallmarks of innovative designs and quality finishes, majestic grand entrances, security, extensive landscaping and greenstreet concepts.“We will continue to build eco-sensitive and environmentally friendly developments so…
Global Transit Communications
Connecting Asia to the WorldWriter: Emily JarvisProject Manager: Donovan Smith Established in 2005, Global Transit Communications has evolved from a Malaysian ISP provider into a rapidly growing telecommunications company that specialises in connecting the ASEAN region to the rest of the world. As part of the multinational Time DotCom Berhad (TIME) Group, which also owns the Malaysian data centre giant, AIMS, Global Transit dreams of a Malaysia connected to the world without boundaries.By building bridges through the establishment of partnerships with other service providers in the region, Global Transit hopes to form a strong alliance in order to offer seamless connectivity into ASEAN. “Leveraging our already well developed international connectivity, we strive to become the single point of contact service provider in ASEAN. For us, it is all about making it easier for people to do business in ASEAN and identify this region as one of growing economic prominence,” explains Saiful Husni Samak, Chief Executive Officer of Global Transit Communications.In the past five-10 years, more and more multinational companies - such as Yahoo, Facebook and Google - have identified Malaysia as a strategic gateway into the ASEAN region, which Global Transit is keen to capitalise on as “the most advanced telecoms infrastructure with the potential to share this with the surrounding countries in the near future”.ISPs in ASEAN at present are experiencing tremendous growth in subscriber numbers for fixed and mobile lines, and this requires a substantial amount of international bandwidth to keep up with the demand; this is where Global Transit comes in. “Broadband penetration has…
CSF Group
Cutting-Edge Turnkey SolutionsWriter: Emily JarvisProject Manager: Donovan Smith Since inception in 1991, CSF Group has been a familiar face in Malaysia’s data centre scene, evolving from a small computer room facilities builder into a fully-fledged data centre solutions provider with three commercial-sized data centres under its management. Having undertaken contract works to both build and fit-out more than 200 data centres across Malaysia for customers from a wide array of industries including the Malaysian stock exchange, financial institutions, oil & gas companies, telecommunications companies and government agencies; the Group embarked on its first commercial-sized data centre, the CX1, comprising 45,500 square feet of net data centre space with an IT load capacity of 1.1 megawatts (MW).“As a carrier neutral data centre, we quickly capitalised on the market trend, interconnecting telecommunication carriers and collocation providers. The shift towards the outsourcing of data centre facilities and the subsequent demand for higher density racks and servers saw us invest in our own, much larger data centre facilities, while also continually managing our operational costs to be as efficient and competitive as possible,” explains Lee King Loon, Chief Financial Officer for CSF Group.Once CX1 reached capacity, CSF Group initiated work on a substantially larger second data centre, the CX2, which was commissioned in early 2009, comprising 157,500 square feet of net data centre space with an initial IT load capacity of 5MW. “Due to demand, we invested in additional equipment to increase the IT load capacity of CX2 to 7MW. At the time, this facility was the largest carrier neutral purpose…
NTT MSC Sdn Bhd
Seamless IT Solutions Fulfil Global Cloud VisionWriter: Emily JarvisProject Manager: Donovan Smith NTT Communications, a long distance and international communications and ICT solution provider of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), is one of the world’s largest telecommunications providers with subsidiaries and offices in 123 cities across 43 countries, connecting networks to 196 countries around the world. Tier 3 data centres are active in 130 of these countries, forming an integrated global connectivity solution that is often considered unparalleled by any other ISP in the Asia Pacific region.NTT Group provides a wide range of IT solutions across both business and domestic applications on a global scale, and is comprised of six major subgroups; NTT Communications, NTT East, NTT West, Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT Data.Founded in 1999, NTT Communications caters for MNCs (multinational corporations), SMEs and consumers, with a portfolio consisting of enterprise cloud solutions, a global network, data centres around the world, managed security and unified communications services; professing to being “the ultimate partner for enterprises committed to uncovering opportunity and propelling business growth”.Furthermore, NTT Communications is one of the pioneers to provide SDN (software defined networks) in data centres, allowing customers to enjoy a more enhanced and complete network solution.Under the NTT Communications Group - which has more than 10 million customers around the world - exists NTT MSC Sdn Bhd, a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of NTT Communications. NTT MSCCommanding the Malaysian side of the enterprise division, NTT MSC has since been able to invest in and carry out significant development of cloud solutions and…
InterOil Corporation
Energising AsiaWriter: Matthew StaffProject Manager: Eddie Clinton InterOil Corporation is partnering with one of the world’s major LNG players to develop one of Papua New Guinea’s most significant projects.Total of France is the global heavyweight in question, selecting InterOil, as well as Oil Search, as the ideal collaborators with which to develop the Papua LNG Project based on the Elk-Antelope gas field in the country’s Gulf province.This latest partnership signals a rapid step-change in perceptions surrounding Papua New Guinea’s investment risk over the past year, as Thomas Nador, InterOil’s Senior Vice President, Corporate, explains: “When the first shipment of liquefied natural gas left Papua New Guinea’s PNG LNG Project in Port Moresby in mid-2014, the US$19 billion project came in ahead of schedule and demonstrated to the world that Papua New Guinea could develop mega projects.“It effectively de-risked the nation as an investment destination.”Independent analysis by Sanford Bernstein further emphasises this point, highlighting that the ExxonMobil-operated project in 2014 was one of the world’s most efficient LNG developments, with a construction cost of around US$2,300 a tonne.“Analysts are suggesting that Elk-Antelope could be even lower cost than the ExxonMobil project because it will require less infrastructure to develop, need shorter pipelines and is in a less remote part of the country than the PNG LNG Project,” Nador adds.Fully committed Elk-Antelope, which was discovered by the US-listed InterOil in 2006, is in the final stages of appraisal and the giant field is already described by the Company as one of the largest finds in Asia over the past…
Efacec Partners with Three Regional Experts to Continue Path of Development
Efacec has announced three exclusive partnerships that are designed to enhance the Company’s presence within Southeast Asia. The new contracts are with: Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology TBK (PT Smart TBK) in Surabaya, Indonesia, as well as Lian Hock Hardware Pte Ltd (Lian Hock) and a leading print and supply chain solutions partner, which are both located in Singapore.The three separate projects will see Efacec customising and implementing a series of advanced material handling solutions, including the Aisle-Switching Technology, Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), Finished Goods Transport System, and Radio-Frequency Identification technology (RFID).Pedro Furtado, Projects Director at Efacec, shared: “We are thrilled by the accelerating growth momentum we’ve gathered in Southeast Asia. These three projects span across different industries and it gives Efacec an opportunity to showcase the consistent ability of our full suite of warehousing solutions. Efacec has been operating in Asia Pacific for more than 20 years, and we believe that these projects will help to boost our development in the region.”PT Smart TBKIn the first project, Efacec will provide a turnkey solution to one of Indonesia’s largest and publicity-listed palm-based companies, PT Smart TBK, by providing a transport system for the client to deliver finished goods from the production facility to the main warehouse for storage purposes. For this facility, Efacec configured a system that directly interfaces with production by consolidating different production lines into a centralised conveyor system. The line is then connected directly to the main warehouse via pallet lifters, before further separating into two different climate-controlled storage areas.Peter…
On Course for Vision 2040
By its nature, the shipping industry is one of the truly global industrial sectors influencing the world’s economies, affected by a raft of industry, regional, political and resource challenges in the face of ever-increasing strains and demands on the freight domain.Formulating a plan to deal with such myriad challenges therefore becomes an imperative, if not even more challenging, requirement, and is one that the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) has worked to achieve since first implementing its Case for Action in 2011.Its subsequent Vision 2040 further elaborated on the trends that needed to be addressed on an intercontinental scale, and the challenges that needed to be overcome over the coming decades; culminating in a member-led organisation that continues to expand and educate with each passing year en route to 2040.The Chief Executive orchestrating SSI’s successes is Alastair Fischbacher who, having experienced and witnessed many of the impending challenges the shipping industry faces while working for Rio Tinto, is optimistic about the organisation’s plan for shipping’s future.Asia Outlook was fortunate enough to talk to Fischbacher about the SSI’s rise to prominence thus far, its goals, and the key drivers behind the 2040 milestone.Asia Outlook (AsO): Please talk me through the Sustainable Shipping Initiative’s origins, the original Case for Action, and your role as part of the organisation.Alastair Fischbacher (AF): I was working for Rio Tinto when the Company joined the SSI in its founding stage and as it was developing its Case for Action.At that time there was a lot of work being done in understanding the wide…
Xiaomi: The Apple of the East
Last year, Xiaomi became the world’s most valuable tech startup Company, a status which is representative of its climb from zero to a valuation of US$45 billion in just four years. Having surpassed Huawei to become the third largest smartphone maker in the world, China’s Xiaomi is emerging as a serious contender in the mobile market, with the potential to challenge the big two – Samsung and Apple – in its sights.This meteoric rise to fame for the now-smartphone giant was a result of China’s growing prominence as an economic superpower that continues to grow at an incredible rate; with the country’s manufacturing industry generally holding steady in recent times.Apple currently represents a seven percent market share in China, and Xiaomi is hot on its heels with a six percent share and eagerness to take the number one position not just in its home market, but across the world’s emerging economies through an initial expansion focus that will see its unique business model deployed in India, Brazil and other Asian countries; leveraging the substantial population in these territories to secure the highest smartphone sales figures in the world.Stepping up expectationXiaomi’s rise to prominence is partly based on its ability to create cost-competitive smartphones and tablets while maintaining all the specifications that would be expected from a high-end device. Large screens and high build quality at half the cost compared to Samsung and Apple products are key differentiating factors that keep the pressure on these dominant names in technology.Having been criticised for its likeness to the iPhone…
Powering IT at the Network Edge
Asia Outlook (AsO): Why is ‘IT at the network edge’ so important for enterprises today?Ling Chee Hoe (LCH): After years of consolidation and centralisation, IT organisations are now turning their attention to the edge of the network to improve interactions with customers and applications. As organisations grow their use of analytics, location-based services, and personalised content, edge of network facilities becomes critical in achieving competitive advantage. Capitalising on this opportunity will require fast deployment, intelligent and high availability infrastructure deployed close to users. Just as organisations struggled to keep pace with computing demand in the first decade of this century, enterprises that don’t address the infrastructures related to the edge will find themselves unable to keep pace with the expansion of applications which are growing exponentially at the edge.AsO: What are the most common causes of data centre outages and how much of an effect can they have on downtime? LCH: The following figures serve to only emphasise the fact that data centre breakdown is detrimental to anyone’s business. That’s why it is critical to invest in the right IT infrastructure to ensure system availability and resiliency to avoid costly outages.According to a 2013 study by Ponemon Institute on the cost of data centre outages, the most common causes of data centre outages are UPS battery failure (55%), human error (48%) and UPS capacity exceeded (46%).Other causes of data centre outages are:- Cyber attack (34%)- IT equipment failure (33%)- Water incursion (32%)- Weather related (30%)- Heat related/CRAC failure (29%)- UPS equipment failure (27%)- PDU/circuit breaker failure…
Cardinal Maritime Expands into Asia with Opening of New Hong Kong Office
Cardinal Maritime – one of the fastest growing logistics service providers in the UK – has opened a new office and a business centre in Hong Kong to facilitate its expansion into Asia.The North West-based business, which is now an established brand in more than 90 countries, has a number of staff members stationed at the recently opened premises.Cardinal Maritime opened the office and business centre in order to facilitate the growth of its clients which trade out of China. A presence in Asia will allow the logistics expert to respond to further demand to trade in the area and to monitor this increased activity more closely.The new site adds to Cardinal Maritime’s existing premises in Ireland, South Africa and its head office in Manchester.Brian Hay, CEO of Cardinal Maritime Group, said: “We’re thrilled to have gained territory in Hong Kong. A growing number of ambitious companies are trading and manufacturing out of overseas countries, such as China, and we’re excited to be able to provide improved services for our clients in such a thriving location for trade.”The increase in the number of British businesses trading out of China – and elsewhere overseas – is a pivotal factor driving the continued growth of the Cardinal Maritime Group. However, this activity within the broader export industry is not reflected in the UK trade statistics. The figures focus, instead, solely on fiscal earnings produced by goods coming in and out of the UK ports.Brian commented: “I don’t believe the UK is celebrated enough as a leading trading nation.…