Hundreds of Singaporean firms are thriving in the US market
Singapore may be a small nation, but it produces a extraordinarily large commercial footprint around the globe. In the United States alone, for example, there are more than 250 Singapore companies currently doing business here — each of them thriving in America’s huge, but highly competitive market.
Perhaps what is most impressive about these Singaporean firms is not only their sheer force of numbers, but the amazing range of specialist products and services which they provide to Americans. These include everything from the heavy equipment made by Keppel Fels for the gigantic oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, to an innovative Japanese restaurant in mid-town Manhattan, which utilizes a mini-conveyer belt to bring patrons the freshest sushi.
Perhaps one of the most successful and broad-based examples of Singaporean firms operating in the United States is ST Engineering. As one of the largest companies listed on the Singapore stock market, STE is an integrated engineering group which operates on land, on the sea and in aviation, as well as in electronics. The company boasts more than 18,000 staff around the world, working in more than 100 subsidiaries spread across some 20 nations.
But what clearly demonstrates how closely the US and Singapore economies are linked is that, after Asia itself, America is the single largest market for ST Engineering. And the Lion City’s corporate giant employs more than 5,200 staff in the United States.
From aviation to undersea research…
In fact, ST Engineering has long been established in the United States. Its first American venture came in 1991, when it launched ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering in Mobile, Alabama. Today the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility is not only the largest private employer in Mobile, it’s also part of ST Aerospace, the largest such MRO provider in the world, boasting an extensive network of facilities from Texas to China and Singapore.
With the worldwide aviation industry currently under immense pressure to cut costs, ST Engineering is filling a major demand as a highly cost effective third party service provider. The group provides high-quality maintenance, repair and overhaul service on everything from airframes and components to entire engines, thus saving costly down time for such well-known American aviation firms and airlines as Boeing, FedEx, UPS, Northwest, US Airways and Delta.
But how has ST Engineering achieved such amazing success in the US market? Says Tan Pheng Hock, ST Engineering’s President and CEO, “When a company globalizes, cultural sensitivity becomes one aspect of business that is of utmost importance and it’s not just about the business environment. It’s also about the values of the local people. Certain nuances are not pronounced and not easily understood.
“Hence, having the right people to do this job is critical. ST Engineering uses the talents of its US staff for its operations in the US. The chairman and CEO of VT Systems (the US headquarters of ST Engineering) General (Ret) John Coburn and his team helped us leapfrog into the US market,” says Tan.
Doing good, while doing well…
ST Engineering’s official policy is that while it does well in terms of profits, it also should do good. The group has long been an advocate of strict business ethics, and has won numerous awards for its corporate transparency, as well as for supporting the Arts, filling various community needs, working to protect the environment and helping the disadvantaged.
But aside from cultural sensitivity, and good governance, the company has always been committed to product quality, says Tan. “We constantly engage our customers and partners in our working relationships. We understand their requirements and provide not just solutions, but options. Customers have a right to make an informed decision, and it’s our job to leverage our capabilities and new technologies to develop innovative and cost effective solutions for them.”
It was under Gen. Coburn’s leadership that the group saw major expansion in the US by acquiring San Antonio Aerospace, VT Halter Marine, VT Miltope (which develops specialised computer equipment for use in combat) MÄK, iDirect, VT SVC and VT Leeboy. Two of these US operations, VT SVC and VT Leeboy, are market leaders in the US arena.
ST Engineering’s Marine Sector
The group’s marine sector, comprising ST Marine in Singapore and VT Halter Marine in the US, is a master shipbuilder with extensive shipyards in both the US and Singapore, where it designs, builds, and repairs specialized ships for both commercial and defense customers. The company has effectively harnessed more than 50 years of experience, together with the very latest technologies. And in doing so, it has earned a sterling reputation for delivering all its vessels on time and on budget.
One of the company’s long-established customers is also among the most demanding: the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA contracted VT Halter Marine to design and build four fisheries research vessels. According to NOAA, the first of these, the Henry B. Bigelow, exceeded the international standards as an acoustically quiet vessel, a must for these highly technical ocean-going laboratories that are used to study the underwater ecosystem
VT Halter Marine also recently won a major US Navy contract for the design and construction of a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship. The R&D contract is for the US Navy’s Cobra Judy Replacement program, which provides worldwide, high-resolution, multi-wavelength radar data, to monitor missile launches and collect data to improve their accuracy. The ship will also monitor strategic arms treaties and support US military weapons test programs.
ST Engineering’s Land Systems
Aside from its aerospace and marine divisions, the Group’s two wholly owned US subsidiaries, VT SVC and VT Leeboy, keep ST Engineering busy on the ground. VT SVC is, in fact, an industry leader in the manufacture of specialised truck bodies, trailers, and homeland security vehicles. Indeed, it holds nearly half of the beverage trailer market in North America.
And VT LeeBoy is a market leader in both road construction and maintenance equipment, producing a range of industrial products from commercial class asphalt pavers and brooms, to road construction andmaintenance equipment. Its distribution network covers all 50 US states and 10 Canadian provinces. LeeBoy’s customers range from private road-building contractors to US government agencies.
Satellite Communications and Simulation Products - iDirect & MÄK
In addition to its various land-based, marine and aerospace products and services, ST Engineering is also heavily involved in satellite communications through its wholly owned company, iDirect. Its products consist of universal satellite hubs, satellite remote routers, network accelerators, optimization technology, iVantage™ Network Management and the iDS Software Suite. It serves customers in 30 countries and has over 13 years of experience in providing satcom solutions. Some of its US clients include Raytheon, L3 Communications, SAIC, Department of Defense, U.S. military, Verizon, Intelsat and Schlumberger.
One of ST Engineering’s key advantages is its ability to leverage dual use technologies. It uses defense technologies for commercial applications and vice versa. For example, aside from its military applications, iDirect’s ground-based satellite communications system was used as a means of communication immediately after Hurricane Katrina while ST Kinetics’ Commercial Articulated Vehicle has been used for tsunami relief.
iDirect’s success has not gone un-noticed, for three consecutive years the company has been recognized by the Washington Business Journal as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in the Washington, DC area.
Then there is ST Engineering’s market leader in the world of simulation products, MÄK.
MÄK, works together with the Group’s electronics arm, ST Electronics, to develop software to link, simulate and visualize the virtual world. MÄK’s core business is off-the-shelf-software for the simulation industry. MÄK uses its tools to develop PC-based desktop training simulations.
MÄK’s primary users are in the US defense industry, but the company also boasts over 400 customers worldwide, including the world’s ten largest defense contractors. But some of MÄK’s newest customers include such renowned commercial enterprises such as Kynogon, RT Dynamics, ITT Industries, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing.
