Singapore shipyard to feature AI-powered technologies
Singapore's ST Engineering officially opened its new shipyard located at 55 Gul Road in a ceremony on Thursday, September 19. The Gul Yard was acquired in February 2023 for SG$95 million (US$74 million) to support the growth of the group’s marine business and maintain its competitiveness in the ship repair segment.
This new facility will replace ST Engineering’s Tuas Yard, whose lease expires at the end of 2024.
Twice the size of its existing Tuas Yard, the Gul Yard is designed to handle larger, more complex projects with greater precision and efficiency. ST Engineering said the yard's expanded capacity will shorten turnaround times, provide improved support for local naval requirements, and enable the company to explore new market segments, including offshore renewables projects, offshore support vessels (OSVs) for the oil and gas industry, as well as refits, upgrades and comprehensive operations and support services for local and international customers.
Concurrent with the expanded capacity, the Gul Yard and the Benoi Yard will be integrated to create a seamless, unified network that will optimise project coordination, resource allocation, and capacity management.
The Gul Yard is touted as a next-generation smart yard, equipped with 5G-digital infrastructure to enable the application of AI-powered technologies for the near term and beyond, with a vast majority of these innovations developed in-house.
ST Engineering said these advanced solutions include a proprietary integrated yard management system, which will oversee all aspects of the yard’s operations. It will streamline workflow management, from planning and resource allocation to tracking project milestones and predicting potential bottlenecks.
It will also feature predictive maintenance to prevent unplanned downtime by detecting early signs of equipment failure, and condition-based monitoring for real-time tracking of equipment and ships.
