December 03, 2008

IMC adds new shipyards in China

It is reported that Tsao family’s IMC Corp is expanding its shipyard business in China with two new yards, one focusing on ship repair and another on shipbuilding.

Mr Koay Peng Yen CEO of IMC Corp said “We are expanding in the shipyard area, two ship repair yards right now and we’re building up a new building and conversion yard and a ship repair yard.”

He said that the two new Chinese yards will be in Zhoushan and Dalian Changxiang and are being developed with partners that he did not disclose. He said “We will release more information when our partners are more ready.”

Mr Koay said that the decision to enter the shipbuilding market in China given the huge number of yards coming up in the country. It depends on which segment of the market that you enter is not different even from ship repair. He did not say which segment of the new building market it was looking to enter. He added that its existing China joint venture ship repair yard in Zhoushan is full a little more than a year after starting operations.

IMC Corp was set up last year to consolidate all the shipping, industrial, offshore and logistics businesses held by Mr Fredrick Tsao’s IMC Pan Asia Alliance. IMC Corp is helmed by Mr Koay who moved from Neptune Orient Lines in mid 2006 and has since brought over a number of other senior executives from the Singapore shipping line.