Sembcorp Marine Still Faces Skilled Worker Shortfall

Sembcorp Marine Ltd has announced that, with the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) restrictions introduced by the Singapore government on May 16, the group continues to face challenges in recruiting new skilled workers for its various projects.

The company said it has therefore been exploring alternative sources for skilled workers, which it noted is likely to incur increased manpower costs for some of its ongoing projects.

“Resolving the skilled manpower shortage on a timely basis remains a key priority and the group will continue to work expeditiously with the relevant authorities to expedite the entry of the skilled workers into Singapore,” Sembcorp Marine said in a statement posted on its website.

“The group will also continue to work closely with our customers to coordinate and re-schedule project completions. There has been no cancellation to-date of any of our existing projects,” the company added in the statement.

Sembcorp Marine said it will provide further updates on its labor shortages and resulting cost impact in its first half 2021 financial results announcement.

In its interim business update for the first quarter of this year, which was released on May 3, Sembcorp Marine highlighted that the group faced Covid-19 supply chain constraints and shortages of skilled workers, which it said had impacted the execution and scheduled completion of some of its projects.

As of June 7, 4:55pm CEST there have been 62,196 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Singapore, with 33 deaths, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization (WHO). As of May 24, a total of 3,728,869 vaccine doses have been administered in the country, WHO data shows. Globally, as of June 7, 4:55pm CEST, there have been 173 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 3.7 million deaths, according to WHO. As of June 5, a total of 1.9 billion vaccine doses have been administered around the world.

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