I take this opportunity to convey my appreciation to all our seagoing and shore staff for their loyalty and hard work rendered for the past year, which has greatly contributed to our progressive success, and in realizing our vision and goals. Their unwavering commitment has helped to tide us through crisis successfully by exercising their expertise to develop cost-saving and effective planning, and most importantly, with their patience.
It is my pleasure to be able to watch KLSM Singapore grow from a small single storey unit to a fully furnished three-storey compound today. I began my journey here as Group Leader when we officially started operations in 01 September 2005, and have recently taken over the position of Managing Director on 01 May 2012. Started off with seven Container Vessels and four Oil Tankers, we have increased to managing eighteen Container Vessels and two Oil Tankers at present. As we turn seven this year, our office strength has also expanded from eight to fifty shore staff. The growth is not only one proud achievement, but has also reflected the faith “K” Line Group has on us.
For the subsequent years ahead, more environmentally friendly vessels with newer technology will be added to the list of vessels that are managed by KLSM Singapore. As of now for the year of 2012, we already have three new large container vessels added into our Singapore fleet – M/V Honolulu Bridge, M/V Helsinki Bridge and M/V Houston Bridge. Two more vessels, M/V Hangzhou Bridge and M/V Hanoi Bridge are scheduled to be delivered by end of this year, and early 2013 respectively.
The past seven years have seen us growing step by step in Ship Management Activities including training. We had some minor and major incidents in the fleet and the lessons learnt from the lapses have made us more committed towards continual improvement. Training needs identified from incident investigations are taken up very seriously and we will take a more aggressive approach towards training for avoiding incidents on board our fleet vessels. Our Audit and Training system has given good results by serving as a ‘Floating Training Centre’. The trainings imparted by our experienced Audit and Training Superintendents (ATSI) have resulted in dwindling figures in the number of accidents, injuries and observations in Vetting/PSC/Flag State Inspections. Additionally, the trend of incidents has shown signs of improvement.
Besides technical and safety advances as an in-house management company our biggest target is to run the ships most economically and efficiently. Hence, the concept of ESS (Economic Slow Steaming) which saves fuel and this directly relates to the profitability of the company. We are pioneer in this field amongst other in-house management companies and our technical knowledge and expertise of ESS are being applied to other sister chartered vessels. Also, through ESS we contribute towards preservation of our Global Environment Policies.
With the continuous support from every member of the KLSM family, and our mission to offer the highest level of ship management service to our customers in the field of global maritime transportation in a safe and environmentally sound way with a commitment to continuous improvement, KLSM Singapore will continue to strive towards excellence and thrive by the hard work put in by the seagoing and shore staff.
As a KLSM Member, I practice a bottom–up approach to management system and my policy is “do hard work with honesty and enjoy work”.
My best wishes to all of you and wish you safe voyages.
