Keppel FELS has broken ground for a new 300 metre-long jetty at Pioneer yard, which will enable the Company to meet its existing contract obligations and to take on more projects in future.

The Company bags the first MAXA Award among Singaporean enterprises, and breaks ground for new facility at Pioneer Yard.

Keppel FELS Ltd (Keppel FELS), the world’s leading designer and builder of offshore rigs, has won the MAXA 2008 Award, which recognises the highest global standards in manufacturing innovation and operational excellence.

Keppel FELS was the only offshore mega-structure company among the six finalists hailing from across the electronics, semiconductor and bio-medical sectors.

This MAXA Award, the first for a Singaporean enterprise, was presented to Keppel FELS by Professor S. Jayakumar, Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordination Minister for National Security, at a ceremony this afternoon.

“We envision MAXA to be not only a recognition of manufacturing excellence in Singapore, but also a sharing of thought leadership and best practices,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Professor S. Jayakumar, at the award ceremony.

“Keppel FELS is a Singaporean company that has grown over the years which now has a global presence. It pursues progress relentlessly, resulting in the Company developing strong competencies in design engineering, project management and manufacturing. In the area of manufacturing, Keppel FELS has brought a unique methodology to its rigbuilding operations,” he added.

“What Keppel FELS has achieved is impressive across several dimensions. They have taken a manufacturing shop-floor mindset to a project-based industry, for products that are very significant both in size and complexity,” said Mr Chinta Bhagat, Managing Partner (Singapore) McKinsey & Company and MAXA Assessor, on Keppel FELS’s win.

Into its third year, the annual MAXA Award is jointly conferred by the Economic Development Board (EDB), McKinsey & Company and the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA). The Award recognises outstanding manufacturing operations in Singapore with strong innovation and operating systems, as well as long-term sustainability.

“Keppel FELS entered the MAXA Awards with the aim of learning and improving ourselves. We have benefited from the independent and in-depth audit of our strengths and capabilities by the international experts on the MAXA assessment team,” said Mr Tong Chong Heong, Managing Director of Keppel FELS Ltd.

“Winning the top award is a bonus to Keppel FELS. It affirms our passion and commitment to deliver innovative projects on time, within budget and without incidents,” Mr Tong added.

“Keppel FELS’s significant innovations in manufacturing operations and engineering design are impressive. These, coupled with their increasing technical depth and expertise plus a highly motivated workforce, have enabled them to be a global leader to be reckoned with,” said Professor Yue Chee Yoon, Singapore-MIT Alliance, Programme Chair in Manufacturing Systems and Technology, and MAXA Assessor.

With a strong orderbook of S$13 billion and projects extending into 2012, the Keppel Offshore & Marine Group is focused on enhancing its capabilities to achieve excellence in project execution. In conjunction with the MAXA Awards, Keppel FELS has broken ground for a new 300 metre-long jetty at its premises in Pioneer Yard today.

Costing S$33 million to build, the new extension will allow Keppel FELS to meet its existing contract obligations and prepare for the future. The jetty is expected to complete by end-2009.

“Keppel has always been building our capabilities in good times and bad. This new jetty will not only enable us to better execute our projects on hand, it will also prepare us to take on more deepwater projects as hydrocarbon exploration and production move into greater depths,” said Mr Tong.

Keppel FELS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, through Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), a leader in offshore rigs, shiprepair and conversion and specialised shipbuilding. Keppel O&M’s near market, near customer strategy is bolstered by a global network of 20 yards in the Asia Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the Caspian Sea, Middle East and the North Sea regions. Integrating the experience and expertise of its yards worldwide, the group aims to be the provider of choice and partner for solutions for the offshore and marine industry.