Singapore's SOXAL opens on Jurong Island where manufacturing thrives

SINGAPORE has been celebrating the opening of Singapore Oxygen Air Liquide (SOXAL) that has invested S$500 million (US$406.31 million) in an air separation unit, hydrogen plant, gas pipeline network on Jurong Island, home to the Lion City's energy and chemicals industry with its petrochemical complex.


According to Trade, Industry and Manpower Minister Lee Yi Shyan, the city state's energy and chemicals industry accounts for almost 2.5 per cent of GDP and has created 50,000 jobs.


He attributed Singapore's strong economic rebound in the wake of the financial crisis in part to manufacturing. The city state's GDP grew by 14.5 per cent in 2010, led by a 29.7 per cent surge in the manufacturing sector.


"The growth momentum has continued at 8.3 per cent into the first quarter of this year. Manufacturing sector again outpaced other sectors by growing higher in Q1 at 13.1 per cent. Sub-sectors such as the biomedical manufacturing (BMS), precision engineering and electronics clusters - the many sub sectors which companies like SOXAL supports, were the star performers," he said.


"As a result, MTI has also revised our annual growth rate from four to six per cent to five to seven per cent."


Looking ahead, the minister said, "Our commitment is to render manufacturing even more competitive and synergistic as part of the knowledge-based economy we are building for the new century."


Mr Lee said industry players aim to develop Jurong Island in a way that supports collective sustainability and competitiveness. "They will do so by working on new infrastructure development and system level optimisation of valuable resources such as energy, carbon, water and land."


He said as Jurong Island grows, companies are exploring the feasibility of an island-wide common pipeline infrastructure. This would diversify the supply of feedstock (including industrial gases) and optimise land use, raising competitiveness and reliability of supply in the process.


The minister highlighted that a project currently under study is the harnessing of cold energy generated by the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal slated to come on stream in 2013. "By utilising the cold energy from the LNG terminal for an air separation unit, one can reduce overall energy requirement which in turn results in lower operating costs for the end users," Mr Lee added.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)