History

The ASL Group started operations in 1974 as a sole proprietorship of Mr Ang Sin Liu engaged in the trading of scrapped steel material under the name "Ang Sin Liu Hardware". With the increase in construction activity in the 1980s, Ang Sin Liu Construction (Pte) Ltd ("Ang Sin Liu Construction") was incorporated in 1982 to undertake building construction works.

In 1986, Ang Sin Liu Hardware purchased the lease at No. 19 Pandan Road, Singapore 609271 of approximately 37,219 sq m with a waterfront stretching approximately 179 m to undertake ship-breaking activities. Mr Ang Sin Liu utilised the land further by expanding the business into shipbuilding and shiprepair. We completed the construction of our first barge in 1988 and our first tugboat in 1990.

In 1989, Messrs Ang Kok Tian and Ang Ah Nui decided to tap into the growing market for shipchartering and logistics services for tugboats and barges by diversifying our business into the provision of chartering and marine logistics services in South East Asia. On 18 January 1990, Capitol Marine was incorporated to operate our shipchartering division led by Messrs Ang Kok Tian and Ang Ah Nui. We also began to secure contracts to provide shipchartering and logistics services to local and Indonesian firms. In certain cases, our Group would construct new vessels to accommodate specific client requirements for long-term charters.

Our Group began to establish a reputation for building quality vessels as well as repairing vessels whilst having competitive pricing and delivery performance. We employed technical staff and skilled workers to carry out shipbuilding as well as maintenance and repair works on our vessels and those of our customers. For our shipchartering business, our in-house shiprepair capabilities enabled us to limit the downtime of our vessels. In addition to maintaining an operationally ready fleet of vessels, our Group was able to keep our maintenance costs low.

Our Group completed the construction of our first tanker of 1,000 dwt in 1990 for Soon Bee Oil Industries Pte Ltd. In 1992, our Group secured a contract to build the first of a series of bunkering tankers for Hai Sun Hup Group Ltd ("Hai Sun Hup Group"). These tankers were completed between 1992 and 1995 and were used for bunkering operations.

On 23 July 1992, our shipbuilding and shiprepair businesses were spun off from Ang Sin Liu Construction into a new corporate entity, Ang Sin Liu Shipyard Pte Ltd ("ASL Shipyard"), which was headed by Mr Ang Kok Tian. The ownership of the land at No. 19 Pandan Road, Singapore 609271 was transferred to ASL Shipyard. With the incorporation of ASL Shipyard, there was more focus on our shipbuilding and shiprepair operations. Both the new corporate identity and the greater focus on shipyard operations placed us in a better position when vying for business, particularly in bidding for contracts from larger players in the shipping industry. The business of ASL Shipyard is also complementary to Capitol Marine's business because ASL Shipyard builds tugboats and barges and sells them to Capitol Marine for charter to third parties.

By 1993, the fleet size of our shipchartering operations had grown to 18 vessels. As our shipchartering business grew, Capitol Offshore was incorporated on 5 January 1993 to operate our shipchartering business. ASL Project Services was set up on 2 December 1995 to centralise the fleet management of our Group.

In 1995, we were awarded a contract by Consort Bunkers Pte Ltd to build two bunkering tankers. These vessels of approximately 3,000 dwt were completed in 1996.

In 1996, we set up a joint venture company, Consort-ASL Marine Pte Ltd with Consort Bunkers Pte Ltd ("Consort Bunkers"), 50% of which was owned by ASL Shipyard to carry out shipchartering operations. We subsequently sold our 50% interest in the joint venture company to Consort Bunkers in January 1998.

In July 1996, PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia, a subsidiary of ASL Shipyard, was registered and established in Batam, Indonesia and is principally engaged in the building of barges and labour intensive shiprepair work. PT ASL Shipyard operates on a waterfront site in Batam, Indonesia and was set up to take advantage primarily of the strategic location, tax incentives and generally lower labour and other operating costs, as well as land and infrastructure costs as compared with the operating environment in Singapore. With its close proximity to our shipyard in Singapore, we are also able to tap the capabilities of both shipyards in delivering vessels that meet our customers' specifications in a cost-effective manner. We believed that PT ASL Shipyard was ideally located as we viewed the Riau Archipelago and Indonesia as a potential market which could broaden our Group's customer base.

In January 1996, we had a major upgrade in our shipyard facilities with the acquisition of a pre-owned 453 tonne mobile boat hoist, the Marine Travelift™ BFM500. This enabled us to undertake drydocked repairs and to launch newly built vessels more efficiently.

In 1997, ASL Project Services secured a contract with Koon-Zinkcon Pte Ltd for the marine transportation of stones amounting to about 957,000 tonnes in respect of the Jurong Island Road Link project.

In November 1998, we entered into a contract with PSA Marine (Pte) Ltd ("PSA Marine") to construct two units of 40-tonne bollard pull tractor tugboats.

In December 1999, we sold our entire interests in the issued and paid-up share capital of PT ASL Fabricators and PT ASL Machinery, which undertook the production of steel structures and the trading of machinery respectively, to Mr Ang Ah Nui. PT ASL Fabricators and PT ASL Machinery were liquidated in December 2002.

On 15 January 2000, we entered into another contract with PSA Marine to construct two 45-tonne bollard pull azimuth stern drive tugboats with an option to build a further four units of identical tugboats. As at December 2001, we delivered a total of 10 tugboats to PSA Marine.

In April 2000, ASL Project Services secured a contract with Boskalis International (S) Pte Ltd for the marine transportation of rocks amounting to about 1.75 million tonnes in respect of the trenching, blasting and rocks dumping works related to the West Natuna Transportation System.

In November 2000, ASL Project Services secured a contract with PT Idros Services for the marine transportation of rocks amounting to about 360,000 tonnes in respect of additional rock armour works related to the West Natuna Transportation System.

In April 2001, we completed the construction of a workshop in our Singapore shipyard for approximately $1.4 million.

In April 2001, we acquired a mobile boat hoist from the US, the Marine Travelift™ 800CMO ("Travelift") having a lifting capacity of 800 tonnes. The new Travelift replaced the smaller one with a lifting capacity of 453 tonne which we had acquired in 1996.

In June 2001, we secured a contract from Port of Napier Limited, a New Zealand incorporated company, to build one 65-tonne bollard pull Voith Tractor Tug equipped with propellers that can rotate 360 degrees in a horizontal plane that gives the tractor tugboat improved manoeuvrability.

In March 2002, we secured a contract with two entities within the Bakri group of companies in Saudi Arabia, namely, Bakri Navigation Co., Ltd and Red Sea Marine Services Co. Ltd to build two units of 46- tonne bollard pull azimuth stern drive tugboats.

In July 2002, we were also awarded a contract by PSA Marine to build two units of 60-tonne bollard pull azimuth stern drive tugboats and two units of 60-tonne bollard pull tractor tugboats.

We are currently in the process of incorporating a foreign equity joint venture Company, PT Capitol Shipping Nusantara in Indonesia with a registered paid-in capital of US$100,000. Our Group intends for this Company to undertake the provision of shipchartering and freight services.

On 25 September 2002, our founder, Mr Ang Sin Liu resigned from our Board. He is currently an advisor to our Board.