Speech by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Trade) Gan Kim Yong at the ST Engineering Changi Creek Facility Opening Ceremony

Mr Teo Ming Kian, Chairman, ST Engineering,

Mr Vincent Chong, Group President & CEO, ST Engineering,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1. Good afternoon. I am delighted to join you today for the opening of ST Engineering’s new airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Changi Creek.

2. This marks another milestone in ST Engineering’s growth journey. Since establishing its first commercial airframe MRO business in 1990, ST Engineering has become one of the world’s largest airframe MRO service providers.

Capturing the Next Phase of Growth

3. ST Engineering’s investment in this new facility comes at an opportune time. Asia Pacific is expected to lead global air traffic growth, while Changi Airport is preparing for its next phase of expansion with the development of Terminal 5, which is scheduled to open in the mid-2030s.

4. The S$170 million facility, with four widebody hangar bays, will expand ST Engineering’s airframe MRO capacity significantly and enable it to better serve its customers across the region.

Supporting Our Local Aerospace Ecosystem

5. Importantly, this facility will create opportunities across our local aerospace ecosystem.

6. ST Engineering has long played an important role in strengthening the capabilities of our local enterprises and workforce within the sector.

a. The new facility is expected to support the creation of more than 500 jobs in ST Engineering’s airframe MRO business, including licensed aircraft engineers, technicians, and planning and production control specialists.

b. ST Engineering is also equipping our people to take up these opportunities through in-house training and partnerships with our Institutes of Higher Learning.

i. Over the past three years, it has trained over 250 local new hires.

ii. As the company grows, I encourage it to expand these efforts, so that more locals can develop their skills and build rewarding careers in the aerospace sector.

c. ST Engineering also continues to work with local SMEs and the R&D local ecosystem in developing advanced solutions, helping companies to strengthen their capabilities, improve productivity and build a track record in the aerospace sector.

d. For example, ST Engineering is currently collaborating with a number of local robotics companies and A*STAR to support the deployment of AI-enabled autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in its operations.

i. One such project will improve process time by over 80%, saving employees from walking more than 20,000 km across the warehouse floor and freeing up about 7,800 man-hours annually.

Transforming through Innovation

7. As we continue to strengthen capabilities across our aerospace ecosystem, we must also transform the way work is done.

8. At this new facility, AI, robotics and automation will complement the capabilities of engineers and technicians, enabling them to take on higher-value work. It will also enhance ST Engineering’s competitiveness as aircraft and maintenance needs become increasingly advanced.

a. ST Engineering’s collaboration with A*STAR and the National Robotics Programme is one example. Together, they are testing embodied AI, or physical AI, for complex and unstructured tasks in MRO operations.

b. Such partnerships bring industry and research partners together to develop, validate, and scale new solutions from Singapore safely and reliably. This is in line with our Economic Strategy Review (ESR) ambition to become a global leader in AI solutions and an AI-empowered economy.

Conclusion

9. Congratulations once again to the ST Engineering team as you embark on this new chapter of growth.

10. We are proud to see a homegrown Singapore company making its mark on the global stage, and look forward to ST Engineering scaling even greater heights in the years ahead.