Content about Singapore

Steel making facilities in Singapore are among the most modern and ecologically sound to be found anywhere, as Alan Swaby learns.

There’s no doubt that Singapore punches well above its weight. Barely 40 kilometres at its widest, the island is so developed that buildings can only go skywards. And despite decades of development, work continues at a rapid rate, with the construction industry consuming over 1.25 million tons of reinforcing steelwork each year.

As Jeff Daniel learns, the very latest telecommunications technology isn’t necessarily found in Western countries.

It’s not so long ago that travellers from the West, wanting to make a phone call back home from some less developed country in the world, could be left tearing their hair out in frustration. Back street booths, poor quality and unreliable connections were commonplace and were easily disparaged as examples of lack of technological development.

Timezone has a time honoured format but is ahead of the games industry in every important respect, offering value for each dollar the customer spends.

With offices in the UAE, India and Singapore, and an office and oil storage terminal planned for Asia-Pacific, Gulf Petrochem is showing no signs of resting on its laurels, as Jeff Daniel discovers.

After years of planning, design and construction, Singapore’s sophisticated new driverless Circle Line metro system is ramping up to full operation. Khoo Hean Siang, executive vice president at multi-modal transport company SMRT, explains to Gay Sutton how the knowledge and experience gained from operating and maintaining the majority of Singapore’s rail systems is benefiting rail projects across Asia.

Meeting the need
India’s need for steel is growing. To meet the demand, Tata Steel is making a multi-billion dollar investment in a new plant in the state of Orissa. Ruari McCallion spoke to Binay Kumar Singh about it.
There may be economic and commercial turmoil across the rest of the world but the performance of India could be an indication of how the balance is shifting. Once upon a time, we looked to the US or Germany and the EU to pull the world out of the doldrums; this time around, it’s the Indian economy that is leading, in terms of growth and demand for manufactured goods. While established Western economies have been shrinking, India’s GDP (gross domestic product) is expected to show growth of around seven per cent in 2009. At the forefront of that growth is demand for steel.

On the fast track
Four months after beginning production, the Arabian United Float Glass Company is already looking at expansion. Mishaal Al Orayer talks to Gay Sutton about building a company through teamwork.
Located at Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea, some 300km north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian United Float Glass Company (UFG) is ideally positioned to supply top-quality glass into some of the most rapidly growing regions of the world. With a small port literally on its doorstep, and the major international port of Jeddah just down the road, UFG has a global export reach. In the four months since it began commercial operations, the company has not only been supplying high-quality glass to Saudi Arabia and the surrounding nations, but also exporting to Africa, Turkey, India and Singapore. And with opportunities arising in new markets such as solar panel glass, it is already examining the prospects for expansion.