Here's proof that Singapore yards are winning over Chinese, Korean rivals

Sembcorp leading Singapore's jack-up segment.

According to DBS, Sembcorp Marine won US$596m contract for a newbuild ultra-high specification jack-up rig for deployment in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea from Noble Corporation. 

DBS noted that Sembcorp won this contract against another finalist, South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. This win demonstrates Singapore rigbuilders' competitive strength in the jack up segment.

"Recall that Daewoo made a debut in early March through its participation in the bidding for Statoil's newbuild order and raised concerns of greater competition from Korean peers in addition to the Chinese yards," said DBS.

Here's more:

We believe the jack up order is backed by a firm charter contract secured by Noble from Norwegian operator Statoil, which was announced last week. Contract price for the rig is a tad higher than the US$560m for a similar rig secured by Keppel in Jun 2012 from Maersk, also to be chartered to Statoil.

In addition to this latest rig order, Jurong Shipyard is currently constructing six F&GJU3000N class jack-up rigs worth a total of US$1.3 bn (secured in 2010 and 2011) for Noble.

The yard has also successfully delivered two units of Bingo 9000 ultra-deepwater semisubmersibles the Noble Danny Adkins and Noble Jim Day, in 2009 and 2010 respectively.